Several variants of the "melting pot" ideology have informed the actions of those responsible for educational policy-making in the United States. This ideology has increasingly come under attack by a variety of persons. The purpose of this paper is to outline several legal grounds on which this ideology has been and will be challenged and to spell…

About half the states in the U.S., either by legislative or administrative action, have moved toward the imposition of statewide performance standards in their elementary and secondary schools. Typically these standards pertain to the basic skills--reading, mathematical computation, and written and oral expression. Almost all of these programs…