In Education Reform in Florida, sociologists and historians evaluate Governor Jeb Bush's nation-leading school reform policies since 1999. They examine the startlingly broad range of education policy changes enacted in Florida during Bush's first term, including moves toward privatization with a voucher system, more government control of public education institutions with centralized accountability mechanisms, and a "superboard" for all public education. The contributors arrive at a mixed conclusion regarding Bush's first-term education policies: while he deserves credit for holding students to higher standards, his policies have, unfortunately, pushed for equality in a very narrow way. The contributors remain skeptical about seeing significant and sweeping improvement in how well Florida schools work for all students.

Social Justice and Educational Measurement addresses foundational concerns at the interface of standardized testing and social justice in American schools. Following John Rawls’s philosophical methods, Stein builds and justifies an ethical framework for guiding practices involving educational measurement. This framework demonstrates that educational measurement can both inhibit and ensure just educational arrangements. It also clarifies a principled distinction between efficiency-oriented testing and justice-oriented testing. Through analysis of several historical case studies that exemplify ethical issues related to testing, this book explores and propounds speculative design principles and arguments in favour of radically democratic school reforms, which address how the future of testing might be shaped to ensure justice for all. These case studies cover the widespread use of IQ-style testing in schools during the early decades of the 20th century; the founding of the Educational Testing Service; and the recent history of test-based accountability associated with No Child Left Behind. Social Justice and Educational Measurement will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in education, testing and assessment, and the philosophy of education. It will also be of interest to policymakers and educational administrators.

This book is an alternative account of special education from the cross-generational perspective of 15 mothers whose children labelled learning dis/abled (LD) attended public schools during the last four decades.

American Education: A History, Sixth Edition is a comprehensive, highly regarded history of American education from precolonial times to the present. Chronologically organized, it provides an objective overview of each major period in the development of American education, setting the discussion against the broader backdrop of national and world events. In addition to its in-depth exploration of Native American traditions (including education) prior to colonization, it also offers strong, ongoing coverage of minorities and women. This much-anticipated sixth edition brings heightened attention to the history of education of individuals with disabilities, of classroom pedagogy and technology, of teachers and teacher leaders, and of educational developments and controversies of the twenty-first century.

In this timely, cogent analysis of trends and powerful forces shaping global educational policy today, Joel Spring focuses on how economization is making economic growth and increased productivity the main goals of schools, and the ways these goals are achieved—including measuring educational policies by their costs and economic benefits, shaping family life to ensure productive workers and high-achieving students, introducing entrepreneurship education into curricula from preschool through higher education, and increasing the involvement of economists in educational policy analysis. Close attention is given to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and multinational corporations, which, as advocates of economization, want schools to focus on teaching hard and soft skills needed by the global labor market. Economization raises questions about the effects of economically driven agendas for schools: Will education policies advocated by global organizations and multinational businesses corporatize and standardize human personalities and families? What type of global worker is being sought by global organizations and multinational corporations? What education programs are supported to educate the ideal global worker? What is the ideal family life for economic growth and development? Detailing and analyzing the politics and motivations driving economization, the book concludes with an assessment of the impacts of the confluence of business interests, economic theories, governments, and educators.

Contemporary Readings in Curriculum provides beginning teachers and educational leaders with a series of articles that can help them build their curriculum knowledge base. [This book] provides a historical context of the curriculum field, giving educators a solid foundation for curriculum knowledge; describes the political nature of curriculum and how we must be attentive to the increasingly diverse populations found in our schools; connects the readings to traditional course goals, providing practical applications of curriculum topics; covers cocurricular issues, which have become a major contemporary topic within school systems; enhances the articles with a strong pedagogical framework, including detailed Internet references, questions for each article, topic guides tying each article to course topics, and article abstracts for the instructor. --Publisher description.

Focuses on African American, Hispanic American, Native American, and Asian-Pacific American women whose increased presence in senior level administrative and academic positions in higher education is transforming the political climate to be more inclusive of women of color.