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Ed School
A Brief for Professional Education
Geraldine Jonçich Clifford and James W. Guthrie
University of Chicago Press, 1988
Although schools of law, medicine, and business are now highly respected, schools of education and the professionals they produce continue to be held in low regard. In Ed School, Geraldine Jonçich Clifford and James W. Guthrie attribute this phenomenon to issues of academic politics and gender bias as they trace the origins and development of the school of education in the United States.

Drawing on case studies of leading schools of education, the authors offer a bold, controversial agenda for reform: ed schools must reorient themselves toward teachers and away from the quest for prestige in academe; they must also adhere to national professional standards, abandon the undergraduate education major, and reject the Ph.D. in education in favor of the Ed.D.
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front cover of Reinventing Public Education
Reinventing Public Education
How Contracting Can Transform America's Schools
Paul Hill, Lawrence C. Pierce, and James W. Guthrie
University of Chicago Press, 1997
A heated debate is raging over our nation’s public schools and how they should be reformed, with proposals ranging from imposing national standards to replacing public education altogether with a voucher system for private schools. Combining decades of experience in education, the authors propose an innovative approach to solving the problems of our school system and find a middle ground between these extremes.

Reinventing Public Education shows how contracting would radically change the way we operate our schools, while keeping them public and accessible to all, and making them better able to meet standards of achievement and equity. Using public funds, local school boards would select private providers to operate individual schools under formal contracts specifying the type and quality of instruction.

In a hands-on, concrete fashion, the authors provide a thorough explanation of the pros and cons of school contracting and how it would work in practice. They show how contracting would free local school boards from operating schools so they can focus on improving educational policy; how it would allow parents to choose the best school for their children; and, finally, how it would ensure that schools are held accountable and academic standards are met.

While retaining a strong public role in education, contracting enables schools to be more imaginative, adaptable, and suited to the needs of children and families. In presenting an alternative vision for America’s schools, Reinventing Public Education is too important to be ignored.
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