1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910966503903321

Autore

Peterson Paul E

Titolo

Saving schools : from Horace Mann to virtual learning / / Paul E. Peterson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass., : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010

ISBN

9780674504547

0674504542

9780674056763

0674056760

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (335 p.)

Disciplina

370.973

Soggetti

Education - United States - Philosophy

Education - United States - History

Educators - United States - History

Educational change - United States - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-308) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part One: The Rise -- 1. Heroes and History -- 2. Horace Mann and the Nation Builders -- 3. John Dewey and the Progressives -- 4. Martin Luther King Jr. and School Desegregation -- Part Two: The Decline -- 5. The Rights Movement Diversifies -- 6. Albert Shanker and Collective Bargaining -- 7. Money and the Adequacy Lawsuit -- 8. William Bennett and the Demand for Accountability -- Part Three. Signs of Resurrection -- 9. James S. Coleman and Choice Theory -- 10. The Practice of Choice -- 11. Julie Young and the Promise of Technology -- Abbreviations -- Appendix: Figures -- Notes -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

Saving Schools traces the story of the rise, decline, and potential resurrection of American public schools through the lives and ideas of six mission-driven reformers: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Shanker, William Bennett, and James Coleman. Yet schools did not become the efficient, egalitarian, and high-quality educational institutions these reformers envisioned. Indeed, the unintended consequences of their legacies shaped today's flawed



educational system, in which political control of stagnant American schools has shifted away from families and communities to larger, more centralized entities-initially to bigger districts and eventually to control by states, courts, and the federal government.Peterson's tales help to explain how nation building, progressive education, the civil rights movement, unionization, legalization, special education, bilingual teaching, accountability, vouchers, charters, and homeschooling have, each in a different way, set the stage for a new era in American education.Now, under the impact of rising cost, coupled with the possibilities unleashed by technological innovation, schooling may be transformed through virtual learning. The result could be a personalized, customized system of education in which families have greater choice and control over their children's education than at any time since our nation was founded.