Politics, Markets, and America's SchoolsDuring the 1980s, widespread dissatisfaction with America's schools gave rise to a powerful movement for educational change, and the nation's political institutions responded with aggressive reforms. Chubb and Moe argue that these reforms are destined to fail because they do not get to the root of the problem. The fundamental causes of poor academic performance, they claim, are not to be found in the schools, but rather in the institutions of direct democratic control by which the schools have traditionally been governed. Reformers fail to solve the problem-when the institutions ARE the problem. The authors recommend a new system of public education, built around parent-student choice and school competition, that would promote school autonomy- thus providing a firm foundation for genuine school improvement and superior student achievement. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
The Root of the Problem | 8 |
The One Best System | 8 |
Academic Excellence and Educational Reform | 8 |
Politics Social Science and Educational Reform | 11 |
Institutions and Effective Organization | 18 |
Theory and Data | 20 |
Asking the Right Questions | 25 |
An Institutional Perspective on Schools | 26 |
The Causes of Student Achievement | 101 |
Economic Resources | 102 |
School Size | 104 |
Family Background | 105 |
Modeling Student Achievement | 111 |
A General Model of Student Achievement | 115 |
The Results | 125 |
Conclusion | 137 |
Politics and Markets | 27 |
Authority and Decisionmaking | 28 |
Constituents and Consumers | 30 |
Bureaucracy and Autonomy | 35 |
The Organization of Schools | 47 |
Central Tendency and Variance | 60 |
Conclusion | 66 |
The Organization of Effective Schools | 69 |
Measuring School Performance | 70 |
The Achievement Test Results | 72 |
An Exploratory Analysis | 76 |
Goals | 78 |
Leadership | 83 |
Personnel | 86 |
Practice | 92 |
Conclusion | 99 |
Institutional Context and School Organization | 141 |
Control and Organization in Americas Schools | 142 |
Institutions and Control in Americas Schools | 166 |
Conclusion | 183 |
Better Schools through New Institutions Giving Americans Choice | 185 |
Schools and Institutions | 186 |
Educational Reform during the 1980s | 192 |
A Proposal for Reform | 215 |
Politics Ideas and Americas Schools | 226 |
Data | 230 |
Measures and Indicators | 235 |
Special Issues in Modeling Student Achievement | 248 |
Achievement and Organization in Public Schools | 259 |
Notes | 278 |
313 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
academic track achievement gains administrative American analysis authority autonomy average basic better bureaucratic causes chapter characteristics choice coefficients compared comprehensive constraint course decisions democratic control determine direct district economic effective schools especially estimates example excellence expected formal goals grade groups high and low high performance schools high school important impose independent indicators ineffective influence institutions interests issues kinds leadership learning less levels low performance schools major matters means measure organizational parents percent personnel political practices predicted principals private schools problems professionalism programs promote public schools quartile reason reform relationships reported representative requirements response sample school organization scores sector selection senior significant social sophomore standard statistical status structure student achievement successful teachers teaching tend tests things unions values variables