World Bank and Education: Book Blurb For more than three decades, the World Bank has been proposing global policies for education. Presented as research-based, validated by experience, and broadly applicable, these policies are ideologically driven, insensitive to local contexts, and treat education as independent of international dynamics and national and local economies and cultures. Target countries, needing resources and unable to generate comparable research, find it difficult to challenge World Bank recommendations. The World Bank and Education: Critiques and Alternatives represents a powerful challenge to World Bank proposals. Probing core issues—equity, quality, finance, privatization, teaching and learning, gender, and human rights—highlights the disabilities of neoliberal globalization. The authors demonstrate the ideological nature of the evidence marshaled by the World Bank and the accompanying policy advice. Addressing key education issues in developing countries, the authors’ analyses provide tools for resisting and rejecting generic policy prescriptions as well as alternative directions to consider. Robert Arnove, in his preface, says, “whether the Bank is responsive to the critiques and alternatives brilliantly offered by the present authors, the book is certain to influence development and education scholars, policymakers, and practitioners around the globe.”

Today, a parent's right to choose a private education for his or her children is reflected in the statutes of all 50 states. State regulation of private schools, however, is not without limitations. The challenge to state legislators in regulating private schools is to draft legislation that: (1) respects the fundamental right of parents to direct the education of their children; (2) protects the states' interest in an informed citizenry but avoids interference with religious beliefs unless compelling interests are at issue; and (3) avoids comprehensive regulation of private education that would deprive parents of any choice in education. This handbook presents findings of a study, initiated by the Office of Nonpublic Education, U.S. Department of Education, that conducted a state-by-state analysis of state laws regulating private education. The study, which includes all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia, identified the following general areas of regulation advanced by state legislators: recordkeeping and reports, licensing/registration/accreditation, health and safety, curriculum, and public funding. The data show that none of the states regulates private schools in the same way. The report contains comparison charts depicting state oversight of private schools, state-mandated educational requirements, and public assistance to private schools and private school children. (LMI)

Today, a parent's right to choose a private education for his or her children is reflected in the statutes of all 50 states. State regulation of private schools, however, is not without limitations. The challenge to state legislators in regulating private schools is to draft legislation that: (1) respects the fundamental right of parents to direct the education of their children; (2) protects the states' interest in an informed citizenry but avoids interference with religious beliefs unless compelling interests are at issue; and (3) avoids comprehensive regulation of private education that would deprive parents of any choice in education. This handbook presents findings of a study, initiated by the Office of Nonpublic Education, U.S. Department of Education, that conducted a state-by-state analysis of state laws regulating private education. The study, which includes all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia, identified the following general areas of regulation advanced by state legislators: recordkeeping and reports, licensing/registration/accreditation, health and safety, curriculum, and public funding. The data show that none of the states regulates private schools in the same way. The report contains comparison charts depicting state oversight of private schools, state-mandated educational requirements, and public assistance to private schools and private school children. (LMI)

This book examines case studies of eight public and eight private schools that investigated different identifiable and transferable private school practices that public schools could adopt to improve student outcomes. Data came from interviews with administrators, teachers, parents, and students from diverse schools. Chapter 1, "Accountability to Parents," discusses resistance to parents, structural limits to parent accountability, managing participation at parochial schools, lower-income parent participation, cases of formal accountability to parents, and observations about accountability to parents. Chapter 2, "Clarity of Goals and Expectations," discusses the religious character of parochial schools, broader educational goals versus testable outcomes, anchoring expectations in scripture, and clarity of goals. Chapter 3, "Behavioral and Value Objectives," discusses different approaches to discipline and the teaching of ethical and religious values in public and private schools. Chapter 4, "Clear Standards for Teacher Selection and Retention," includes faculty collegiality, hiring standards and teacher quality, formal and informal teacher evaluation, teacher retention and dismissal, and observations on selection and retention. Chapter 5, "Similarity of Curriculum Materials," discusses formal curricular similarities. Chapter 6 discusses "Competitive Improvements." Chapter 7, "Conclusions," suggests that similarities between public and private schools and the problems they face outweigh the differences. Differences are determined mainly by parent socioeconomic and cultural factors. Case study descriptions are appended. (Contains 17 references.) (SM)

Education Law provides a comprehensive survey of the legal problems and issues that confront school administrators and policymakers.