Diane Ravitch makes an articulate case for higher national standards and more emphasis on performance assessments of various kinds, but she does this by simplifying the issues and failing to understand some of the most powerful economic, ideological, and political currents in the United States and elsewhere. (SLD)

The objective of the Goals 2000 Act to increase the high school graduation rate to at least 90% and to help reduce the graduation gap rate for minorities is doomed to failure. Models are presented that illustrate the theoretical limitations of policies aimed at this goal. (SLD)

Findings from a study of 19 families in rural Pennsylvania who educate their children at home show that, overall, these home educators are asserting their historical option of cultural agency and schooling. Their decisions have implications for the reform of public education. (SLD)

This qualitative study of the perspectives of Arizona educators, including 18 classroom teachers, specialists in AIDS education, and administrators, shows how teachers ultimately control the delivery and nature of AIDS instruction based on personal values, views of teacher roles, and their interpretation of the legislative mandate for AIDS…

Argues that effective staff development for teachers should be tied to the daily classroom life and grounded in the concerns and questions of teachers. Discusses a theory of pedagogy that advocates teaching for understanding and a model of staff development based on practical knowledge and critical reflections. (SLD)

"Creating the Dropout" traces the history of school leaving and the concept of the dropout. The dropout was invented, not discovered, only being explicitly recognized after 1960. Inventing the dropout became a way to channel general concerns about the condition of cities, identifying dropouts as authors of their own troubles. (SLD)

This book argues that computers can revolutionize American education and resolve its problems if they are used as private tutors to provide effective, individualized instruction, especially in developing literacy. The book, located at a Web site, is characterized as unwieldy to read right from the computer. (SLD)

The usefulness of traditional concepts of validity and reliability, developed for large-scale assessments, for the classroom context is explored. Alternate frameworks that situate these constructs in teachers' work in classrooms are presented, and their use in an assessment course for preservice teachers is described. (SLD)

Middle school principals and teachers (n=714) responded to questions about inclusion, the degree of change needed, the importance of collaborative strategies for teaching, and concepts for inclusive education. Collaboration as an instructional strategy for included students was a high-priority item, but there were many points of disagreement. (SLD)

This commentary documents errors in the statistical analyses and interpretation of empirical evidence in "The Bell Curve" by R. Herrnstein and C. Murray (1994). "The Bell Curve" neglects the role of education and grossly overstates the case for IQ as a determinant of social success. (SLD)

Educational finance reforms and desegregation have both sought to address inequities in educational opportunities for minorities and low income families. The recent methods of addressing desegregation issues have tended to focus on attaining racial balance rather than educational quality, however. This paper explores how desegregation goals can be…

In 1988, a California study by Friedkin and Necochea confirmed an interaction between size and socioeconomic status such that large schools benefited affluent students, whereas small schools benefited impoverished students. This report describes a replication applying the model to West Virginia schools and school districts. In order to control for…

This electronic journal covers a variety of issues related to educational policy. The 22 articles (issues) of Volume 5 analyze aspects of policy in the United States and other countries for elementary, secondary, and higher education. Articles include: (1) "Markets and Myths: Autonomy in Public and Private schools" (Glass); (2) "Where Have All the…