This issue of Occasional Papers began as a Graduate School seminar honoring Steven Schultz, a much beloved and respected faculty member whose untimely death from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses left a terrible hole in the lives of Bank Street staff members. The seminar, organized by Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Virginia Casper, a close friend…

This collection of lesson materials for high school teachers and students focuses on the study of ethics and values that underlie the political process in the United States. The collection is meant to encourage teachers and students to examine the value conflicts that frequently appear in the electoral process and stimulate student thinking about…

This book takes a stand against the belief that "bigger is better" and warns that size and technological complexity are not risk-free. There is a price to be paid for our uncritical affirmation of bigness, universal solutions to problems, dehumanizing uniformity, and standardized mass production. The U.S. government, cities,…

A comparative research project is being implemented to describe how curriculum guidelines are developed and applied in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, and to compare the underlying structures and strategies that influence and determine curriculum work and curriculum-making at different levels of decision making and enactment.…

Since the 1970s, the Mexican-descent population of Guadalupe, California, has spearheaded a drive for local political representation. This paper examines their struggles and challenges the misconception of Mexican campesino immigrants as politically apathetic in their new homeland. From 1960 to 1990, the percentage of Guadalupe's population that…

It is likely that most school districts will need to think through the possibilities of privatizing one or more functions. This book was written to help all concerned parties understand the privatization debate. No political or philosophical conclusions about the feasibility of privatization were made. Chapter 1 relates the experience of the…

Local school boards are responsible for the two most important issues in most people's lives--their money and their children. Why do school boards fail to develop into high-performance teams? Why do they often work as micromanagers rather than as moral and cultural leaders of their communities? This book explores the current state of board…

Those who teach in the field of English and the language arts have seen their subject and their teaching enter the discourse of politics and become the topoi for popular discussions about the crisis in public education--they find themselves caught in a rising tide of public opinion against what they stand for intellectually and professionally.…

What should educators do with students who do not meet standards? Ideas and strategies that educators can use to answer this question are outlined in this book. Rather than relying on forced social promotion, schools can and should offer students a variety of helpful options, such as remaining in the same classroom with the same teacher for…

This paper discusses problematic issues related to teacher education in the Professional Development School (PDS) environment, noting the assumption that partnership between the academy and the public school via PDSs is the foundation of all teacher development. It cautions that while partnership is now deeply embedded in the United States, there…

This book examines issues related to problems in workforce education for Latinos and Latinas in the United States. Chapter 1, "The Landscape of Latinos, Education, and Work," presents an introduction and background information. Chapter 2, "The Politics of Workforce Education," discusses current legislation that has negatively…

This paper presents a discussion by a group of specialists on education in the Muslim world, looking at the United Nations Development Program's Arab Human Development Report of 2002, "Creating Opportunities for Future Generations," and noting three major deficits that need to be addressed: the freedom deficit (political freedom), the…

These two papers offer critiques of two essays that appeared in "Essays in Twentieth-Century Southern Education: Exceptionalism and its Limits," edited by Wayne J. Urban. The first paper examines Linda Buchanan and Philo Hutcheson's interpretation of the debate which underscored the well-known conflict between Booker T. Washington-W.E.B.…

Seven case studies illustrate how rural people and communities have resisted the arbitrary limits of public policy. In contrast to one-size-fits-all education policy, a history teacher in rural southern Texas motivated his Mexican American high school students to collect oral histories in their community, develop them into a curriculum, and teach…

This paper provides an introduction to the mandate of the Standards of Practice and Education Unit of the Ontario College of Teachers and describes how the College is proceeding to address several challenging tasks. The tasks include the licensing of teachers trained in Ontario or other jurisdictions, disciplinary procedures, and in the…