In "The Transformation of Great American School Districts", William Lowe Boyd, Charles Taylor Kerchner, and Mark Blyth argue that urban education reform can best be understood as a long process of institutional change, rather than as a series of failed projects. They examine the core assumptions that underlay the Progressive Era model of…

The National Education Association (NEA) Handbook is published annually for use by Association officers, national and state staff, members, and other interested leaders in the field of education. The Association's key governance documents--including the Constitution, Bylaws, and Rules, and the Legislative Program, resolutions, policy statements,…

This highly acclaimed volume in the "Defending Public Schools" series is now available in paperback from Teachers College Press. It is a practical, necessary addition to the work of administrators, teachers, policymakers, and parents as they negotiate the difficult path of how to best teach and educate today's children and youth. This…

Many government bodies and policymakers have embraced privatization of child welfare services, while others question whether privatization is truly more cost-effective or provides the best services. This book reports on six states' efforts to privatize their child welfare systems and their varying levels of success. This research documents the…

This collection of essays builds a case against those who see children as customers or workers and those who want to turn learning into a business. Following an introduction, The 500-Pound Gorilla by Alfie Kohn, section 1, Commercialism in Schools, contains: (1) Buy Me! Buy Me! (Alex Molnar and Joseph A. Reaves); (2) Commercialism in U.S. Schools…

The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are among the most powerful interest groups in the nation, affecting the way public policy is made. They are the primary political opponents of all forms of privatization, and overwhelmingly support Democrat candidates for public office. Chapter 1 is an…

This book explores the connections between infrastructure reform and poverty alleviation in Latin America based on a detailed analysis of the effects of a decade of reforms. The book demonstrates that because the access to, and affordability of, basic services is still a major problem, infrastructure investment will be a core component of poverty…

Public-private partnerships in education exist in various forms around the world, in both developed and developing countries. Despite this, and despite the importance of human capital for economic growth, systematic analysis has been limited and scattered, with most scholarly attention going to initiatives in the United States. This volume helps…

This book contains evidence about charter schools that can provide important data on evaluating this new public-private hybrid and its success at serving the core purpose of public education. The book focuses on charter schools in Michigan, which is regarded as having one of the most permissive charter laws in the country. The first three chapters…

This volume contains papers submitted to the 10th Annual Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society, held in Kyustendil, Bulgaria, 12-15 June 2012. The overall goal of the 10th BCES conference is to facilitate discussion of different perspectives on international education providing a forum for scientific debate and constructive…

The increased marketisation and privatisation of schooling in economically developing countries struggling to achieve Education for All and Millennium Development Goals warrants a focused examination of the phenomenon. However, there is little work on the nature and extent of private provision in countries that, on the one hand, are striving to…

New forms of governing and managing public schools have proliferated in recent years, spawning the establishment and growth of companies that operate public schools under contract. Among these education management organizations, or EMOs, the largest and most visible is Edison Schools, Inc., with a nationwide network in 2004-2005 of 103 managed…

The goal of this report is to formulate a true alternative to the current form of governance for public education. Based on studies of governance in other large decentralized service organizations and of local educational reform efforts, the report concludes that there is a real alternative. The alternative allows the schools to be operated by a…

This yearbook reaffirms the connections between the field of education finance and the wider education community. Among the topics it examines are curricula reform, outcome assessment, accountability, community control, and privatization. Twelve chapters include: (1) "Education Finance in the New Millennium: Overview and Summary" (Stephen Chaikind…

This book examines three major school-reform movements in the United States that were shaped by outside societal forces and identifies their common characteristics. The first two chapters examine the history and influence of the progressive movement and chapter 3 is devoted to progressive education's chief philosopher and pragmatist, John Dewey.…