This paper challenges the traditional interpretation of the origins of the North American summer calendar by suggesting that the roots of the presently defined school year were more influenced by multiple pressures arising from increasing urbanization, than by the demands of farm life. Examining why there has been such resistance to changing the school calendar, the paper investigates the calendar’s ties with changes over time in the construction of other “clocks” of society. Finally, we consider the school calendar as part of a larger ongoing discussion on what constitutes effectiveness of schools.

The paper argues that what currently counts as race discrimination in education and how such discrimination is proven are, from a legal perspective, at once both straightforward and complex questions.

While research on choice-based school reform has proliferated in recent years, little attention has been paid to examining how teachers themselves view choice-based reforms or what shapes their attitudes. We use a survey of teachers in Arizona, the state with the nation's most developed system of school choice, to explore how key personal and contextual traits influence teachers' attitudes toward charter schools and school vouchers. Our results can help shed light on how teachers will respond to the spread of school choice, and the likely prospects and effects of choice-based reform.

The purpose of this study is to employ a stakeholder framework to examine the changing salience levels of a state business group as it tried to shape educational policy during a 5-year period of intense state-level reform.

An examination of the many ways in which life in post–September 11 America is both a rupture from some of the antigovernment politics that dominated before these tragic events and an uncanny continuity from the pre–September 11 worship of global capitalism and the virtual abandonment of any effort to create greater equality.

In this paper, the question of the relationship of education to conceptions of individual well-being within the broader context of political theory is pursued.

This essay reviews the current governance problems in education and details the range of possible governance models for post-industrial schooling.

This article examines the evolution of deregulation as a state education policy strategy, from limited waiver programs to charter programs and new accountability systems that include broad deregulation. The article discusses the substantial political and practical barriers to broad deregulation despite the assumption that greater school-level autonomy will lead to improvement.

As a moderator of a “Brown Plus Forty” Conference general session panel discussion, the author offers both a synthesis of the panelists’ expressed views and his own thoughts on the legacy of the Supreme Court’s 1954 opinion.

The Supreme Court's vision in Brown did not include a multicultural society

President Clinton's human capital agenda emphasizes efforts to ensure the future strength of the United States economy by investing in education and training citizens. This paper describes the agenda and the legislation it shaped, focusing on K-12 reforms and the changing federal role in education.

This article discusses issues related to reconstruction and the southern civil rights movement (past, present, and future). It examines historical illiteracy, politics regarding race, and ignorance about race relations in the United States.

Five articles comment on Chubb and Terry M. Moe's book "Politics, Markets, and America's Schools": (1) Choice in Education: Examining the Evidence on Equity; (2) Politics, Markets, and America's Schools: A Review; (3) Political Pollyannas; (4) Degrees of Imperfection: A Note from a Political Pollyanna; and (5) Thoughts on Choice.

A review of Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools. The author argues that market-driven school choice policies are a product of our times because they place self over society, individual gain over community action, and signal to parents and children that consumership is of higher value than the larger social good.

This article presents a comparative analysis of the U.S. and Indian Supreme Courts' roles in civil rights and preference policies. Despite structural and historical differences, similarities exist in the development of such policies. Both are more concerned with fidelity to constitutional and statutory interpretations than to personal ideological viewpoints.

This article discusses the tension between civic virtue and individual freedom, a challenge for education, and proposes a "state of democratic education" which leaves maximum moral room for citizens to shape their society in an image that they can identify with their moral choices.

The teaching of values to students is unavoidable and inevitable. The problem for educators is how to choose wisely what is explicitly taught in the way of values and how to understand and control the implicit moral education in schools and in the communities that support them.

The author comments on the response to his arguments by Burbules and Kantor, stating that their response is thoughtful, well-reasoned, and articulate. They agree on much, but disagree on matters of theoretical importance (really on points of emphasis) that could affect their political/educational practice. He points to these theoretical issues here.

This article discusses the concept of the forum as a form of "political conversation" in America. Two forum models (liberal and democratic) are contrasted on the basis of educational objective, experiential analogy, consensus goal, and forum participants.

The 1984 Democratic primary campaign is used to assess how little effect leftist educational analysis has had on mainstream discourse. A brief outline of directions and emphases for a leftist political agenda is presented.

While the family is the main agency for helping young people develop the ideas, attitudes, and behavior of successful citizenship and work, schools can enrich the teacher-student relationship to the point that values rub off.

The recent selection of a new president of the University of Florida, which, because of Florida's Sunshine Laws, was the most public search process ever conducted by a major university is described. The negative effects of public openness on the selection process and the candidates are explored.

This article reviews the school effectiveness movement from inception to its current state, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of research and implementation literature, and discusses the appropriate role for state and federal government in fostering school effectiveness.

This article explores the evolution of federal government policy on education during the past 20 years, points out trends likely to influence future policy, and projects possible future responses to these trends. The roles of educational interest groups instrumental in passing the legislation are described.

The federal government's role in educational policy is examined. Discussed are changes in the public's problems, needs, and attitudes, and changes in state and local government roles in school governance. The impact of the federal government on state educational policy is analyzed, and predictions are made for future federal educational policy.

This symposium provides a condensed version of the four papers produced for the task of political forecasting and evaluating Washington’s role in education during the 1980s. The central analytical question was “to examine the issue of the respective roles of the three levels of government in education and how these roles are likely to be altered during the decade of the 1980s; the political forces that will be operative are a crucial feature.”

Various indices of public support for the schools--school finance voting patterns, public opinion polls, and court litigation--are analyzed to document current trends. Two possible scenarios are forecast for the future, based on socioeconomic and demographic patterns. The need for future government support is stressed.

A review of major federal education programs indicates that educational interest groups have played a modest role in shaping policy. Typically, these groups have ridden existing political and judicial currents to pass programs, and then have concentrated on maintaining their interests. Future roles are discussed.