Is School Choice a Sustainable Policy for New Zealand? A Review of Recent Research Findings and a Look to the Future

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of research on school choice and educational markets which has been undertaken in New Zealand over the past two years. The paper considers how choice should be conceptualized: as “voice” or “exit”. It goes on to examine what is being chosen when parents and students look at schools, and notes that choices are severely constrained by a policy context which emphasises “exit”. The next two parts of the paper examine the relationship between schools choice and the social and racial characteristics of schools, and notes the OECD’s conclusion that school choice reflects a vertical social hierarchy rather than a horizontal diversity of real educational choices. Implications for both “loser” schools, and those at the top of the hierarchy are examined next, and there is a discussion of enrolment schemes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of recent research for educational policy in this country, with an emphasis on policy sustainability.