Challenges a central orthodoxy of school-effectiveness work-that schools should strive to become more consistent learning environments. Ironically, the effective-school model has become embedded in the educational politics of the UK and USA, where conditions do not favor successful implementation. Educators must first address rampant socioeconomic…

Under a bill amending Ontario, Canada's Educational Accountability Act, teachers were expected to resume formerly "voluntary" extracurricular duties they resigned when ordered to teach an extra class. The government's strategy to recast these activities as "co-instructional" did not fly. However, the education minister is…

Finds that the reading performance of English-as-a-second-language students and English language learners immersed in regular education classes in a large urban school district was far below grade-level performance, across all categories of measurement; but that the performance of English language learners who had successfully exited from…

Examines the factors leading to the creation of Kentucky's Louisville Municipal College for Negroes and the black community's use of political power to achieve educational gains in the early decades of the 20th century. Three historical developments involving black education in Louisville are examined in order to better explain the college's…

An examination of the debate over affirmative action policies in higher education finds that increasingly, conservative black scholars are opposing continuation of affirmative action. In addition, the movement is gaining credibility through the activities of conservative academic groups such as the National Association of Scholars. These groups…

Discusses the influence of neoconservatism and neoliberalism on education and the importance of seeing schooling as fundamentally connected to the relations of domination and exploitation operative in the larger society, noting the need to recognize the changes that are occurring in many societies and to see the complexity of the power/knowledge…

Reviews the historical, social, and political context of women's experiences in science and math, challenging stereotypes that girls historically have had difficulties and suggesting that treating such difficulties as historical and personal in the absence of careful analyses of the social and political dimensions of women's experiences only…

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…

Examines the politics of year-round education in Brownfield, California, in the 1970s. Findings showed that Mexican Americans challenged the proposed 45-15 plan because they were excluded from the decision-making process and because the plan conflicted with migrant workers' employment patterns. Formal mechanisms must be activated to guard all…

Examines the successful efforts of a detracked urban middle school that attempted to simultaneously meet the requirements of both equity and educational excellence within a multicultural, racially mixed educational setting. Barriers and pitfalls of the program are discussed, as well as the links between heterogeneous grouping and multicultural…

The story of England's 1988 Education Reform Act is a sad account of a government's efforts to introduce educational innovations based on a political agenda. The result was teacher demoralization and at least 500 million pounds wasted on the national curriculum and its assessment. ERA's real aim was to encourage parental choice and open up…

Aboriginal nations oppose the separation of Quebec from Canada because they favor confederations, multiple international boundaries present jurisdictional nightmares, federal programs might disappear, and Quebec's history of aggression against Aboriginal peoples plus the ethnic nature of its nationalism suggest an independent Quebec is a potential…

Presents the results of a survey conducted by the Canadian Society for Education through Art (CSEA). The survey questioned the relevance of policies in place since the late 1960s. The policies addressed subjects including competitions and exhibitions, commercially prepared materials, and the teaching of art. Includes responses and discussion. (MJP)

Coalition-building among Black and Latino groups is an effective way of shaping public policy. Since the Civil Rights era, the groups have found common ground in issues and candidates at all levels. Nationally, coalitions have generally revolved around specific issues (affirmative action, education, anti-discrimination, census). As Latino…

Outlines the clearest case of "de-skilling" to be found in education: the situation in California, where legislators and businessmen decide exactly how and with what methods and materials reading is to be taught, exactly what professional development activities are sanctioned and which shall not be mentioned, with this stamping out of…