Discusses six steps backward in public elementary schooling: behavior modification, decoding skills, individualized instruction, mastery learning, grouping, and teaching basics. (SR)

President George W. Bush's approach to education policy has earned him cautious plaudits from otherwise hostile critics, who see much to admire in the implementation of standards for education. However useful such standards for testing students' technical skills like arithmetic and reading, they create problems for less-standardized processes like…

U.S. public education has always been value laden, and a straightforward approach concerning what values will be taught is an appropriate policy. In spite of U.S. pluralism, a relatively common set of traditional values is possible and desirable. Three assumptions have been accepted in this essay: (1) no one lives a value-neutral life; (2)…

Recent reports on educational reform tend to encourage a return to enforced uniformity in American public schools. If public education is to compete successfully with private education, however, increasing numbers of magnet schools should be established to provide diversity and genuine choice among public schools. (JBM)

This series of three brief articles, written by the Nebraska commissioner of education, addresses schools for the future. It proceeds with two assumptions: (1) all students can learn and can learn at much higher levels than they are now doing; and (2) schools should be ready and able to teach all kids. The first article addresses, generally, the…