Urban charter schools: African American parents' school choice reform

Charter schools have marked the educational landscape as one of the most interesting forms of school choice. However, contemporary research and education policy have not kept pace with the impact and implications of charter schools, specifically those ever growing in residentially segregated communities that are complicated by drugs, crime and high unemployment. This book, therefore, provides an analysis of the perceptions of predominately African American charter school parents living in a residentially segregated community. This analysis also explored the possibility of whether or not the charter school provided access to social networks for its parents and students. A school that appeared to be a learning laboratory for some educators, parents and researchers, became a space of unlimited opportunities for others. More specifically, families trapped in the troubled community where this study took place viewed the charter school as more than an educational institution, but as a vehicle that could lead to social networks, thereby creating social capital. A metatheoretical analysis was used to analyze these parents' school choice for real school reform.