Discusses major school reforms during the last two decades in Japan, South Korea, England, and the United States. In England and the United States, reform efforts have focused on raising standards, tightening curriculum and assessment, and improving academic achievement. In Japan and Korea, reform focused in deregulating schools, diversifying…

Education reform during the last 2 decades has been shaped by the forces of growing public distrust of educational bureaucracies in a climate of rapid political change and growing international competition in the context of a global economy. Major school reforms in four selected industrial countries that differ significantly in terms of…