School Reform
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 December 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0035
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 December 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0035
Introduction
School reform refers to the process of making changes in educational policy or practice, often in response to concern over student academic achievement. The term school reform is often interchanged with education reform or school improvement, but the most commonly used term is school reform. Most school reform falls into one of two categories: (a) teaching and learning or, in other words, what happens within classrooms, or (b) administrative reform, whereby either structures, governance, or decision-making strategies are addressed, either within or outside of the school. A third emergent approach combines both categories and typically refers to reform across entire districts and their schools, commonly known as comprehensive school reform, systemic reform, or district-wide reform. School reform has been a topic of urgent concern for decades and remains at the forefront of policy and practice, often prompted by particular historical events or major policies, including the launching of Sputnik, the civil rights movement, pivotal reports such as A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform, as citied in Response to A Nation at Risk, 1980s, and policy movements such as the Comprehensive School Reform Program, Goals 2000: Educate America Act, and No Child Left Behind Act. The topic of school reform is quite broad, and thus this bibliography focuses primarily on major reform movements at the school and district levels rather than on specific instructional reform movements. While there have been countless studies of the various approaches to school reform, many of those studies have conflicting findings and often are politically charged. For example, while there are many studies arguing that class size significantly impacts student achievement, there are almost as many studies illustrating that it has little impact on student achievement. These conflicts are often a result of disagreements over the methodology used in the studies, in implementation of the reforms themselves, or both. Class size provides a salient example of the stakes involved in many reform efforts. Because human resources comprise at least 65 percent of any district budget, and some of those resources are often scarce, an issue like class size is extremely important to both practitioners and policymakers. This bibliography is organized by decade and events and then details different reform approaches, current movements, and noteworthy case studies. A list of prominent education reform organizations is also provided. To the extent possible, multiple views on the utility and success of each reform are included as well as a list of researchers and authors that are important to each area.
General Overviews
Improving schools has been one of the longest surviving pursuits of both policymakers and practitioners, beginning in the 1960s. The recent anniversaries of the Coleman report and A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform, as citied in Response to A Nation at Risk, 1980s, brought heightened concern that little has changed in education despite numerous reform efforts. Several prominent education-thought leaders, historians, and researchers have detailed school reform in the decades since the 1960s, with the purpose of improving current practices through lessons from the past. Cross 2004 provides an insider’s view on federal influences on education reform on topics such as child poverty, children with disabilities, literacy instruction, education funding, and testing and accountability. The author also connects to his personal experience in education and policymaking in Finn 2008, which highlights the innovative programs that have increased school choice options since 1960. Written by well-known education historians, Tyack and Cuban 1995 and Ravich 2000 point out how expectations for schools have moved well beyond academic learning to address social problems, leading to frenzied and unfocused approaches to school improvement. In contrast, Payne 2008 shows how the history of social issues such as poverty and race are important to understand to improve schools.
Cross, Christopher T. 2004. Political education: National policy comes of age. New York: Teachers College Press.
Presents a thorough review of US education policy from World War II to 2004, enriched by Cross’s own experiences in Washington, D.C., and interviews with key education decision makers.
Finn, Chester E. 2008. Troublemaker: A personal history of school reform since Sputnik. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
Provides an informative history of school reform from 1950 to the mid-2000s by the renowned president of the Fordham Foundation. The book details education reform in the typical “tongue-in-cheek” style of Finn.
Payne, Charles M. 2008. So much reform, so little change: The persistence of failure in urban schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Discusses thirty years of school reform in the Chicago Public School District. Payne discusses the realities of urban school reform through complex social obstacles such as race and poverty.
Ravich, Diane. 2000. Left back: A century of failed school reforms. New York: Simon & Schuster.
An opinionated overview of the history of reform from the turn of the last century to 2000 by political analyst Diane Ravich. Her central thesis is that progressive education has thrown education reform into an unfocused frenzy and that the standards movement is an attempt to reclaim rigor and educational equality for all student groups.
