Political debate about the Common Core State Standards (the first major education policy initiative in the social media age) ramped up quickly on social media, particularly on Twitter. However, while the increased and intense conversation influenced many states to disavow Common Core in name, those states ended up adopting standards that were…

Media reports have shown suburban school officials being threatened and school board meetings erupting into chaos. Rachel S. White, Michael P. Evans, and Joel R. Malin examine whether these politically contentious experiences are occurring everywhere, or if there is something distinct about the contentiousness suburban superintendents face.…

How, in a presidential election year, the political education of young people can be enormously advanced. (Author)

Discusses the nature of political education in European schools, noting the influences of history, concepts of participatory learning, and the presence of pluralistic educational systems featuring both secular and religious schools. Countries discussed are Belgium, Italy, Greece, Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Ireland, and France. (PGD)

Interest in improving civic education is growing, but there's no clear definition of what civic education should be. To understand what kinds of skills civics education should promote in students, Jack Schneider, Eric Soto-Shed, and Karalyn McGovern surveyed 100 experts and 500 ordinary citizens, asking them to name the tasks that skilled citizens…

The biggest threat to an equitable and prosperous American society is not a particular educational policy, but the gravitational pull of politics, explains Jonathan Collins. Before educational policy can be developed and put into place, the politics that drive education must be acknowledged and addressed. Violence is erupting at school board…

The 2020 PDK Poll of the Public's Attitude Toward the Public Schools finds that more than half of adults consider public education highly important in their choice for president. And regardless of political party, most Americans agree that the administration in Washington should focus on attracting and retaining good teachers to the profession and…

Kappan's editor talks with political scientist Sara Dahill-Brown about the new realities of educational decision making under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which follows nearly two decades of strong federal influence over K-12 policies at the state and district levels. Rather than promoting one-size-fits-all approaches to school improvement,…

Wealthy parents in public school districts across the country are engaged in elaborate fund-raising efforts to improve the quality of education in their children's schools, giving them an advantage over families in schools without the same level of access to external resources. Through evaluating parent responses to district policies that address…

Self-interested political, corporate, and education leaders have undermined recent West Virginia court decisions mandating educational reform. Three implications are: (1) principals, teachers, parents, and students must be equal partners in the educaiton reform process; (2) a constituency for rural children is needed; and (3) rural educators must…

Book banning and censorship is appearing again in states and school districts. The history of book banning goes back as far as recorded time. Columnist Jonathan E. Collins discusses the U.S. court system's history support of the First Amendment and against censorship. He outlines the implications of the most recent book banning incidents and the…

The COVID-19 pandemic heightened tensions around standardized testing policy and prompted the United States Department of Education to allow states to request waivers from federal standardized testing requirements. Paul Bruno and Dan Goldhaber describe the waivers that states requested and received, what they suggest about how state test results…

The definition of public education is changing rapidly and radically in our current political landscape. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the debate over publicly funded school voucher systems, which direct taxpayer funds to parents to offset the cost of tuition at the private schools of their choice. Tina Cheuk and Rand Quinn address how…

"Kappan"'s editor talks with the distinguished historian Vanessa Siddle Walker about the hidden -- and lost -- tradition of political advocacy by Black educational leaders in the segregated South. To promote equity and excellence for all students, she argues, today's educators will need to recover the sorts of extensive and…

Societal stories about school do not just reflect our current views and values, they also shape our political preferences and the realities that result from them. In recent decades, stories of the traditional common school and its more collectivist, shared culture have given way to newer stories oriented around competition and choice. Sarah…