This proposal focuses on schools as arenas in which parents and students can develop the norms and expectations essential for cooperative behavior. The research pays particular attention to the extent to which reorganizing schools through the introduction of school choice, specifically charter schools, affects such attitudes. The researchers argue that by analyzing how a change in the way an important government service, in this case schooling, is organized and then linking this institutional change to the attitudes parents hold toward each other and toward teachers the research can address two fundamental questions:
* Can government institutions build the foundation for interpersonal trust, cooperation and participation in the policy process? * And, if the answer is yes, is this effect domain specific, limited to the schools, or are the effects more general, spilling over into attitudes and behavior in other, broader, domains?
The research will expand an existing two wave panel study, by adding two more waves of interviews of parents with children in either charter schools or traditional public schools in Washington DC. With the addition of two more waves, the researchers will have a data set that can be used to assess the value added of charter schools to parents and students. More specifically, the research will be able to address a set of fundamental questions:
*Do some relationships among stakeholders within the schools take time to emerge? * Does it take time for patterns observed within the schools to translate into other policy domains or politics in general? * Are some of the patterns observed transient a irHawthorne-like effect of joining a new school?
In addition, the research will also study how choice changes the role of students, making them more central in the design of education programs and in the functioning of the schools. The researchers argue that by building stronger school communities can change the relationship among students themselves, between students and parents, and between students and teachers and administrators. The research will launch a new panel of students in grades 7-12 in charter schools and in DC public schools, comparing how they relate to their schools, their teachers, and other participants in their education. And the research will see if the charter school experience affects their behavior in school and in their larger community.
The research is central to the debate over school reform, an item that is high on the policy agenda of most states and the federal government. In addition, the work is integral to the larger debate about the relationship between government institutions, the creation of strong communities and better citizens, and the role of government in nurturing social capital.
