Offering an expanding menu of choices to parents has become a priority as supporters try to ensure that there’s something to appeal to every niche interest with providers competi
Offering an expanding menu of choices to parents has become a priority as supporters try to ensure that there’s something to appeal to every niche interest with providers competing to offer what they claim as their own distinctive and quality offerings. School choice seems to be where this country is headed. But Pittinsky questions whether or not creating more choice is a good idea.
- What are the costs and benefits of having school choice?
- Do you think it is a helpful or harmful thing for parents to have a lot of choices when it comes to schooling for their children and why?
Discussion responses
You should respond to at least two of your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts.
Module 2: Lecture Materials & Resources
Recruitment
Read and watch the lecture resources & materials below early in the week to help you respond to the discussion questions and to complete your assignment(s).
Read
· Rebore, R. W. (2015).
· Chapter 3
· School (over) Choice Download School (over) Choice Pittinsky, T. L. (2018, August 24). School (over) choice? https://kappanonline.org/pittinsky-backtalk-school-choice/
Watch
· Denver 7 – The Denver Channel. (n.d.). Pay a big issue when it comes to recruiting, retaining teachers in Colorado's rural school districts [Video file]. https://youtu.be/xj1V3O82GnU Pay a big issue when it comes to recruiting, retaining teachers in Colorado's rural school districtsLinks to an external site.
Module 2 Discussion
School (Over) Choice?
After studying the article School (over) Choice? located on Module 2: Lecture Materials & Resources page, consider the following and answer the questions below.
Offering an expanding menu of choices to parents has become a priority as supporters try to ensure that there’s something to appeal to every niche interest with providers competing to offer what they claim as their own distinctive and quality offerings. School choice seems to be where this country is headed. But Pittinsky questions whether or not creating more choice is a good idea.
1. What are the costs and benefits of having school choice?
2. Do you think it is a helpful or harmful thing for parents to have a lot of choices when it comes to schooling for their children and why?
Week 2 Discussion Responses
Reply to Deshayla Denson
What are the costs and benefits of having school choice?
The concept of school choice offers both potential benefits and costs. Positively, school choice can provide parents and students with the flexibility to select a school that best fits their unique needs, preferences, and values. This could lead to increased satisfaction with educational experiences and improved student outcomes, especially if families choose schools that align with their learning styles or specialized interests (Pittinsky, 2018). Furthermore, advocates argue that competition among schools can drive improvements in quality and innovation, as schools strive to attract and retain students.
However, there are also notable costs associated with school choice. Expanding school choice can exacerbate existing inequalities by providing more options primarily to those who are already advantaged, such as families with the resources and knowledge to navigate complex school systems. Additionally, as Pittinsky (2018) points out, too many choices can overwhelm parents, potentially leading to suboptimal decisions for their children's education. Another concern is the potential for school choice to divert essential funding away from traditional public schools, further undermining their ability to provide quality education to all students, particularly those in low-income or rural areas (Rebore, 2015).
Do you think it is a helpful or harmful thing for parents to have a lot of choices when it comes to schooling for their children and why?
The availability of numerous schooling options for parents can be both helpful and harmful, depending on the context and implementation. On the one hand, having a variety of choices can empower parents to select educational environments that best suit their children's needs, potentially leading to better educational outcomes and greater satisfaction (Pittinsky, 2018). For example, some parents may prefer a school with a specific pedagogical approach, such as Montessori or STEM-focused education, that aligns with their child's interests or learning style.
However, an overabundance of choices can be detrimental, particularly when it leads to confusion and difficulty in making informed decisions. As Pittinsky (2018) suggests, too many options can overwhelm parents, leading to stress and potentially poor choices that do not necessarily benefit their children's education. Moreover, when choices are unequal—favoring those with more resources, information, and support—school choice can widen educational disparities, leaving disadvantaged families with fewer and often lower-quality options (Rebore, 2015). Therefore, while school choice can offer benefits, it must be carefully managed to ensure it promotes equity and does not exacerbate existing inequalities.
References
Pittinsky, T. L. (2018, August 24). School (over) choice? Phi Delta Kappan. https://kappanonline.org/pittinsky-backtalk-school-choice/Links to an external site.
Rebore, R. W. (2015). The ethics of educational leadership (2nd ed.). Pearson Education.
Reply to Chandra Shedale Dorsey-Felton
1. What are the costs and benefits of having school choice?
School choice has both costs and benefits. One of the main costs is that parents can feel overwhelmed by the number of options available. This is known as "overchoice," a concept discussed by Toffler (1970), where having too many choices can lead to confusion, frustration, and difficulty making decisions. Pittinsky (2018) also points out that parents in large urban areas may struggle to find the right school due to the sheer number of choices, which can leave them feeling dissatisfied if the chosen school does not meet their expectations. Additionally, there is often inequity in access to the best schools, particularly for families with fewer economic resources, which makes the system less fair.
