This article aims to interpret how different policies of priority education deal with the notions of "educational needs" and "educational inequalities." Indeed, it is the processes and mechanisms embedded in the deployment of such policies that ultimately model a category of educational need that goes beyond the…

The present study sought to determine to what extent vestiges of the dual system of educating students with and without disabilities persist and how they undermine the implementation and sustainability of inclusive education. We investigated how prior experiences with segregation shape administrators' thinking and school policies and practices…

Mirroring many of the same social and geographic inequities present in the K-12 educational system, the promise of early childhood education has been unfulfilled for many young children and their families. Social norms and funding structures, including the lack of universal, publicly funded high-quality preschool offerings, have served to…

With growing evidence that human capital investment is more efficiently spent on younger children coupled with wide variation in preschool access across states, this article uses a neoliberal approach to examine the potential social costs and benefits that could accrue should the United States decide to implement a centralized preschool…

This article historicizes the collision of K-12 public schooling and early childhood education by interrogating the ways in which people called for and implemented the public kindergarten into primary school over the past century. Using a theoretical framework that pays attention to the ways in which policy develops over time we provide a…

The political emphasis on early education speaks of growing expectations for equal access and the need to ensure quality--by way of standard accountability measures--on behalf of all young children. A central element in the improvement of early education focuses on teacher quality. In this article we examine and discuss the challenges related to…

This qualitative case study extends the literature on urban district instructional policymaking by analyzing the ways in which normative and political pressures shaped district leaders' instructional policy decisions. Drawing on concepts from the politics of education, it shows how teachers and principals repeatedly nullified policies that aimed…

This article undertakes a comparative study of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) thematic reviews on "equity in education" for Spain and Norway. The author investigates whether there may be a similar orientation to equity expressed in the two reviews and discusses how social stratification may occur…

The authors consider Ladson-Billings' (2006) charge to reframe the way the "achievement gap" is viewed, and put forth the metaphor of "bankruptcy" as a way to acknowledge the educational debt and educational inequity and move towards debt forgiveness in public education. Specifically, the bankruptcy metaphor is used to examine…

This article places policy development in the context of progressive social movements. It describes how social movements develop, and delineates some of the accomplishments of such contestation in U.S. history as well as in changes of education policy. The article closes by considering the possibilities and challenges of current social movement…

The documentary "Waiting for Superman" has become one of those rare things, a (supposed) documentary that generates a wider audience. It also is one of the more recent embodiments of what Nancy Fraser (1989) labels as the "politics of needs and needs discourses." Dominant groups listen carefully to the language and issues that…

This article explores the potential role of low-wage service sector unions in engaging in equity-minded school reform. The members of many such unions are parents of children attending poorly resourced public schools. In seeking to address the interests of their members, labor unions can draw upon resources, organizing strategies, and political…

This article analyzes the findings from a three-state study of teacher induction policy. It looks within and across Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin to explore the landscape and experience of teacher induction. Although the orientation and conception of each state's policy is similar, the states represent three different structural approaches to…

This article explores the impact of standardization policies of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 on the American Indian/Alaska Native community and the ability of educational policy to promote sovereignty, liberty and equity within indigenous communities. Examining current research and data generated from the National Indian Education…

This article begins to unpack the complex effects of the policies of both the small schools and choice on students with special needs. Drawing on qualitative data collected throughout the 2008-2009 academic year and a range of quantitative data from New York City's public high schools, the author shows that while small schools and choice are…