253 pages

Pacific Research Institute (San Francisco)

Publication Date: September/2007

Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-934276-06-8
Price: $ 24.95

Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice, is a ground-breaking book on the performance of students in "middle class" public schools. Not As Good As You Think, which was supported by a generous grant from the Koret Foundation, found that in nearly 300 schools in middle class and affluent neighborhoods, more than half of the students in at least one grade level performed below proficiency on the 2006 California Standards Test (CST)—the statewide test that assesses student grade level knowledge. Many of these schools are located in California’s most affluent areas including Orange County, Silicon Valley, and the Los Angeles beach and canyon communities.

Studies show that parents are willing to purchase houses well beyond their means for what they believe is an opportunity to send their children to "good" public schools. Not as Good as You Think shatters the myth that buying a home in an expensive neighborhood also buys a "good" public school.

"While many middle class parents recognize the need for reform in schools located in poor, urban neighborhoods, they are often under the mistaken impression that because they live in safe, well-to-do suburbs, the schools attended by their own children are very good," said Lance T. Izumi, director of Education Studies at PRI and co-author of the book.

"The findings of the book clearly demonstrate that families in poor, urban neighborhoods aren’t the only ones who need school choice. All families regardless of income or address, need it," said Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D, PRI senior fellow in Education Studies and co-author of the study. "Unlike the current system of assigned schooling, empowering parents to choose the schools they think are best—public or private—introduces powerful pressure to improve academic performance or risk losing students to schools that will."