On the other hand, the benefits of school choice include the ability for families to choose a school that best fits their child’s needs. This personalization can lead to a better match between the child and the educational environment. Supporters argue that this competition between schools can improve overall school quality, as schools may strive to attract students by offering better programs and resources (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000).
2. Do you think it is a helpful or harmful thing for parents to have a lot of choices when it comes to schooling for their children and why?
I believe that having a lot of choices can be harmful for some parents. While it is good to have options, too many choices can lead to stress and confusion, especially when parents are unsure of what will work best for their child. This is supported by research from Iyengar and Lepper (2000), which shows that when people are given too many options, they are less satisfied with their choice. Additionally, as Pittinsky (2018) points out, not all families have equal access to high-quality schools, meaning that even with many choices, some families may still be limited in their options. For these reasons, school choice can sometimes do more harm than good, particularly for disadvantaged families who may struggle to navigate the system.
References
Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995-1006. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.995
Pittinsky, T. L. (2018). School (over) choice? Phi Delta Kappan, 99(5), 80-81.
Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. Bantam Books.
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•••• BACKTALK ••••
Photo: iStock 80 Kappan February 2018
that’s a monster “if” — would parents and kids actually be able to choose better from among so many options?
A variety of social science research — in addition to everyday experience — sug- gests that someone can have too much choice.
In 2012, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush likened shop- ping for a school to selecting milk in a grocery store. “You can get whole milk, 2% milk, low-fat milk, or skim milk. Organic milk and milk with extra vitamin D,” he observed. “Shouldn’t parents have that kind of choice in schools?”
Maybe, but the array of choices in a supermarket can also drive you crazy. Twenty kinds of baby aspirin? A hundred kinds of tea? And in education, the array of choices can be daunting. Consider a 6th grader in New York City who is confronted with a cata- log of middle school options that is the size of a phone book, presenting hundreds of schools and programs that are at least theoretically available.
This is akin to what the futurist Alvin Toffler (1970) called “overchoice,” which he
Does more equal better in the world of school choice? Or might more just mean more confusion and less certainty for the parents who must choose?
School choice seems to be where this country is headed. But is creating more choice really where it’s at?
Arguments for and against school choice writ large are generally political, but the rubber meets the road when parents actually have to select a school for their child. Offering an expanding menu of choices to parents has become a prior- ity as supporters try to ensure that there’s something to appeal to every niche interest — and as more providers compete to offer what they claim as their own distinctive and quality offerings.
That very choice presents an entirely different factor to consider. Even if a largely ro- bust and fair system of school choice could be set up — and
the system is too bureaucratic and impenetrable, and too many of the best choices are out of reach from the start, especially for economically disadvantaged families.
A well-known study by Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lep- per (2000), for example, offered shoppers a free sample of jam and then asked how much they liked it. But different shoppers got to choose from a different number of samples, rang- ing from the common to the exotic. What emerged was that the more samples the shopper had to choose from, the less the shopper liked whichever one he or she chose! We can wonder, then, whether a really wide- ranging school choice program might inadvertently reduce sat- isfaction as much or more than it increases it, simply because of the availability of choices.
A shopper can walk away from too many jams — it doesn’t make much difference which one the shopper choos- es, and it makes no difference at all which jams everyone else chose. But choosing a school is not like shopping for milk or jam. Which school a parent chooses for a child makes a lot of difference for that child, and which schools are chosen by others also matters. In matters of school choice, we must be mindful that the choices that are available, and the very need to choose, might produce effects other than those that were intended. K
References
Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. New
York, NY: Bantam Books.
Iyengar, S.S. & Lepper, M.R. (2000).
When choice is demotivating: Can
one desire too much of a good
thing? Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 79 (6), 995-
1006.
defined as a situation in which “the advantages of diversity and individualization are canceled by the complexity of the buyer’s decision-making process.”
Overchoice brings a number of unwanted results. One is that whoever is trying to choose becomes frustrated, ex- hausted, possibly angry. None of this contributes to making a good choice. Rather, the deci- sion maker is likely either to give up and settle on some- thing just to get it over with, or — if it’s an option — give up and make no choice at all.
Another unwanted outcome is that the chooser may end up disappointed or, again, an- gry. Maybe I blew it — maybe there was a better choice, and I should have tried harder. Or maybe there was a better choice, and “they” shouldn’t have made it so hard to find.
When it comes to school choice, the vast number of options in places like New York City and other urban centers can leave parents feeling they are at fault when the school doesn’t work out as they hoped. More likely, however, is that they couldn’t have done any better because
TODD L. PITTINSKY (todd.
[email protected]) is a
professor of education at Stony
Brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y.,
and a senior lecturer at Harvard
Graduate School of Education,
Cambridge, Mass. He is the
author of Us Plus Them: Tapping
the Positive Power of Difference
(Harvard Business Press, 2012).
School (over) choice? By TODD L. PITTINSKY
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