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The founders of the United States envisioned education as providing for all citizens the necessary apprenticeship in the understanding and practice of democracy. To make democracy safe there must be universal schooling; to make schooling safe for education there must be democracy. But since the founding of the country, the study and practice of democracy in American schools has weakened. The authors advocate a return to the primary purpose of education and ensure that it is indeed for everyone. The agenda for education proposed by the authors is more than an effort to revitalize a civics curriculum. It is about restoring a shared humanity to the educational process. It is about the need to make caring, compassion, freedom, dignity, and responsibility central to the mission of schooling. It is about placing power and responsibility, a concept more demanding than accountability, in the hands of those who need and deserve it. It is about taking the idea of excellence seriously. It is about taking democracy seriously and having real faith in real people to do what is right, just, and honorable. Following a preface, contents of the book include: (1) Schooling for Everyone; (2) Agenda for Education in a Democracy; (3) The Context of Schooling in a Democracy; (4) An Essential Narrative for Schooling; (5) Democracy, Education, and the Human Conversation; (6) Renewal; (7) Leadership for Educational Renewal; and (8) Experiencing the Agenda. Notes, appendix and index conclude the book.

It is not likely that the schools as presently organized and conducted and with the prevailing model of change employed for their improvement can be redesigned to meet satisfactorily the wide and varied range of expectations for them. The schools are suffering from a confusing array of expectations and a crippling overload of functions. Our present efforts to improve the schools appear to be unproductive because we are almost blindly caught up in a single model of change that stems directly from our Western rational bias. The rational bias of our highly technological culture places purposes before activity in a linear fashion and has produced the research, development, dissemination, and evaluation (RDD&E) model of change that serves rather well when we have a purpose in mind, when we know what it is we want to do or produce. The responsive view embodied in the League of Cooperating Schools model that involves staff dialogue, making decisions, taking action, and endeavoring to evaluate both the process and its outcomes (DDAE) is conducive to probes, open-ended inquiry, and the kind of exploratory activities designed more for finding a course of action than for reaffirming directions already preceived. (Author/IRT)

The National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER) was established in 1986 to put into practice the belief that the improvement of schooling and the renewal of teacher education must proceed simultaneously. This book contains a collection of papers presented at the NNER conference held in New York City in November 1995. The book also includes a panel discussion, "The Public Purpose of Education and Schooling," moderated by John Goodlad, and transcriptions of panelists' conversation with the audience. Contents include an introduction by Timothy J. McMannon entitled "The Changing Purposes of Education and Schooling." Conference papers include: (1) "Public Schooling: Education for Democracy" (Benjamin R. Barber); (2) "The Meanings of 'Public Education'" (Theodore R. Sizer); (3)"Education, Equity, and the Right to Learn" (Linda Darling-Hammond); (4) "On Restoring Public and Private Life" (Gary D. Fenstermacher); (5) "Toward a Democratic Rhetoric of Schooling" (Donna H. Kerr); and (6) "Democracy: Do We Really Want It?" (Roger Soder). The panel discussion is summarized in chapter 7, entitled "Education for Civility and Civitas," and conversations with the audience are included in chapter 8, "Prospects for Reform." The epilogue, "Reprise and a Look Ahead," is by John L. Goodlad. Chapter end notes, an index, an annotated bibliography of eight references, and seven suggested readings are included. (LMI)

This book about the relation of education to society has as its thesis that the proper context for education is a politically and socially democratic one. The first chapter considers what education is and is followed by chapters discussing the relationship of education to democracy, community, schooling, its conditions, and the self. Throughout these chapters eight concepts are stressed in various contexts. These are: (1) education as an individual experience development of the self; (2) the role of culture in development of the self; (3) education is environmentally ubiquitous; (4) the mutual instrumentality of education and democracy as they nourish each other; (5) education as an inalienable right; (6) the necessity for the entire community to be educative; (7) the need for schools to serve a common public purpose; and (8) the importance of national ends not dictating the educational journey of self-transcendence. The book addresses conditions necessary to the advancement of these interrelated concepts especially the necessity for a curriculum for development of an ecocentric environmental ethic. Also addressed is the comprehensive educational improvement initiative conducted through the National Network for Educational Renewal. (Contains 250 references). (DB)

