Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj

School choice - now a pillar of education reform in the United States - is widely touted as a strategy for addressing educational inequity. Yet efforts to implement school choice can exacerbate, rather than counteract, inequities. Unaccompanied Minors takes a close look at the experience of immigrant students and their families who are navigating New York City’s mandatory high school choice program.Drawing on rich ethnographic data - including students’ own perspectives on the decision-making process - Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj examines the assumptions and expectations underlying the school system’s policies for implementing school choice and contrasts these with the cultural and practical obstacles that prevent many immigrant students from navigating the system effectively. The author distinguishes between “strategic” and “passive” choosers and analyzes the constellation of integrated supports, guidance, and normative messages that contribute to a strategic orientation. Most importantly, Unaccompanied Minors outlines strategic steps schools and districts can take to guide families from all backgrounds through the choice process.

School choice - now a pillar of education reform in the United States - is widely touted as a strategy for addressing educational inequity. Yet efforts to implement school choice can exacerbate, rather than counteract, inequities. Unaccompanied Minors takes a close look at the experience of immigrant students and their families who are navigating New York City’s mandatory high school choice program.Drawing on rich ethnographic data - including students’ own perspectives on the decision-making process - Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj examines the assumptions and expectations underlying the school system’s policies for implementing school choice and contrasts these with the cultural and practical obstacles that prevent many immigrant students from navigating the system effectively. The author distinguishes between “strategic” and “passive” choosers and analyzes the constellation of integrated supports, guidance, and normative messages that contribute to a strategic orientation. Most importantly, Unaccompanied Minors outlines strategic steps schools and districts can take to guide families from all backgrounds through the choice process.

Despite widespread recognition that school systems need to do profoundly better, those seeking improvement have been persistently frustrated by the mediocre results of popular reforms. School and system leaders, policy-makers, and funders lack clear guidance as to the steps necessary to dramatically and effectively transform an educational ecosystem. Would-be reformers need a playbook outlining clear strategies for rethinking outdated approaches to school and system governance, resource allocation, quality control, talent management, and data use for the 21st century. In this volume, a team of national experts addresses the major elements necessary for system redesign, describing in detail the steps needed at the community, school, district, and state level by which to achieve it.