An essential mission of schools, Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Goodlad argue, is ensuring that each new generation understands the principles and institutions that support democratic life. Schools require vigilant stewardship to serve this public purpose. Much of the needed work is local, but it depends on new and challenging collaborations among education…

Essay on school reform argues that quality teachers are key to successful reform, not reform rhetoric by state governors and U.S. Presidents. Asserts that primary mission of schooling is to provide students an educational apprenticeship in democracy. Qualified, caring, competent teachers are essential to accomplish this mission. (PKP)

The Agenda for Education in a Democracy has focused on the simultaneous renewal of schooling and teacher education for children's well-being. Well-educated individuals easily acquire specific workplace skills when necessary. Educating for the future means educating broadly and deeply and valuing childhood for its own sake. (MLH)

As Arthur Schlesinger predicted, private interests are subverting public purpose. The narrative of economic utility dominates school reform. Reform language is not uplifting and embodies the traditional connotations of things gone wrong that need correcting. The language of renewal celebrates the self and reflects a supportive, caring ethos. (25…

Creating and sustaining school programs that cultivate a wide range of human potential and simultaneously develop the abilities and dispositions required by a robust democratic society is obstructed by a supporting narrative that is weakly sustained in the surrounding environment. Stressing test scores, economic utility, and the "one best method"…

A dual agenda of renewing schools and teacher education means that faculty members from both sides must join together as equal partners. The National Network for Educational Renewal engages three groups of faculty (in schools, university liberal arts departments, and colleges of education) in ongoing conversations about educational improvement and…

Details the kinds of data and data sources used in "A Study of Schooling," the limitations of these data, examples of research questions explored, and the intentions of the researchers during analysis and interpretation of the data. (Author/IRT)

Examines seven propositions concerning the schools, and offers suggestions indicating what is required if solid progress is to be realized. The areas discussed include accountability, standards by which the schools are judged, the school's social system, and models of change. (IRT)

Examines Michigan's model of educational accountability and concludes that, because there appear to be few guidelines in educational policy and practice regarding who is responsible for what, to whom, and by what means, it is inadvisable to adopt the current model of accountability. (Author/IRT)

Education in the United States has expanded over the years in the pursuit of two goals: individual growth and societal development. Pursuing these goals simultaneously creates problems in setting educational standards, identifying objectives, and integrating students from varied backgrounds, but continued efforts to reach both goals must be made.…

In this first of several articles studying the education of educators and the status of teaching as a profession, the assumptions and postulates underlying this research effort are explained. Assumptions involve the relevancy of knowledge, institutions conceived as reform units, and teaching viewed as value-driven. Includes 23 references. (MLH)

The author of "A Study of Schooling," following up an article in the March "Phi Delta Kappan," notes the noncorrelation of school satisfaction with teaching methods or curriculum; discusses educational goals; examines schools' concentration on noneducational factors; and recommends changes in goal-setting, school-level planning, and school…

"A Study of Schooling" surveyed principals, teachers, parents, and students and observed 1,016 classes in 38 schools. Themes arising from the data involve how teachers teach, what is taught, goals and expectations assigned schools, and difficulties in changing teaching methods. A followup article will appear in the journal's April issue.…

The author expresses his agreement with the recommendation that teacher education be upgraded--suggested in the preceding article by Gideonse in the same issue--but sets forth some additional problems to be overcome. (Author/JM)

The education one gets in school probably is far more dependent on the activities provided there than on the goals schools are asked to achieve. Our views of the quality of school-based education stand to be mightily enlightened by inquiry into life in schools. (Author)