This book provides the vision and rationale for "centers of pedagogy" that can bring schools and universities together in a close, renewing relationship. It proposes a redesign of education that is grounded in a mission of enculturating students in a social and political democracy. The first four chapters address questions related to the nature and design of centers of pedagogy and their role in effecting the simultaneous renewal of schools and teacher-preparation programs. Chapters 5 and 6 describe curriculum issues that centers of pedagogy inevitably face and must resolve in program development. The seventh chapter addresses the inquiry processes of schools through which teachers can create good schools. For further improvement, interagency collaboration and reasoned discourse are needed. The final chapter illustrates that the major sets of conditions embraced by the postulates for program renewal (explained in chapter 3) are not unrealistic and unattainable. The chapter summarizes the process from conceptualization to implementation and revisits the themes of the preceding chapters: from steps toward creating new settings, to heartening examples of commitment and leadership, to exemplary curriculum development, to the establishment of school-university partnerships, to the transformation of school and university cultures, to collaboration involving agencies beyond schools and universities, to influences on state policies. An index, references, and seven figures are included. (LMI)

This book presents a collection of essays by education researchers and practitioners about issues of educational equity and excellence. The authors examine the problem of failure in schools and describe the various curricular and structural factors that block access to an equal and quality education for all students. Chapters are entitled: (1) "Common Schools for the Common Weal: Reconciling Self-Interest with the Common Good" (John I. Goodlad); (2) "Home, School, and Academic Learning" (James P. Comer); (3) "Demographics of Disadvantage: Intensity of Childhood Poverty and Its Relationship to Educational Achievement" (Martin E. Orland); (4) "Overcoming Racial Barriers to Equal Access" (John U. Ogbu); (5) "Striving for Sex Equity in Schools" (Pamela Keating); (6) "Being At-Risk in School" (Virginia Richardson and Patricia Colfer); (7) "Last Things First: Realizing Equality by Improving Conditions for Marginal Students" (Robert L. Sinclair and Ward J. Ghory); (8) "Misunderstanding and Testing Intelligence" (Asa G. Hilliard III); (9) "Equal Access to Quality in Public Schooling: Issues in the Assessment of Equity and Excellence" (Kenneth A. Sirotnik); (10) "Tracking and Ability Grouping: A Structural Barrier to Access and Achievement" (Jeannie Oakes and Martin Lipton); (11) "School Renewal: Taking Responsibility for Providing an Education of Value" (Suzanne Soo Hoo); (12) "Enhancing Access to Knowledge through School and District Organization" (Carol Wilson and Lance Wright); (13) "Teacher Quality and Equality" (Linda Darling-Hammond with Joslyn Green); (14)"Educators for a Truly Democratic System of Schooling" (Charles M. Hodge); (15) "Political Limits to an Education of Value: The Role of the State" (Jose A. Cardenas); (16) "Ability Grouping: On the Wrong Track" (Robert E. Slavin and Jomills H. Braddock III); (17) "Learning to Teach an Untracked Class" (Joan Kernan Cone); (18) "Closing the Gender Gap: What's Behind the Differences in Test Scores, What Can Be Done About It" (Susan H. Murphy); (19) "Gender Equity in the Classroom" (Myra Sadker, David Sadker, Lynn Fox, and Melinda Salata); and (20) "Retrospect and Prospect" (John I. Goodlad). An index is included. (LMI)

