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This collection provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the development of educational policy and practice in the United States during the past century. It presents education as a complex social structure and process that has changed through the years and that defies simplistic solutions. By reviewing competing theories of education, the editors promote an analytical framework that welcomes educational conflict as creative and beneficial.
Contemporary public policy assumes that the achievement gap between black and white students could be closed if only schools would do a better job. According to Richard Rothstein, "Closing the gaps between lower-class and middle-class children requires social and economic reform as well as school improvement. Unfortunately, the trend is to shift most of the burden to schools, as if they alone can eradicate poverty and inequality." In this book, Rothstein points the way toward social and economic reforms that would give all children a more equal chance to succeed in school. This book features: a summary of numerous studies linking school achievement to health care quality, nutrition, childrearing styles, housing stability, parental economic security, and more ; aA look at erroneous and misleading data that underlie commonplace claims that some schools "beat the demographic odds and therefore any school can close the achievement gap if only it adopted proper practices." ; and an analysis of how the over-emphasis of standardized tests in federal law obscures the true achievement gap and makes narrowing it more difficult.
For over a century, Americans have translated their cultural anxieties and hopes into dramatic demands for educational reform. Although policy talk has sounded a millennial tone, the actual reforms have been gradual and incremental. Tinkering toward Utopia documents the dynamic tension between Americans’ faith in education as a panacea and the moderate pace of change in educational practices. In this book, David Tyack and Larry Cuban explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to “reinvent” schooling? Tyack and Cuban argue that the ahistorical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and that reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education.
This book introduces and explores the nature of large scale reform, and offers a fresh insight into the importance of social capital and professional development leadership for teachers and school management. It synthesizes research on the role of the professional development leader and the importance of social capital in schools, and examines its potential to impact large scale, system-wide, reform projects. The text presents a range of international examples and theories from renowned researchers and educationists, which illustrate the challenge of raising the prominence of education social capital in schools. Considering crucial research that informs effective adult learning interventions, underlying themes supporting constructivist and transformative interventions are identified and woven into the narrative. Factors and variables needed to encourage and implement initiatives are examined, and each section is accompanied by case studies from around the world. The book is split into five sections and twelve parts which include: -The Lesson of Large Scale Reform for Leadership Development -Assessment of Wide Scale Educational Reform Initiatives -Developing Social Capital through National Education Reform -System Improvement through Professional Learning Communities Large Scale School Reform and Social Capital Building will be of interest to policy makers and system reform leaders, along with researchers and postgraduate students with a focus on continuous professional development, educational reform and school leadership.
Addresses a relatively new emphasis in the educational reform movement, the attempt to improve linkages between schools, families, and communities in the delivery of support services to children.
Ideology and Educational Reform traces the underlying ideological problems that make genuine educational reform difficult. It describes three major themes in public education: common school, human capital, and clientelism.
This open access book offers a comparative study of eight ambitious national reforms that sought to create opportunities for students to gain the necessary breath of skills to thrive in a rapidly changing world. It examines how national governments transform education systems to provide students opportunities to develop such skills. It analyses comprehensive education reforms in Brazil, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal and Russia and yields original and important insights on the process of educational change. The analysis of these 21st century skills reforms shows that reformers followed approaches which are based on the five perspectives: cultural, psychological, professional, institutional and political. Most reforms relied on institutional and political perspectives. They highlight the systemic nature of the process of educational change, and the need for alignment and coherence among the various elements of the system in order. They underscore the importance of addressing the interests of various stakeholders of the education system in obtaining the necessary impetus to initiate and sustain change. In contrast, as the book shows, the use of a cultural and psychological frame proved rarer, missing important opportunities to draw on systematic analysis of emerging demands for schools and on cognitive science to inform the changes in the organization of instruction. Drawing on a rich array of sources and evidence the book provides a careful account of how education reform works in practice.
Education Reform and Social Change is about addressing and changing the structures, policies, and practices of schools that differentially advantage white, middle class, native English speakers over students of color for whom English may be a second or additional language. It is also about helping people to think critically about what it is schools do and to consider more democratic, participatory, and equitable approaches. The chapters in the text provide first-hand documentation of the voices, struggles, and visions of students, parent activists, advocates, attorneys, and educators involved in educational and social change processes. It chronicles real-life efforts of people challenging the status quo and working to build a more participatory, equitable, and transformative future. The goal of this book is twofold: first, to consider the structures, policies, and practices that shape and limit educational change, and learning and teaching; and second, to document grassroots collaborative and creative efforts to change them. It offers a critical framework both for conceptualizing and for actualizing educational change. Organized into four sections, this book provides a theoretical and practical framework for thinking about educational reform and social change -- one that moves from the broader structural concerns that are embedded in policy, to case studies that document activism and collaborative efforts to change school, city, and state policies, to classroom-based directions and initiatives, and to the construction of personal and collective visions for a more democratic, equitable, and just education. Each section includes an overview of the chapters, necessary background information to help the reader contextualize what follows, and guiding questions to encourage reflective thought and engagement with the text and to invite personal linkages. Two resource sections are included at the end of the volume: "Radical Educational Reform, Critical Pedagogy, and Multicultural Education: Selected Readings and Resources" and "National Organization Networks and Resources with a Critical Perspective."
"In response to the nationwide attacks on education in the name of educational reform packaged in No Child Left Behind, general analyses and local accounts of these attacks, as well as arguments on behalf of 'authentic educational reform' are badly needed.... This volume offers a useful combination of specific case studies, theory, and policy." - Gerald Coles, educational psychologist, US Challenging the compassionate conservative agenda for educational reform -- an agenda which seeks to improve American education through a business model focused on scripted lessons, lock-step approaches to teaching, high stakes-testing, and rigid accountability measures -- this book critiques the assumptions of this agenda, examines the problems that have riddled its implementation in schools, and suggests constructive alternatives. Educational theorists and researchers including Joel Spring, Sonia Nieto, Bill Ayers, and Susan Ohanian, classroom teachers, and parents, offer a mix of perspectives on: the social and political contexts of current educational reform initiatives; the impact of the compassionate conservative agenda on educational policies and practices; the ways in which children and teachers are affected by this agenda and its policies; and approaches that hold out hope for implementing authentic education reform. Intended for education professionals, students, and scholars, What Is Authentic Educational Reform? poses more questions than it answers, but taken together, these questions constitute a foundation for a more informed and thoughtful public conversation about how to refocus reform efforts in a direction that will truly strengthen American public education for all children and their families.
The only handbook of its kind to bring together materials from a wide range of authoritative works, providing the reader with a comprehensive overview of reform in American education. Crafted in ten skillfully written chapters, Educational Reform covers the history, politics, and processes of educational reform and addresses reforms in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Starting with a definition of educational reform and where its far-reaching results can lead, the work goes on to assess the role of the public in educational reform, the educational reform industry, and resistance to reform. Of interest to school boards and administrators and useful in graduate and undergraduate courses in education, it is written in a conversational tone that brings the subject out of the realm of dry analysis. Readers will benefit not only from the numerous case studies that intersperse the themes discussed, but also from the extensive bibliography of print and nonprint resources (including websites) listed for further study. There is little doubt that the classroom must change to meet the needs of the 21st century—read Educational Reform to learn just how.