This commentary suggests that a countermovement for educational and social justice must learn from the dominant global neo-liberal movement and its successes in creating institutions and knowledge-making processes and networks. Local struggles for educational justice are important, but they need to be linked to a broader educational justice…

Like many parents and educators, the author is concerned about both quality and equity in the school systems and schools, public and private. He is equally frustrated at the seemingly zealous focus on producing more and more charter schools when America have had: (1) limited success in that arena; and (2) limited data on their success. That…

In this scholarly commentary, the author examines the major reasons U.S. charter schools have closed since 1992. The commentary provides examples of charter school failures in high-frequency areas, such as financial and organizational mismanagement, and academic underperformance; it further identifies two subcategories of academic risk:…

U.S. education is at a transformational moment. The choices we make will determine whether our schools become collaborative and democratic or prescriptive and authoritarian. The policies proposed by the federal government for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will create some good schools for some students while…

If there is one thing all educators know and many studies have confirmed for decades, it is that there is no single answer to educational improvement. There are no grounds for the claim made in the past decade that accountability all by itself is a silver bullet, nor for the oft-asserted argument that choice by itself is a panacea. This article…

It is hard to look away from the vulnerable faces of the children whose educational odysseys are highlighted in the movie "Waiting for Superman." The movie longs for the good old days when U.S. education was the best in the world, without considering how content U.S. communities were with low expectations and low achievement for…

In this paper, the author focuses specifically on how the current crisis regarding teacher layoffs in the United States is being analyzed and addressed through weak reformist discourses and how the hidden order of these discourses is revealed through current policies being implemented to reform existing programs and colleges of education charged…

Across the United States, nearly 50 million students are served by 96,000 public schools. Federal policymakers cannot be expected to diagnose the diverse learning needs of these students and to craft solutions adequate to meet all of them. Four decades, eight reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and expenditure of…

There are almost 3,000 charter schools operating in the United States. In Arizona about 500 charters enroll about 74,000 students. The question of whether charter schools "work" is, therefore, of considerable interest to policymakers and the public nationally and in Arizona. To charter school proponents, the fact that charters exist is…

The author describes the process of randomized study for charter schools. Because most charter schools have more applicants than places, which are awarded by lottery, it is possible to follow a charter school's entire pool of applicants. The author contrasts the ability of using the entire applicant to pool of charter schools to a study that…