Amy Stuart Wells

Amy Stuart Wells, associate professor of educational policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, will study a growing, broad-based educational reform movement that seeks to break away from the model of the "common" school -- offering similar and equal educational opportunities to all -- toward greater specialization and privatization, as exemplified by charter schools. Wells contends that charter schools are no more accountable for student outcomes than normal schools and have won greater autonomy from government at the cost of reduced support. Wells will ask which children stand to lose and which stand to gain from the reform movement. She will inform policy makers, educators, and parents about the dangers as well as the possibilities of giving up on the common school ideal.