The U. S. high school system is in crisis, Wise argues. More than 1 million students drop out every year, significant numbers of college freshmen require remedial courses to handle college work, and employers consistently express disappointment in the skills of graduates. The high dropout rate and students' lack of preparedness carries…

This paper defines the concept of "improvement infrastructure" and "educational capital" for education, and it uses the case of the National Writing Project to develop an extended, data-based illustration of the design and generativeness of an improvement infrastructure. Since 1983 there have been multiple "waves" of…

Public education is the cornerstone of democracy and is absolutely fundamental to a democratic, civil and prosperous society. Beyond the boundaries of the United States, other countries are working to provide quality education to their children through civil society institutions. In particular, there are three extraordinary organizations in Peru,…

The conflict between access and quality in education has been front-page news for decades. Policies regarding the role of elite universities, the organisation of secondary education, admissions criteria, courses of study, high stakes testing, and fiscal and programme accountability have changed with uncommon frequency, resulting in confusion and…

Provides a framework for reflecting upon some of the reports on the status of American education and implications for home economics education. Urges the home economics profession to respond to these reports in a meaningful manner. (JOW)

The achievement of quality, affordability and availability--what has been called the "trilemma" of child care--continues to pose relevant, moral challenges for administrators, teachers and parents. These three dimensions of the trilemma are directly related to questions of moral significance related to how the US child care structure…

In the past 150 years, educational systems have expanded and become integrally linked with economic, political, and social status in modern nation-states. As the stakes for education have risen, so has the call for more and improved use of scientific evidence as a basis for educational policymaking. Evidence from averaged scores on international…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent to which they engage in educational…

In the United States and around the rest of the world, there is a renewed focus on ensuring that schools are providing students with the skills necessary to compete in the global economy. High-quality summer learning programs are an ideal vehicle to help students gain content knowledge and develop innovative skills: they provide time for…

Sexuality education for school-aged young people is a crucial component of all quality education systems. It prepares young people for participation in society as responsible, mature and community-minded citizens. Most contemporary school education curricula generally aim to enhance young people's knowledge, skills and understandings of the world,…

The public school is a 200-year-old experiment that has given America the strongest economy in world history. There are 88,000 buildings in more than 14,000 districts. Public schools embrace more than 48 million children. For most of them, public schools are their only hope for future success. Public schools represent home schooling at its best.…

In this article, the author discusses the present academic situation of middle schools. Middle schools are gaining the reputation of being the "wasteland" of American education, a perception bolstered by the accountability measures under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. When the act was just getting underway, about 18% of all Title I…

Recent developments in the efforts to formulate national educational quality standards for the United States are discussed. Topics covered include samples of indicator efforts, the impetus for indicator activity, types of indicators, and the role of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. (TJH)

Discusses a project to identify and recognize unusually successful public secondary schools in the United States. Lists 152 outstanding secondary schools. (JOW)

The author relates comments and comparisons made by Soviet educators who visited his New York high school. (SJL)