He says school choice policy has grown dramatically over the past 15 years, although its roots go back much further. He began his research on school choice policy 12 years ago when he was a researcher in a large project in Milwaukee. Magnet schools were one of the first large forms of school choice, and Milwaukee one of the places leading the way. The Milwaukee study led not only to Archbald's dissertation but also to his participation in a national study funded by the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate the growth of magnet schools and programs and their use of federal funds. Interestingly, that study and others have shown that school choice programs are commonly implemented after the rescinding of desegregation orders.
School choice brings about new enrollment patterns, that is, how kids are allocated among schools.
All choice programs, he says, have to have guidelines. School choice is a big change in student assignment policies, and there is no national study of what works and what doesn't. Equity issues, geography and racial balance all play a role in implementing school choice. How school systems have managed these concerns will be part of the study. Archbald says he believes individual school systems have chosen to solve problems one by one in many different ways.