This collection of 15 papers reconceptualizes the problem of failure in schools and describe the interlocking structural arrangements, curricular and instructional practices, and other school conditions that constitute barriers blocking all students' access to knowledge. A new agenda is offered for the national reform movement, an agenda that states that quality and equality are inseparable. The following papers are included: (1) "Common Schools for the Common Weal: Reconciling Self-Interest with the Common Good" (J. I. Goodlad); (2) "Home, School, and Academic Learning" (J. P. Comer); (3) "Demographics of Disadvantage: Intensity of Childhood Poverty and Its Relationship to Educational Achievement" (M. E. Orland); (4) "Overcoming Racial Barriers to Equal Access" (J. U. Ogbu); (5)"Striving for Sex Equity in Schools" (P. Keating); (6) "Being At-Risk in School" (V. Richardson and P. Colfer); (7) "Last Things First: Realizing Equality by Improving Conditions for Marginal Students" (R. L. Sinclair and W. J. Ghory); (8) "Misunderstanding and Testing Intelligence" (A. G. Hilliard, III); (9) "Equal Access to Quality in Public Schooling: Issues in the Assessment of Equity and Excellence" (K. A. Sirotnik); (10) "Tracking and Ability Grouping: A Structural Barrier to Access and Achievement" (J. Oakes and M. Lipton); (11) "School Renewal: Taking Responsibility for Providing an Education of Value" (S. S. Hoo); (12) "Enhancing Access to Knowledge through School and District Organization" (C. Wilson and L. Wright); (13) "Teacher Quality and Equality" (L. Darling-Hammond and J. Green); (14) "Educators for a Truly Democratic System of Schooling" (C. M. Hodge); and (15) "Political Limits to an Education of Value: The Role of the State" (J. A. Cardenas). A concluding note on the EEQP colloquium based on these 15 papers and an index are included. (SLD)

Certain critical moral questions must be asked and answered before meaningful educational reform can take place in public schooling. This collection of 10 essays discusses the nature and commitments of teaching as a profession and the moral mission of education and its implications for the teaching profession. "Part One: On the Nature and Commitments of Teaching as a Profession" includes four chapters: (1) "The Occupation of Teaching in Schools" (J. I. Goodlad); (2) "The Rhetoric of Teacher Professionalization" (R. Soder); (3) "The Limits of Teacher Professionalization" (B. L. Bull); and (4) "Some Moral Considerations on Teaching as a Profession" (G. D. Fenstermacher). "Part Two: The Moral Mission of Education and Implications for the Teaching Profession" includes 6 chapters: (5)"The Moral Responsibility of Public Schools" (W. Feinberg); (6) "The Legal and Moral Responsibility of Teachers" (K. A. Strike); (7)"Accountability, Trust, and Ethical Codes of Practice" (H. Sockett); (8) "The Teacher and the Taught: Moral Transactions in the Classroom" (C. M. Clark); (9) "The School as a Moral Learning Community" (B. R. Thomas); and (10) "Society, Schooling, Teaching, and Preparing to Teach" (K. A. Sirotnik). (IAH)

This book utilizes 29 case histories of geographically and institutionally diverse teacher education programs to provide a comprehensive historical perspective on teacher education in the United States. The volume, organized into four parts, is further divided into nine chapters. "Part One: "Teacher Education: A Contemporary Perspective on the Past" includes the following chapters: (1) "Connecting the Present to the Past" (John I. Goodlad); and (2) "Recurring Themes and Variations" (Robert A. Levin). "Part Two: Evolution of Teacher Education: Institutional Perspectives" consists of: (3) "Abiding by the 'Rule of Birds': Teaching Teachers in Small Liberal Arts Colleges" (Charles Burgess); (4) "The Evolution of Normal Schools" (Richard J. Altenbaugh, Kathleen Underwood); (5)"Teaching Teachers in Private Universities" (Barbara Beatty); and (6) "Teacher Education and Leadership in Major Universities" (Irving G. Hendrick. "Part Three: Evolution of Teacher Education: State Perspectives" includes: (7) "The Influence of Bureaucracy and Markets: Teacher Education in Pennsylvania" (Linda Eisenmann); and (8) "Centralization, Competition, and Racism: Teacher Education in Georgia" (Kathleen Cruikshank). "Part Four: Perspective on the Future" contains (9) "Beyond Reinventing the Past: The Politics of Teacher Education" (Roger Soder and Kenneth A. Sirotnik). (LL)

A 5-year study of teacher education and the institutional and regulatory context in which it is conducted reveals that several conditions undermine teacher education. These conditions include: low prestige of education departments; preeminence among teacher educators of scholarly publishing over teaching; and stifling, state-mandated curriculum and credentialing requirements. Nineteen postulates, or presuppositions, are proposed regarding the conditions that will need to be in place if able, dedicated persons are to be attracted to school teaching, well prepared for the challenges they will face, and induced to stay with teaching as a career. The first four postulates outline reasonable expectations for the colleges and universities that assume the responsibility of educating educators. Additional postulates relate to selection of students, state licensing of teachers, clinical training of teachers, university/school district collaboration, and teacher education curriculum. (IAH)