Results by title

198 books match the query 'Educational Policy & Reform' and 6 start with f

Sort by

Family Life and School Achievement

Reginald M. Clark

University of Chicago Press, 1984

Working mothers, broken homes, poverty, racial or ethnic background, poorly educated parents—these are the usual reasons given for the academic problems of poor urban children. Reginald M. Clark contends, however, that such structural characteristics of families neither predict nor explain the wide variation in academic achievement among children. He emphasizes instead the total family life, stating that the most important indicators of academic potential are embedded in family culture.

To support his contentions, Clark offers ten intimate portraits of Black families in Chicago. Visiting the homes of poor one- and two-parent families of high and low achievers, Clark made detailed observations on the quality of home life, noting how family habits and interactions affect school success and what characteristics of family life provide children with "school survival skills," a complex of behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge that are the essential elements in academic success.

Clark's conclusions lead to exciting implications for educational policy. If school achievement is not dependent on family structure or income, parents can learn to inculcate school survival skills in their children. Clark offers specific suggestions and strategies for use by teachers, parents, school administrators, and social service policy makers, but his work will also find an audience in urban anthropology, family studies, and Black studies.

[more]

Fifty-Eight Lonely Men

Southern Federal Judges and School Desegregation

J. W. Peltason

University of Illinois Press, 1971

Originally published in 1961, this still timely book illustrates the role of the judiciary in the solution of a social and political problem. It is unequaled in its description of the plight of federal judges who are charged with carrying out the decisions of the Supreme Court against segregation but who are under constant pressure--social, political, and personal--to speak for the white South. Some have been ostracized by their communities as traitors; others have joined their state legislatures and local school boards in developing elaborate delay strategy to circumvent the Supreme Court's decisions. In his introduction to the first edition former Senator Paul H. Douglas wrote: ". . . a clear and comprehensive account of the legal struggles in the federal courts over segregation and desegregation in the public schools of the nation. It gets behind the newspaper headlines and gives a play-by-play account. . . . This book is indeed full proof of the delays and difficulties of the law and the pressures of local public opinion."

[more]

For the Long Haul

An Activist Academic's Memoir

Ira Harkavy with John L. Puckett

Temple University Press, 2027

Ira Harkavy has spent his fifty-plus-year career at the University of Pennsylvania advocating for the democratization of teaching, research, and learning. Since 1992, he has been the Founding Director of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, whose mission is to develop democratic, mutually beneficial partnerships between Penn and its local community of West Philadelphia.

For the Long Haul is a conversational memoir, moderated by Harkavy’s colleague John Puckett, that features social history and pragmatic arguments stressing the importance of education. The authors discuss Harkavy’s distinguished career and put his life’s work in local and historical context, including his engagement of diverse faculty, students, and staff to take his projects to the nation and the wider world.

Puckett traces Harkavy’s activist origins from his childhood in the Bronx through his undergraduate and graduate studies at Penn. As he developed university-assisted community schools, Harkavy encountered challenges such as the impact of racism and local communities’ distrust of universities. Those experiences show how his learning shaped his thinking about “participation, partnership, and producing change in the world.”

In this era where universities are under attack, For the Long Haul emphasizes Harkavy’s considerable achievements and the importance of higher education for democracy.

[more]

From Class to Identity

The politics of education reforms in former Yugoslavia

Jana Bacevic

Central European University Press, 2014

Jana Bacevic provides an innovative analysis of education policy-making in the processes of social transformation and post-conflict development in the Western Balkans. Based on case studies of educational reform in the former Yugoslavia - from the decade before its violent breakup to contemporary efforts in post-conflict reconstruction - From Class to Identity tells the story of the political processes and motivations underlying each reform.The book moves away from technical-rational or prescriptive approaches that dominate the literature on education policy-making during social transformation, and offers an example on how to include the social, political and cultural context in the understanding of policy reforms. It connects education policy at a particular time in a particular place with broader questions such as: What is the role of education in society? What kind of education is needed for a 'good' society? Who are the 'targets' of education policies (individuals/citizens, ethnic/religious/linguistic groups, societies)? Bacevic shows how different answers to these questions influence the contents and outcomes of policies.

[more]

From Integration to Inclusion

A History of Special Education in the 20th Century

Margret A. Winzer

Gallaudet University Press, 2009

Since Margret A. Winzer wrote her landmark work The History of Special Education, much has transpired in this field, which she again has captured in a remarkable display of scholarship. Winzer’s new study From Integration to Inclusion: A History of Special Education in the 20th Century focuses chiefly on the significant events of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in the United States and Canada. Its key dynamics consist of a retrospective overview of the paradigms that emerged from and shaped special education; a critical assessment of past progress and reform, including failures and disappointments; and an analysis of the theoretical diversity within the discipline.

In this stand-alone volume, Winzer juxtaposes the historical study of disability and of special schooling and service provision with reference to broader social systems, protocols, and practices. She documents how prevailing emotional and intellectual climates influence disability and schooling, and also takes into account the social, political, and ideological factors that affect educational theory and practice. Winzer recognizes that reform has been the Zeitgeist of the history of special education. Crucial problems such as defining exceptional conditions and separating them from one another were formulated in contexts organized along moral, theological, legislative, medical, and social dimensions. Many of these reforms failed for various reasons, which Winzer thoroughly explains in her study. Most of these reforms evolved from the long and honorable pedigree that the field of special education has possessed since its earliest antecedents, now admirably brought up to date by this outstanding work.