The Politics of School Reform, 1870 - 1940

The Politics of School Reform, 1870 - 1940 PDF Author: Paul E. Peterson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226662954
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Was school reform in the decades following the Civil War an upper-middle-class effort to maintain control of the schools? Was public education simply a vehicle used by Protestant elites to impose their cultural ideas upon recalcitrant immigrants? In The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940, Paul E. Peterson challenges such standard, revisionist interpretations of American educational history. Urban public schools, he argues, were part of a politically pluralistic society. Their growth—both in political power and in sheer numbers—had as much to do with the demands and influence of trade unions, immigrant groups, and the public more generally as it did with the actions of social and economic elites. Drawing upon rarely examined archival data, Peterson demonstrates that widespread public backing for the common school existed in Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco. He finds little evidence of systematic discrimination against white immigrants, at least with respect to classroom crowding and teaching assignments. Instead, his research uncovers solid trade union and other working-class support for compulsory education, adequate school financing, and curricular modernization. Urban reformers campaigned assiduously for fiscally sound, politically strong public schools. Often they had at least as much support from trade unionists as from business elites. In fact it was the business-backed machine politicians—from San Francisco's William Buckley to Chicago's Edward Kelly—who deprived the schools of funds. At a time when public schools are being subjected to searching criticism and when new educational ideas are gaining political support, The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940 is a timely reminder of the strength and breadth of those groups that have always supported "free" public schools.

The Politics of School Reform, 1870 - 1940

The Politics of School Reform, 1870 - 1940 PDF Author: Paul E. Peterson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226662954
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
Was school reform in the decades following the Civil War an upper-middle-class effort to maintain control of the schools? Was public education simply a vehicle used by Protestant elites to impose their cultural ideas upon recalcitrant immigrants? In The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940, Paul E. Peterson challenges such standard, revisionist interpretations of American educational history. Urban public schools, he argues, were part of a politically pluralistic society. Their growth—both in political power and in sheer numbers—had as much to do with the demands and influence of trade unions, immigrant groups, and the public more generally as it did with the actions of social and economic elites. Drawing upon rarely examined archival data, Peterson demonstrates that widespread public backing for the common school existed in Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco. He finds little evidence of systematic discrimination against white immigrants, at least with respect to classroom crowding and teaching assignments. Instead, his research uncovers solid trade union and other working-class support for compulsory education, adequate school financing, and curricular modernization. Urban reformers campaigned assiduously for fiscally sound, politically strong public schools. Often they had at least as much support from trade unionists as from business elites. In fact it was the business-backed machine politicians—from San Francisco's William Buckley to Chicago's Edward Kelly—who deprived the schools of funds. At a time when public schools are being subjected to searching criticism and when new educational ideas are gaining political support, The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940 is a timely reminder of the strength and breadth of those groups that have always supported "free" public schools.

School Reform, Corporate Style

School Reform, Corporate Style PDF Author: Dorothy Shipps
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Like other big city school systems, Chicago's has been repeatedly "reformed" over the last century. Yet its schools have fallen far short of citizens' expectations and left a gap between the performances of white and minority students. Many blame the educational establishment for resisting change. Other critics argue that reform occurs too often; still others claim it comes not often enough. Dorothy Shipps reappraises the tumultuous history of educational progress in Chicago, revealing that the persistent lack of improvement is due not to the extent but rather the type of reform. Throughout the twentieth century, managerial reorganizations initiated by the business community repeatedly altered the governance structure of schools—as well as the relationships of teachers to children and parents—but brought little improvement, while other more promising reform models were either resisted or crowded out. Shipps chronicles how Chicago's corporate actors led, abetted, or restrained nearly every attempt to transform the city's school system, then asks whether schools might be better reformed by others. To show why city schools have failed urban children so badly, she traces Chicago's reform history over four political eras, revealing how corporate power was instrumental in designing and revamping the system. Her narrative encompasses the formative era of 1880-1930, when teachers' unions moderated business plans; previously unexplored business activism from 1930 to 1980, when civil rights dominated school reform, and the decentralization of the 1980s. She also covers the uneasy cooperation among business associations in the 1990s to install the mayor as head of the school system, a governing regime now challenged by privatization advocates. Business people may be too wedded to a stunted view of educators to forge a productive partnership for change. Unionized teachers bridle at the second-class status accorded them by managers. If reform is to reach deeply into classrooms, Shipps concludes, it might well require a new coalition of teachers' unions and parents to create a fresh agenda that supersedes corporate interests. This study clearly shows that, in Chicago as elsewhere, urban schooling is intertwined with politics and power. By reviewing more than a century of corporate efforts to make education work, Shipps makes a strong case that it's high time to look elsewhere—perhaps to educators themselves—for new leadership.

