This book critically examines how the narrative of global economic competition was used to rationalize college preparatory curriculum for all high school students and promote charter schools in Detroit. Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, the study identifies neighborhood risk factors undermining students’ academic success, along with the positive effects of churches and service centers as mitigating forces. The authors focus on a range of topics and issues including market competition, urban decline, community resources, testing and accountability, smaller schools, and engaged learning. The volume illustrates how action studies by engaged scholars working with community activists empowers students to overcome emerging barriers.

Co-Learning in Higher Education addresses topics critical to the future of higher education: the wellbeing of communities, engagement of scholars supporting new generations of social activists, and the renewal and expansion of educational and career pathways. It develops a theory of co-learning that engages students and professors across generations in partnerships with community organizations, schools, and corporations that solve emerging social and environmental challenges. Collaboratively written cases discuss community projects, engaging pedagogies, and action research projects. These co-cases demonstrate the power of using critical pedagogies and social action within troubling contexts, rather than assuming public policy changes are the only solution. Contributors explore mentoring, discuss pedagogies that promote community wellbeing and equity, address the urgency of change in universities, and reflect on the implications of this chaotic period for empowering social agency among youth in rising generations. This is a timely volume for scholars and students in higher education and educational policy.

Higher Education is in a state of ferment. People are seriously discussing whether the medieval ideal of the university as being excellent in all areas makes sense today, given the number of universities that we have in the world. Student fees are changing the orientation of students to the system. The high rate of non repayment of fees in the UK is provoking difficult questions about whether the current system of funding makes sense. There are disputes about the ratio of research to teaching, and further discussions about the international delivery of courses.

Public Policy and Higher Education, third edition, provides readers with the tools to examine how policies affect students’ access and success in college. Rather than arguing for a single approach, the authors use research-based evidence and consider political and historical values and beliefs to examine how policymakers and higher education administrators can inform and influence change within systems of higher education. Raising new questions and examining recent developments, this fully updated edition is an invaluable resource for graduate students, administrators, policymakers, and researchers who seek to learn more about the crucial contexts underlying policy decisions and college access. This third edition includes updates across the board to reflect current policy contexts. Expanded historical frameworks allow readers to better understand the preparation, access, persistence, and the development of state education systems. New considerations of state and national political ideologies help to inform contemporary contexts. Finally, refreshed cases, including an additional case about Florida and updated cases for California, Minnesota, Indiana, and North Carolina, equip readers with new ways to analyze complex state policies and their impact on higher education. Special Features: Case Studies help readers to build their skills in analyzing how political values, beliefs, and traditions influence policy decisions and adaptations within state systems. Reflective Questions encourage readers to discuss state and campus contexts for policy decisions and to consider the strategies used in a state or institution. Approachable Explanations unpack complex public policies and financial strategies for readers who seek an understanding of public policy in higher education. Research-Based Recommendations explore how policymakers, higher education administrators, and faculty can work together to improve quality, diversity, and financial stewardship.

Public Policy and Higher Education provides readers with new ways to analyze complex state policies and offers the tools to examine how policies affect students’ access and success in college. Rather than arguing for a single approach, the authors examine how policymakers and higher education administrators can work to inform and influence change within systems of higher education using research-based evidence along with consideration of political and historical values and beliefs. Raising new questions and examining recent developments, this updated edition is an invaluable resource for graduate students, administrators, policymakers, and researchers who seek to learn more about the crucial contexts underlying policy decisions and college access. Special Features: Case Studies—allow readers to examine strategies used by different types of colleges to improve access and retention. Reflective Exercises—encourage readers to discuss state and campus context for policy decisions and to think about the strategies used in a state or institution. Approachable Explanations—unpack complex public policies and financial strategies for readers who seek understanding of public policy in higher education. Research-Based Recommendations—explore how policymakers, higher education administrators, and faculty can work together to improve quality, diversity, and financial stewardship. New epilogues and a revised Part III—reexamine themes and encourage critical thinking about inequality and policy change

This book asserts that efforts to reform schools, particularly urban schools, are events that engender a host of issues and conflicts that have been interpreted through the conceptual lens of community.

Why is it so difficult to design and implement fundamental educational reform in large city schools in spite of broad popular support for change? How does the politics of race complicate the challenge of building and sustaining coalitions for improving urban schools? These questions have provoked a great deal of theorizing, but this is the first book to explore the issues on the basis of extensive, solid evidence. Here a group of political scientists examines education reform in Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., where local governmental authority has passed from white to black leaders. The authors show that black administrative control of big-city school systems has not translated into broad improvements in the quality of public education within black-led cities. Race can be crucial, however, in fostering the broad civic involvement perhaps most needed for school reform. In each city examined, reform efforts often arise but collapse, partly because leaders are unable to craft effective political coalitions that would commit community resources to a concrete policy agenda. What undermines the leadership, according to the authors, is the complex role of race in each city. First, public authority does not guarantee access to private resources, usually still controlled by white economic elites. Second, local authorities must interact with external actors, at the state and national levels, who remain predominantly white. Finally, issues of race divide the African American community itself and often place limits on what leaders can and cannot do. Filled with insightful explanations together with recommendations for policy change, this book is an important component of the debate now being waged among researchers, education activists, and the community as a whole.