The issues and arguments surrounding school choice are sometimes hijacked to make political points about government control, democratic ideals, the public good, and privatization. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, David Garcia avoids partisan arguments to offer an accessible, objective, and comprehensive guide to school…

Since the early 1990s when the nation's first charter school was opened in Minneapolis, the scope and availability of school-based options to parents has steadily expanded. No longer can public education be characterized as a monopoly. Sponsored by the National Center on School Choice (NCSC), this handbook makes readily available the most rigorous…

Here is a book to serve educators from all types of schools in either pre-service or professional development that is designed as a text for master's and licensure (post-master's) level. This book covers all the relevant issues in school law: (1) The legal system; (2) The federal and state role in education; (3) Church-state relationships; (4)…

Controversies over the merits of public and private education have never been more prominent than today. This book evaluates public and private schooling, especially in regard to choices families must make for their children. While choice among public schools is widely advocated today by families and states, public support for private…

This book describes how and why educational choice movements will affect public education. It uses a public-choice approach to argue that both the supporters and opponents of private and school choice have failed to address several critical issues. Following an introductory chapter, chapter 2 is devoted to the rationale for contracting out…

In a continuation of the national debate over education reform, the 14 contributors to this book outline several approaches to reform, address a variety of current education issues, and relate parent and teacher perspectives on education. An overview by President Ronald Reagan of education reform issues is provided, followed by chapters on the…

This book attempts to serve as a compendium and a chronology of secondary education in the United States, taking a broad rather than a narrow approach and touching on a great many topics and issues. Chapters 1 and 2 present a history of secondary schools and a discussion of adolescence. Chapter 3 discusses curriculum in secondary schools,…

This book presents a collection of recent articles on the problems in today's schools, why school and students are underperforming, exploring a range of topics and explaining why some reforms in education are destined to fail while others have been proven to work. The first section, "Teaching Approaches," presents articles on progressive…