The Study Of Educational Politics

The Study Of Educational Politics PDF Author: Jay D. Scribner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135718490
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
This text is intended to be of use as a guide for students, scholars and researchers of the politics of education and of educational policy studies. The comprehensive work surveys major trends between 1969 and 1994, with chapters synthesising political and policy developments at local, national and state levels in the US as well as in the international arena. The text contains in-depth examinations of the emerging micropolitics of the field of education as well as policy analysis and cultural and feminist studies, and bibliographies are provided at the end of each chapter.; Designed as both a text and a reference volume, this special yearbook was planned in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Politics of Education Association in 1994.

Protecting Soldiers and Mothers

Protecting Soldiers and Mothers PDF Author: Theda Skocpol
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674717664
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 740

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Book Description
Instead, the nation nearly became a unique maternalist welfare state as the federal government and more than forty states enacted social spending, labor regulations, and health education programs to assist American mothers and children. Remarkably, as Skocpol shows, many of these policies were enacted even before American women were granted the right to vote. Banned from electoral politics, they turned their energies to creating huge, nation-spanning federations of local women's clubs, which collaborated with reform-minded professional women to spur legislative action across the country.

Education, Change, and the Policy Process

Education, Change, and the Policy Process PDF Author: Harold Silver
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9781850006992
Category : Education and state
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
The aim of this book is to track the historical elements of change in educational policy formation and implementation in relation to the specifics of responses to change, the possibilities of change, and attempts to achieve it. Chapter 1 assess whether the future is in past historical change or is simply illuminated by it. The notion of an explicit relationship between history and policy analysis is expounded in chapter 2. The answer for successful policy making in British higher education is looked for in chapter 3. Chapter 4 describes versions of accountability in public sectors of higher education. Chapter 5 delineates the decline in the reputation of British higher education from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. Chapter 6 places vocationalism in the context of further education, describing its intentions and outcomes. Chapter 7 contains a history of periods in British education from 1780 until now. Chapter 8 examines the American zeal for change in education as a historical process beginning in the 1980s. Chapter 9 describes the plight of socially disadvantaged children in school from 1920-80. Chapter 10 reinforces the general thrust of the book as a concern for using "historical policy analysis" as a point of entry into considerations for educational change. Notes at the end of each chapter and an index are provided. (EJS)

Urban Education in the United States

Urban Education in the United States PDF Author: J. Rury
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403981876
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Urban Education in the United States examines the development of schools in the large cities of the USA. John Rury, a well-known historian of education, introduces and highlights the most significant and classic essays dealing with urban schooling in this collection. Urban Education in the United States will provide an introduction to critical themes in the history of city schools and will frame each section with an overview of urban education research during particular periods in US history.

