American School Reform: Progressive, Equity, and Excellence Movements, 1883-1993

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Description

Berube analyzes the three great educational reform movements in the United States. He shows how they have been shaped by outside societal forces: Progressive Education was an offshoot of the Progressive Movement; Equity Reform in the 1960s was influenced by the Civil Rights Movement; Excellence Reform in the last decade was a response to foreign economic competition. Within each matrix, common characteristics of each movement emerge. Progressive Education with its emphasis on critical thinking and child-centered schools set the stage for what was to follow. Equity Reform sought to complete the unfinished agenda of Progressive Education in educating the poor. Excellence Reform repudiated both in the name of higher standards and content-specific curriculums. The emergence of sophisticated educational research since the 1960s has influenced educational policy to be more research-based. Berube provides a necessary overview of the great movements in school reform over the last century.

Reviews

"In the Ocean Hill-Brownsville community control movement of the 1960s, the vision of Black empowerment dramatically clashed with the concept of professionalism inherited from the Progressive era. The conflict highlighted how social movements have structured the national debate about educational reform. By tracing the history of these social movements, and their impact on education, Maurice Berube has given us a significantly new insight into the differing points of view about the future of our schools."-Marilyn Gittell, Professor of Political Science Director, Howard Samuels State Manayement and Policy Center the Graduate School and University Center The City University of New York

Author Bio

MAURICE R. BERUBE is Professor of Educational Leadership in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling at Old Dominion University. He is the author of American Presidents and Education (1991), Teacher Politics: The Influence of Unions (1988), and Education and Poverty: Effective Schooling in the United States and Cuba (1984), and many more, all published by Greenwood.