In this chapter, I attempt to theorize and historize the current global education reform movement which the Finnish education policy analyst Pasi Sahlberg (Finnish lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland. Teachers College Press, New York, 2011) has coined the GERM (Global Education Reform Movement), the "virus…

Education systems around the world are now witness to a variety of educational changes and improvements, numerous social and economic disruptions, and the onset of rapid technological advances that were unimaginable in the past. Within this tsunami of change, innovative teaching and learning practices that employ emerging technologies are sweeping…

"Privatization of America's Public Institutions" describes the transformation of the military, K-12 public schools, public universities and colleges, and prisons into enterprises focused on generating profits for a select few. In many cases, privatization has limited accessibility, promoted segregation, fueled declining standards,…

Key legislative objectives for the US Federal educational policy over the past several decades relied heavily on quasi-market strategies (such as school rating, school closure, the contracting out of schools) as central levers in "reforming" public schools. Using financial data on 11 national for-profit firms contracting with schools and…

In "The Transformation of Great American School Districts", William Lowe Boyd, Charles Taylor Kerchner, and Mark Blyth argue that urban education reform can best be understood as a long process of institutional change, rather than as a series of failed projects. They examine the core assumptions that underlay the Progressive Era model of…

The goal of this report is to formulate a true alternative to the current form of governance for public education. Based on studies of governance in other large decentralized service organizations and of local educational reform efforts, the report concludes that there is a real alternative. The alternative allows the schools to be operated by a…

This chapter concentrates on policies that increase the efficiency of schools rather than just more spending. The first focus is on the causes of educational inefficiency. These include lack of standards and accountability, centralization, unaccountable management and labor, federally induced inefficiency, and nonmarket inefficiency. Steps…

This document presents the Educational Excellence Network's third annual report card on the progress of education reform in the United States. Despite much activity, the report assigns reform efforts for 1995-96 the overall grade of C, which is the same grade given for the previous year. Part 1 presents data on academic achievement in American…

The Edison Project will reconfigure time, deploy truly professional teachers, and utilize technologies in powerful new ways. Other Edison design highlights include its research basis; clear, defining values; high universal standards; five-domain curriculum; proven, individualized instructional methods; creative organization; true accountability;…

Education in both England and the United States has undergone a profound change over the last two decades as part of neo-liberal and neoconservative political reforms. The reforms have been characterized by efforts to standardize the curriculum, to implement standardized tests in order to hold students, teachers, and schools accountable, to…