Depicted variously as heroes, villains, or victims, America's teachers find themselves at the center of a sometimes nasty policy debate. Yet, while politicians, reformers, and pundits contribute to the cacophony that serves as our national conversation about education, those who teach our children everyday are barely heard over the noise. This…

From the founding of Harvard College in 1636 as a mission for training young clergy to the landmark 1968 Supreme Court decision in "Epperson v. Arkansas," which struck down the state's ban on teaching evolution in schools, religion and education in the United States have been inextricably linked. Still today new fights emerge over the…

During the mid-nineteenth century, Americans created the functional equivalent of earlier state religious establishments. Supported by mandatory taxation, purportedly inclusive, and vested with messianic promise, public schooling, like the earlier established churches, was touted as a bulwark of the Republic and as an essential agent of moral and…

Noting that the single best way to improve elementary education is to strengthen parents' role in it, this book describes aspects of parent-school interaction that could be used to improve the quality of children's education and academic success. The first chapter defines the ineffective ways in which most parents respond to public education and…

This book represents a collection of over 60 articles appearing in SKOLE: the Journal of Alternative Education from 1985 through 1992 and focusing on educational reform and alternatives to public schooling. The journal was created 9 years ago in response to the growing number of families and educators dissatisfied with public schooling and to the…

This anthology compiles over 90 articles, short pieces, and book reviews originally published in Skole: The Journal of Alternative Education. The entries are arranged in 10 sections: schools and school people, teaching and learning, teaching and learning at home, history of innovative education, student writings, social change and comment, battle…

This is Volume 1 of the Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1891-'92, containing Part I. This volume includes the Commissioner's Introduction and Part I, which contains the chapters: (1) General Classified Summary of Pupils of All Grades in Public and Private Schools and Institutions; (2) Statistics of State Common School Systems;…

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,…

The chapters in this book contain a comprehensive reference to recent state appellate and federal court decisions affecting the operation and governance of public elementary and secondary schools. The chapters are: (1) "The Use of School Facilities by Student Groups for Religious Activities," (2) "Denial of Standard Diploma to…

"Education Indicators" are facts and statistics that help to describe a public education system. They are tools which are useful in examining and measuring the effectiveness of the system. Examples include information such as the amount of local funds raised to support local schools, per pupil expenditures, pupil-teacher ratios, and…