No Child Left Behind and the Transformation of Federal Education Policy, 1965-2005

No Child Left Behind and the Transformation of Federal Education Policy, 1965-2005 PDF Author: Patrick J. McGuinn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Education is intimately connected to many of the most important and contentious questions confronting American society, from race to jobs to taxes, and the competitive pressures of the global economy have only enhanced its significance. Elementary and secondary schooling has long been the province of state and local governments; but when George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, it signaled an unprecedented expansion of the federal role in public education. This book provides the first balanced, in-depth analysis of how No Child Left Behind (NCLB) became law. Patrick McGuinn, a political scientist with hands-on experience in secondary education, explains how this happened despite the country's long history of decentralized school governance and the longstanding opposition of both liberals and conservatives to an active, reform-oriented federal role in schools. His book provides the essential political context for understanding NCLB, the controversies surrounding its implementation, and forthcoming debates over its reauthorization. how the struggle to define the federal role in school reform took center stage in debates over the appropriate role of the government in promoting opportunity and social welfare. He places the evolution of the federal role in schools within the context of broader institutional, ideological, and political changes that have swept the nation since the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, chronicles the concerns raised by the 1983 report A Nation at Risk, and shows how education became a major campaign issue for both parties in the 1990s. McGuinn argues that the emergence of swing issues such as education can facilitate major policy change even as they influence the direction of wider political debates and partisan conflict. McGuinn traces the Republican shift from seeking to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education to embracing federal leadership in school reform, then details the negotiations over NCLB, the forces that shaped its final provisions, and the ways in which the law constitutes a new federal education policy regime - against which states have now begun to rebel. and that only by understanding the unique dynamics of national education politics will reformers be able to craft a more effective national role in school reform.

Saving Schools

Saving Schools PDF Author: Paul E. Peterson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674504542
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Saving Schools traces the story of the rise, decline, and potential resurrection of American public schools through the lives and ideas of six mission-driven reformers: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Shanker, William Bennett, and James Coleman. Yet schools did not become the efficient, egalitarian, and high-quality educational institutions these reformers envisioned. Indeed, the unintended consequences of their legacies shaped today’s flawed educational system, in which political control of stagnant American schools has shifted away from families and communities to larger, more centralized entities—initially to bigger districts and eventually to control by states, courts, and the federal government. Peterson’s tales help to explain how nation building, progressive education, the civil rights movement, unionization, legalization, special education, bilingual teaching, accountability, vouchers, charters, and homeschooling have, each in a different way, set the stage for a new era in American education. Now, under the impact of rising cost, coupled with the possibilities unleashed by technological innovation, schooling may be transformed through virtual learning. The result could be a personalized, customized system of education in which families have greater choice and control over their children’s education than at any time since our nation was founded.

Balancing Local Control and State Responsibility for K-12 Education

Balancing Local Control and State Responsibility for K-12 Education PDF Author: Neil D. Theobald
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317927850
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
This book examines the impact of state activism on local school autonomy in terms of both financial resources and policy initiatives.

Conservatism and American Political Development

Conservatism and American Political Development PDF Author: Brian J. Glenn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199706018
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
American political development (APD) is a core subfield in American political science, and focuses on political and policy history. For a variety of reasons, most of the focus in the twentieth century APD has been on liberal policymaking. Yet since the 1970s, conservatives have gradually assumed control over numerous federal policymaking institutions. This edited book will be the first to offer a comprehensive overview of the impact of conservatism on twentieth century American political development, locating its origins in the New Deal and then focusing on how conservatives acted within government once they began to achieve power in the late 1960s. The book is divided into three eras, and in each it focuses on three core issues: social security, the environment, and education. Throughout, the authors emphasize the ironic role of conservatism in the expansion of the American state. Scholars of the state have long focuses on liberalism because liberals were the architects of state expansion. However, as conservatives increased their presence in the federal apparatus, they were frequently co-opted into maintaining of even expanding public fiscal and regulatory power. At times, conservatives also came to accept the existence of the liberal state, but attempted to use it to achieve conservative policy ends. Despite conservatives' power in the US politics and governance, the American state remains gargantuan. As Conservatism and American Political Development shows, the new right has not only helped shape the state, but has been shaped by it as well.