On Wednesday, May 8, Visionary Eye Care patient Kate Phillippo will read from and discuss her 2019 book, A Contest With No Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice, at Women and Children First Bookstore (across the street from us, at 5233 N. Clark Street). On the heels of Chicago Public Schools mailing out admission notices to incoming high school students, Phillippo is hoping to engage audience members in a conversation about young people’s experiences of competitive public high school choice in Chicago.
In her book, Phillippo follows a diverse group of Chicago students through the processes of researching, applying to, and enrolling in public high school, finding that the students are powerful policy actors who carry out competitive choice and, in the process, redefine it. Phillippo challenges merit- and market-driven ideas of how we create learning opportunities for young people, and raises critical questions about the goals we have for public schooling.
