ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the policy that parents should be allowed to choose between all types of school available, similar as well as dissimilar. It mainly focuses on choice of secondary school within the maintained system. School choice is now firmly embedded in education policies not only in Britain but in many other industrialised nations. However, as an international report prepared for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has shown, it does not always work the same way as in this country. School choice is now a major component of Government policy. Government policy is that parents should be able to choose the school they want for their children. In reality, however, the implementation of the policy works better for some than for others. The argument that school choice improves educational standards presupposes that preferences are decided mainly on the basis of academic reputation.
