Presents three addresses given at a conference at the College of St. Thomas (Minnesota) by Vincent Reed, David Frye, and Casey Banas on the priorities of American secondary education from a local perspective. Jean Dye, Neal Nickerson, and Steve Permuth respond. (WD)

This paper summarizes arguments surrounding the closing of Hisel School in Jackson County, Kentucky, in an effort to analyze the debate on rural education in Appalachia and how it relates to school-community relationships. Events surrounding closure of the school are summarized, including a two-year period in which a school community volunteer…

Starting with the contention that we need to restore a wider range of choice to parents in their children's education, this paper lists and reviews the varieties of public education currently available throughout the country, and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. These varieties include magnet schools, alternative schools, independent…

Although classrooms vary in design and populations, there are certain features that are common to virtually all classrooms. These include the crowding of pupils, the compulsion of school attendance, and the expectation that teachers will foster literacy. The manner in which these features are dealt with in a classroom constitutes the core problem…