Many Americans view today's problems in education as an unprecedented crisis brought on by contemporary social ills. In Learning from the Past a group of distinguished educational historians and scholars of public policy reminds us that many of our current difficulties – as well as recent reform efforts – have important historical antecedents. What can we learn, they ask, from nineteenth century efforts to promote early childhood education, or debates in the 1920s about universal secondary education, or the curriculum reforms of the 1950s? Reflecting a variety of intellectual and disciplinary orientations, the contributors to this volume examine major changes in educational development and reform and consider how such changes have been implemented in the past. They address questions of governance, equity and multiculturalism, curriculum standards, school choice, and a variety of other issues. Policy makers and other school reformers, they conclude, would do well to investigate the past in order to appreciate the implications of the present reform initiatives.

In this book an eminent scholar and policymaker analyzes the lessons history can teach those who wish to reform the American educational system.Maris Vinovskis begins by tracing the evolving role of the federal government in educational research, providing a historical perspective at a time when there is some movement to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. He then focuses on early childhood education, exploring trends in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He examines the troubling history of the Follow Through Program, which existed from 1967 to 1994 to help Head Start children make the transition into the regular schools, and he reviews the development of the Even Start Program, which works to improve the literacy of disadvantaged parents while providing early childhood education for their children. He discusses changing views toward the economic benefits of education and critically assesses the validity and usefulness of the idea of systemic or standards-based reform. Finally he develops a conceptual framework for mapping and analyzing education research and reform activities.

The history of American education is a vital and productive field of study. This reference book provides factual information about eminent people and important topics related to the development of American public, private, and parochial schools, covering elementary and secondary levels. In addition to major state and regional leaders and reformers, it includes biographies of significant national educators, philosophers, psychologists, and writers. Subjects embrace important ideas, events, institutions, agencies, and pedagogical trends that profoundly shaped American policies and perceptions regarding education. The more than 350 entries are arranged alphabetically and written by expert contributors. Each entry closes with a brief bibliography, and the volume ends with a list of works for further reading. Entries were drawn from a review of leading history of education textbooks and the History of Education Quarterly. These topics were further refined by comments from leading authorities and the contributors. Most of the contributors are established scholars in the history of education, curriculum and instruction, school law, educational administration, and American history; a few also work as public and private school teachers and thus bring their practical experience to their entries. The period covered begins in the colonial period and continues through the 1990s.

Taking up a little-known story of education, schooling, and missionary endeavor, Helen May, Baljit Kaur, and Larry Prochner focus on the experiences of very young ’native’ children in three British colonies. In missionary settlements across the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand, Upper Canada, and British-controlled India, experimental British ventures for placing young children of the poor in infant schools were simultaneously transported to and adopted for all three colonies. From the 1820s to the 1850s, this transplantation of Britain’s infant schools to its distant colonies was deemed a radical and enlightened tool that was meant to hasten the conversion of 'heathen' peoples by missionaries to Christianity and to European modes of civilization. The intertwined legacies of European exploration, enlightenment ideals, education, and empire building, the authors argue, provided a springboard for British colonial and missionary activity across the globe during the nineteenth century. Informed by archival research and focused on the shared as well as unique aspects of the infant schools’ colonial experience, Empire, Education, and Indigenous Childhoods illuminates both the pervasiveness of missionary education and the diverse contexts in which its attendant ideals were applied.

Volume Two of A History of the Book in America documents the development of a distinctive culture of print in the new American republic. Between 1790 and 1840 printing and publishing expanded, and literate publics provided a ready market for novels, almanacs, newspapers, tracts, and periodicals. Government, business, and reform drove the dissemination of print. Through laws and subsidies, state and federal authorities promoted an informed citizenry. Entrepreneurs responded to rising demand by investing in new technologies and altering the conduct of publishing. Voluntary societies launched libraries, lyceums, and schools, and relied on print to spread religion, redeem morals, and advance benevolent goals. Out of all this ferment emerged new and diverse communities of citizens linked together in a decentralized print culture where citizenship meant literacy and print meant power. Yet in a diverse and far-flung nation, regional differences persisted, and older forms of oral and handwritten communication offered alternatives to print. The early republic was a world of mixed media. Contributors: Elizabeth Barnes, College of William and Mary Georgia B. Barnhill, American Antiquarian Society John L. Brooke, The Ohio State University Dona Brown, University of Vermont Richard D. Brown, University of Connecticut Kenneth E. Carpenter, Harvard University Libraries Scott E. Casper, University of Nevada, Reno Mary Kupiec Cayton, Miami University Joanne Dobson, Brewster, New York James N. Green, Library Company of Philadelphia Dean Grodzins, Massachusetts Historical Society Robert A. Gross, University of Connecticut Grey Gundaker, College of William and Mary Leon Jackson, University of South Carolina Richard R. John, Columbia University Mary Kelley, University of Michigan Jack Larkin, Clark University David Leverenz, University of Florida Meredith L. McGill, Rutgers University Charles Monaghan, Charlottesville, Virginia E. Jennifer Monaghan, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York Gerald F. Moran, University of Michigan-Dearborn Karen Nipps, Harvard University David Paul Nord, Indiana University Barry O'Connell, Amherst College Jeffrey L. Pasley, University of Missouri-Columbia William S. Pretzer, Central Michigan University A. Gregg Roeber, Pennsylvania State University David S. Shields, University of South Carolina Andie Tucher, Columbia University Maris A. Vinovskis, University of Michigan Sandra A. Zagarell, Oberlin College

This book documents the shocking state of public education in the United States, including the high rates of school violence, the decline in student achievement, and the politicization of the educational process. By comparing the performance of public schools with private schools (which spend less than half per capita than public counterparts), the book reveals areas in which public education might reduce administrative overhead, eliminate internal segregation of students, and provide a safe and disciplined learning environment. Also suggested are ways in which public schools might learn from the experience and traditions of the past, including the essential elements of learning in the one-room schoolhouse and the integration of students of different ages. The role of the judiciary is critically reviewed, as well as Supreme Court decisions in the areas of racial discrimination, school discipline, bilingual education, special education, and school financing.