For all students to achieve a certain academic achievement level, educators must broaden their understanding of how children learn and ensure that financial resources are provided for child- and family-support services beginning at birth. This article reviews research that forms the basis for this recommendation, highlighting the School of the…

Discusses social justice in education, specifically gender issues. Explores how rightist governments in advanced industrialized societies have tried to implement an agenda of parental choice and standards, in contrast to earlier liberal administrations' efforts to reduce differences between families and involve mothers in children's education.…

Examines a metropolitanwide school desegregation plan's effects on the attitudes and experiences of a few suburban school teachers. Instead of deploring their school's changing demographics, these educators welcomed the new racial and ethnic diversity contributed by African-American students. The plan increased teacher awareness of the school's…

This article uses Melucci's approach to social movements to explore how the women"s movement changed education in British Columbia in the 1970s. The women's movement was a multifaceted social phenomenon with multiple agendas and actors. In the early 1970s, it developed a temporary sense of cohesion in the field of education in the context of a…

This study examines the racial and ethnic distribution of the costs and benefits of higher education in California. This exploratory work documents the racial and ethnic distribution of these benefits, in the form of enrollments in different sectors and different types of institutions, as well as on the costs, in the form of the share borne by…

Society is not meeting the needs of most children in U.S. urban schools. Although the articles in this special "Educational Policy" issue are provocative, contributors fail to recognize the subjectivity of knowledge accumulation. They advocate tactics to reinforce existing power imbalances in society, rather than suggesting ways to…

This article concerns an issue that often remains implicit within the public debate about affirmative action and related race-conscious education policies: What role do contested moral ideals play in the disagreement about affirmative action? As background, the article first outlines what a moral disagreement is and then goes on to examine the…

Survey of 500 teachers of sexuality education in New Jersey shows differences between richer and poorer districts. Teachers in rich districts get more parental support and have greater access to training, colleagues, curricular guidance, instructional materials. Sexuality education is more likely to be required and is taken by more students.…

Explains why Jonathon Kozol's first six books about the need for public education reform have neither penetrated educational curricula nor influenced educational reformists or practitioners. His messages and observations, although sensitive and substantive, vent so much rage and anger that readers run for cover. The exception is "Savage…

Unsatisfactory results from 1980s reforms stressing equalized funding, higher standards, and testing have prompted educators to reinvestigate inequality-producing mechanisms and consider program equity and adequacy. However, the problem is not solely within schools. Output goals must be tied to explicit programs and standards to raise up the…

Suggests some consequences of program equity for educational policy and practice. Stakes go up because program equity demands support for high minimum performance outcomes and coordination of implementation decisions and actions across a fragmented education system. Teacher networks are one way to link top-down and bottom-up change strategies…

Definitions of equal educational opportunity have evolved from access to schooling, to equal spending per pupil, to variable spending per pupil depending on individual need. Although the quest for funding equity has dominated recent legal and political actions, funding adequacy deserves great attention. A single-minded pursuit of equity may lead…

National standards and assessments (President Clinton's Goals 2000 Act) are being proposed to improve schools. This article reviews the bill and examines equity issues, including disparities in instructional conditions among racial/ethnic groups. Using tests to change teaching and learning reflects overreliance on top-down policy, distrust of…

America's high school students have higher educational aspirations than ever before, yet these aspirations are being undermined by disconnected educational systems and other barriers. These educational aspirations cut across racial and ethnic lines with scant differences. As this study demonstrates, access to college-preparation-related policy…

Describes development of the Oregon Quality Education model, an adequacy-funding model. Explores the rationale behind its development as well as the political and economic realities policymakers face in attempting to determine how much money Oregon's schools would need to meet state education reform goals and provide a quality education to all…