Public schooling in the 19th century cultivated in students a shared sense of identity as citizens with a common culture. However, posits David Labaree, U.S. schools are less effective than they used to be at serving this purpose, making their value to the nation-state open to questioning. Labaree considers three common functions that public…

Eminent historian David Labaree describes a gradual shift, over the last two centuries, in Americans' beliefs and attitudes about the goals of public education. At its founding, our school system was designed mainly to serve the public good, conceived at the time as an effort to create a unified citizenry. By the early 20th century, the schools…

Improving classroom practice requires more than simply having good ideas. Educators must focus on developing technical, human, and social capital both inside and outside schools.

Being a principal is more than just being an instructional leader. Principals also must manage their schools' teaching talent in a strategic way so that it is linked to school instructional improvement strategies, to the competencies needed to enact the strategies, and to success in boosting student learning. Teacher acquisition and performance…

To strategically manage human capital in education means restructuring the entire human resource system so that schools not only recruit and retain smart and capable individuals, but also manage them in ways that support the strategic directions of the organization. These management practices must be aligned with a district's education improvement…

Managing the human capital in education requires measuring teacher performance. To measure performance, administrators need to combine measures of practice with measures of outcomes, such as value-added measures, and three measurement systems are needed: classroom observations, performance assessments or work samples, and classroom walkthroughs.…

Neither the proponents of district-based reforms nor supporters of choice and competition can claim that their solutions have produced the schools that we want. To move forward, we must shake off assumptions that tried-and-true responses will deliver the reforms that schools need. To achieve the desired results will require fostering the…

To an unprecedented degree, this is the era of educational entrepreneurship. Unconventional thinkers have waded into the world of K-12 education, founded influential organizations, and upended conventions. They have developed new models for delivering instruction or recruiting teachers and have applied old-fashioned practices with inspired…

According to Thomas Stewart's book, intellectual capital comprises three broad categories: human, structural, and customer. Structural, or organizational capital, is knowledge that does not leave at night (with workers, or human capital). Developing a "best practices" database using Lotus Notes software would preserve and access schools'…

Praises David Kearns' education recovery plan for acknowledging the plight of ill-served low income children, assigning an appropriate federal role, and attempting to spark debate among presidential candidates. Anticipates criticisms (blaming schools for putting the nation at economic risk, puzzling contradictions concerning school choice and…

Argues that American corporations support the education standards and high-stakes testing movement to serve their global economic interests. Calls for strong teacher opposition. (Contains 34 references.) (PKP)

Instead of relying on largely unsuccessful partnerships between business and education, business needs to force its own agenda to help the U.S. regain competitive advantage in world economy. This article advocates free market choice; restructuring schools; professionalized, accountable teacher corps; higher academic standards; traditional values;…

Students' poor international standing, declining test scores, teacher shortages, and inadequate salaries are factors directly related to economic survival of the United States by threatening to create a nation of technological illiterates. Government must encourage total school effectiveness. (PB)

In the 2000 presidential campaigns, both Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush want to enlarge the federal role in education. In separate essays, Bush and Gore explain their plans to invest more federal dollars in improving poor children's educational progress and opportunities. (MLH)

As the economy has shifted focus from production to service to information, work force composition has diversified, and the scope of required skills has expanded. The classroom of the future must integrate academic and technical knowledge and skills within an applied vocational learning model. This article explains this process. Includes five…