The Great American Education-Industrial Complex examines the structure and nature of national networks and enterprises that seek to influence public education policy in accord with their own goals and objectives. In the past twenty years, significant changes have taken place in the way various interest groups seek to influence policies and practices in public education in the United States. No longer left to the experience and knowledge of educators, American education has become as much the domain of private organizations, corporate entities, and political agents who see it as a market for their ideas, technologies, and ultimately profits. Piccciano and Spring posit that educational technology is the vehicle whereby these separate movements, organizations, and individuals have become integrated in a powerful common entity, and detail how the educational-industrial complex has grown and strengthened its position of influence. This timely, carefully documented, well argued book brings together Picciano’s perspective and expertise in the field of technology and policy issues and Spring’s in the history and politics of education in a unique critical analysis of the education-industrial complex and its implications for the future.

The Great American Education-Industrial Complex examines the structure and nature of national networks and enterprises that seek to influence public education policy in accord with their own goals and objectives. In the past twenty years, significant changes have taken place in the way various interest groups seek to influence policies and practices in public education in the United States. No longer left to the experience and knowledge of educators, American education has become as much the domain of private organizations, corporate entities, and political agents who see it as a market for their ideas, technologies, and ultimately profits. Piccciano and Spring posit that educational technology is the vehicle whereby these separate movements, organizations, and individuals have become integrated in a powerful common entity, and detail how the educational-industrial complex has grown and strengthened its position of influence. This timely, carefully documented, well argued book brings together Picciano’s perspective and expertise in the field of technology and policy issues and Spring’s in the history and politics of education in a unique critical analysis of the education-industrial complex and its implications for the future.

Joel Spring’s American Education introduces readers to the historical, political, social, and legal foundations of education and to the profession of teaching in the United States. In his signature straightforward and concise approach to describing complex issues, Spring illuminates events and topics and that are often overlooked or whitewashed, giving students the opportunity to engage in critical thinking about education. In this edition he looks closely at the global context of education in the U.S. Featuring current information and challenging perspectives—with scholarship that is often cited as a primary source, students will come away from this clear, authoritative text informed on the latest topics, issues, and data and with a strong knowledge of the forces shaping of the American educational system. Changes in the 17th Edition include new and updated material and statistics on economic theories related to "skills" education and employability the conflict between a skills approach and cultural diversity political differences regarding education among the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and Green parties social mobility and equality of opportunity as related to schooling global migration and student diversity in US schools charter schools and home schooling

Turning his distinctive analytical lens to the politics of American education, Joel Spring looks at contemporary educational policy issues from theoretical, practical, and historical perspectives. This comprehensive overview documents and explains who influences educational policy and how, bringing to life the realities of schooling in the 21st century and revealing the ongoing ideological struggles at play. Coverage includes the influence of global organizations on American school policies and the impact of emerging open source and other forms of electronic textbooks. Thought-provoking, lucid, original in its conceptual framework and rich with engaging examples from the real world, this text is timely and useful for understanding the big picture and the micro-level intricacies of the multiple forces at work in controlling U.S. public schools . It is the text of choice for any course that covers or addresses the politics of American education. Companion Website: The interactive Companion Website accompanying this text includes relevant data, public domain documents, YouTube links, and links to websites representing political organizations and interest groups involved in education.

President Eisenhower originally included 'academic' in the draft of his landmark, oft-quoted speech on the military-industrial-complex. Giroux tells why Eisenhower saw the academy as part of the famous complex - and how his warning was vitally prescient for 21st-century America. Giroux details the sweeping post-9/11 assault being waged on the academy by militarization, corporatization, and right-wing fundamentalists who increasingly view critical thought itself as a threat to the dominant political order. Giroux argues that the university has become a handmaiden of the Pentagon and corporate interests, it has lost its claim to independence and critical learning and has compromised its role as a democratic public sphere. And yet, in spite of its present embattled status and the inroads made by corporate power, the defense industries, and the right wing extremists, Giroux defends the university as one of the few public spaces left capable of raising important questions and educating students to be critical and engaged agents. He concludes by making a strong case for reclaiming it as a democratic public sphere.

Providing a critical understanding of the political and social forces shaping educational politics in the United States, this concise text describes and analyzes how policy is made for American schools and its effect on all of our lives and thinking. Joel Spring argues that the politics of Education is driven by a complex interrelationship between politicians, private foundations and think tanks, teachers'unions, special-interest groups, educational politicians, school administrators, boards of education, courts, and the knowledge industry. The text uses many current examples to illustrate conflicts over educational policies.

This book offers a comprehensive critique of how the assessment industry and standardized testing adversely impact students, teachers, and society. The authors present the case that the interconnected developments of the testing industry and the Assessment Industrial Complex (AIC) have effectively anchored American schooling to testing. Using an antiracist lens, the authors deconstruct the AIC, exposing the neoliberal agenda of education reformers and how proponents utilize the rhetoric of testing, and the data extracted from them, to normalize the reliance on AIC systems. This critique further exposes education reformers’ ideological agenda, their hypocrisy, and how they grossly profit from the AIC at the expense of society’s marginalized and most vulnerable students. The COVID-19 pandemic, society’s racial unrest, and anti-testing movements have aligned to underscore the need to examine systemic oppression and the impact it has on society through our education system. This text exposes how standardized testing perpetuates these injustices and provides the opportunity to disrupt the systems they rely upon and bolster the societal resistance that is needed.