Reflecting a variety of intellectual and disciplinary orientations, this volume examines major changes in educational development and reform and considers how such changes have been implemented in the past. The material addresses questions of governance, equity and multiculturalism, curriculum standards, school choice. The book has four parts. Part 1, "Changes in Education over Time," contains the following articles: "Assimilation, Adjustment, and Access: An Antiquarian View of American Education" (Patricia Albjerg Graham); "Who's in Charge? Federal, State, and Local Control" (Michael W. Kirst; "Attitudes, Choices, and Behavior: School Delivery of Health and Social Services." (Michael W. Sedlak). Included in part 2, "Equity, and Multiculturalism," are: "Changing Conceptions of Educational Equity" (David L. Kirp); "Ethnic Diversity and National Identity in Public School Texts" (Reed Ueda); and "American History Reconsidered: Asking New Questions about the Past" (Gary B. Nash). The articles in part three, "Recent Strategies for Reforming the Schools," are: "The Search for Order and the Rejection of Conformity: Standards in American Education" (Diane Ravitch); "Reinventing Schooling" (David Tyack); and "The New Politics of Choice" (Paul E. Peterson). Part 4, "The Six National Goals," contains the following: "School Readiness and Early Childhood Education" (Maris A. Vinovskis); "School Leaving: Dead End or Detour?" (Joseph F. Kett); "Rhetoric and Reality: The High School Curriculum" (David Angus and Jeffrey Mirel); "Literate America: High-Level Adult Literacy as a National Goal" (Carl F. Kaestle); and "'Reefer Madness' and 'A Clockwork Orange'" (William J. Reese). (RJC)