The OECD's PISA is seen as a 'global yardstick' against which countries measure the quality of their education systems. In 2018 PISA included an assessment of global competence. This paper starts with the premise that in using a single global instrument to 'measure' this phenomenon, PISA claims standardisation over contextually rich data that can…

Public schools historically have been the primary institution responsible for preparing young people for participation in a democratic society. However, the almost exclusive focus by today's schools on knowledge and skills hinders their ability to be environments that support overall development and to produce the kinds of flexible, creative, and…

For this systematic review, the author examines 59 findings from 21 quantitative studies regarding the effects of school choice on seven civic values that relate to the capacity of individuals to perform as effective citizens in a representative democracy. The values, in order from the most studied to the least studied, are: (1) Political…

This review of literature is the first of four documents prepared for phase I of the Civic Education Study, under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The more than 20 countries that participated in Phase 1 of the IEA Civic Education Study were asked to review the literature in their…

Critiques the recommendations proposed by the Bradley Commission on History in Schools' report on the state of history in the schools. Maintains that the recommendations are too narrowly centered, and points out that few members of the commission were from the public schools. Challenges the supposition that more history leads to good citizens. (RW)

This paper examines the development of character education requirements in New Hampshire public school curricula and the education of teachers to be certified to teach character education. The research literature is reviewed and examples of programs for character development are described. Several observations provide helpful insights on the…

This paper thematizes the significance of postmodernism for the teaching of values in public schools. It elucidates the challenge of postmodernism and develops constructive proposals in response to its significance for teaching values. The operative contention is that a critical engagement with the challenge of postmodernism provides an…

This think piece examines the role of community in educational reform. The paper maintains that while many scholars, business people, and politicians have advocated the creation of a community covenant--a mutually beneficial relationship between schools and their communities--such programs have never really taken hold. The paper advocates that as…

Service-learning is a wide-spread educational strategy in K-16 education. Currently 64% of all public schools and 83% of public high schools have community service. Researchers have proclaimed the many benefits of service learning in terms of student empowerment, but does it have the power to create a counter-hegemony that provides an alternative…

The lack of economics literacy is a serious problem in the United States. Today, public school students are taught little if any economics and score very poorly on economics literacy tests, with the average test score being 40 percent. This absence of economic understanding hurts the economy in the following ways: (1) economically illiterate…

This booklet tells of the 1987 struggle teachers and parents of a racially-integrated, working-class neighborhood of Milwaukee faced when the central administration of the Milwaukee Public Schools announced the closing of the neighborhood school. Parents and teachers dreamed of a decent school that children would want to attend, in an integrated…