School Choice in Arizona – Flagstaff

Dr. Angelina Castagno, Northern Arizona University, Educational Foundations

Arizona is one of the nation’s most “choice friendly” states regarding educational opportunities at the K-12 level. “School choice” is a term for K–12 schooling options in the U.S. describing a wide array of alternatives to public schools, including charter schools. The expansion of charter schools and vouchers (often called educational savings accounts) is not without controversy. Does school choice improve school quality? Does school choice increase educational opportunity for all students? Has school choice fostered the privatization of education in the U.S.? Join us for a FRANK Talk about the policy and practical implications of school choice.

Dr. Angelina E. Castagno is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Foundations at Northern Arizona University. She is also the Executive Director of Just Perspective, LLC, which provides equity consulting, diversity education, and culturally responsive program evaluation to schools, universities, and community organizations. Her teaching and research centers on equity and diversity in U.S. schools, and particularly issues of whiteness and Indigenous education. Her most recent publication is an edited volume (with Teresa L. McCarty) called The anthropology of education policy: Ethnographic inquiries into policy as sociocultural process, with Routledge. She also published Educated in Whiteness: Good intentions and diversity in schools in 2014, with the University of Minnesota Press.