Public education, at least as it has been known for the past several generations in the US, is under threat. Conservative state legislatures from Arizona to Florida have enacted sweeping voucher legislation, channeling taxpayer dollars to private schools. At the same time, a vicious culture war has engulfed the public education system in…

The launch of "Sputnik" in 1957 sparked a crisis in American education. Suddenly threatened by superior Soviet technology, progressive educators' concern for children's preferences, health, and adjustment in school yielded to public demands for more basic learning and academic skills. Congress soon passed the National Defense Education Act,…

This author describes herself as someone who has questioned the role of theory since she first began studying educational history several decades ago, and who has attempted to use theory. She sees contradictions in what she is researching and how she is doing it, contradictions that arise from her graduate training, the developments in…

In 1827, two years after its incorporation as a college and six years removed from its founding as a "collegiate institution," Amherst College revamped its curriculum into what it called a "parallel course of study." In this new scheme, students were allowed to follow one of two tracks during their college years. Amherst's…

In August 1945, Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers. From September 1945 to April 1952, the United States occupied the defeated country. Douglas MacArthur, an American army general and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), attempted to transform Japanese society from an authoritarian regime into a budding democracy.…

Head Start, the federal program that provides preschool education, health, and social services for children from poor families, is one of the United States' most popular government programs. Created in 1965, it has endured as a symbol of commitment to children, serving just fewer than one million children a year in neighborhood sites across the…

Case method teaching was first introduced into American higher education in 1870 by Christopher C. Langdell (1826-1906) of Harvard Law School (HLS), where it became closely associated with a complex of academic meritocratic reforms. "Mr. Langdell's method" became, in fact, emblematic, "creating and embodying cultural values and…

The author introduces William Barton Rogers, conceptual founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who pursued two interrelated careers in nineteenth-century America: one centered on his activities in science and the other on his higher educational reform efforts. This essay explores one theme in Rogers' scientific and educational…

In this article the author discusses that, at the end of World War II, German educational administrators in the Soviet occupied zone of their nation decided to implement coeducation; that is, the schooling of girls and boys in the same classroom. This policy represents a radical break with German educational traditions, as well as with the western…

Examines the Carnegie Forum and Holmes Group reports on U. S. education. Points out that both reports assume there is an agreed-upon body of knowledge about teaching and learning. Notes the reports differ on where the roots of professional knowledge lie and examines both reports' arguments in this regard. (RKM)

Presents a history of the latest revolution in higher education, emphasizing the importance of increasing free market forces in institutional policy formation and the development of new management capabilities within academe. Discusses historiographic considerations and curriculum transitions, suggesting relevant considerations for the formation…

Seeks to explain why the kindergarten movement, in theory and in practice, found greater support in the United States than in Germany, the country of its origin. Concludes that this kindergarten case study shows the importance of comparative studies to our understanding of the relationship of women's status and feminist ideology to other aspects…

Examines the role of ideologies in the history of American education. A case study showing how the Protestant ideology influenced the social outlook and actions of school reformers in the antebellum period of the nineteenth century is included. (AM)

After World War II, America assumed the responsibility for helping to reform Germany's educational system. American educational policy did not have a clear direction; three distinct phases are discernible. (AM)

Between 1945 and 1955, American efforts to reform education in Germany included an initial phase of punitive purges, an imposition of American curricular models, generously endowed reorientation programs, and attempts to persuade the Germans to reform their own system. These contradictory shifts were not the result of rational policy decisions.…