Tyack, David, and Cuban, Larry. 1995. Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Gives a comprehensive overview of education reform history over the period of a century by well-known historians Tyack and Cuban. The authors connect education reform history to social and political realities and offer lessons learned from past successes and mistakes.
Webb, L. Dean. 2006. The history of American education: A great American experiment. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Typically used as a textbook in education foundation programs. Provides an overview of the history of education, incorporating up-to-date information to show the changes in US education over time.
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Article
- Academic Achievement
- Academic Audit for Universities
- Academic Freedom and Tenure in the United States
- Action Research in Education
- Adjuncts in Higher Education in the United States
- Administrator Preparation
- Adolescence
- Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Courses
- Advocacy and Activism in Early Childhood
- African American Racial Identity and Learning
- Alaska Native Education
- Alternative Certification Programs for Educators
- Alternative Schools
- American Indian Education
- Art Education
- Artificial Intelligence and Learning
- Assessing School Leader Effectiveness
- Assessment, Behavioral
- Assessment, Educational
- Assessment in Early Childhood Education
- Assistive Technology
- Augmented Reality in Education
- Beginning-Teacher Induction
- Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
- Blended Learning
- Bullying
- Case Study in Education Research
- Changing Professional and Academic Identities
- Character Education
- Children’s and Young Adult Literature
- Children's Beliefs about Intelligence
- Children's Rights in Early Childhood Education
- Citizenship Education
- Civic and Social Engagement of Higher Education
- Classroom Learning Environments: Assessing and Investigati...
- Classroom Management
- Coherent Instructional Systems at the School and School Sy...
- College Admissions in the United States
- College Athletics in the United States
- Community Relations
- Comparative Education
- Computer-Based Testing
- Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Evaluating Improvement Net...
- Continuous Improvement and "High Leverage" Educational Pro...
- Counseling in Schools
- Creativity
- Critical Perspectives on Educational Innovation and Improv...
- Critical Race Theory
- Crossborder and Transnational Higher Education
- Cross-National Research on Continuous Improvement
- Cross-Sector Research on Continuous Learning and Improveme...
- Cultural Diversity in Early Childhood Education
- Culturally Responsive Leadership
- Culturally Responsive Pedagogies
- Culturally Responsive Teacher Education in the United Stat...
- Curriculum Design
- Data Collection in Educational Research
- Data-driven Decision Making in the United States
- Deaf Education
- Desegregation and Integration
- Design Thinking and the Learning Sciences: Theoretical, Pr...
- Development, Moral
- Dialogic Pedagogy
- Digital Age Teacher, The
- Digital Citizenship
- Digital Divides
- Disabilities
- Distance Learning
- Distributed Leadership
- Doctoral Education and Training
- Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Denmark
- Early Childhood Education and Development in Mexico
- Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa New Zealand
- Early Childhood Education in Australia
- Early Childhood Education in China
- Early Childhood Education in Europe
- Early Childhood Education in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Early Childhood Education in Sweden
- Early Childhood Education Pedagogy
- Early Childhood Education Policy
- Early Childhood Education, The Arts in
- Early Childhood Mathematics
- Early Childhood Science
- Early Childhood Teacher Education
- Early Childhood Teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand
- Early Years Professionalism and Professionalization Polici...
- Economics of Education
- Education For Children with Autism
- Education for Sustainable Development
- Education Leadership, Empirical Perspectives in
- Education of Native Hawaiian Students
- Education Reform and School Change
- Educational Statistics for Longitudinal Research
- Educator Partnerships with Parents and Families with a Foc...
- Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
- Epistemic Beliefs
- Equity and Improvement: Engaging Communities in Educationa...
- Equity, Ethnicity, Diversity, and Excellence in Education
- Ethical Research with Young Children
- Ethics and Education
- Ethics of Teaching
- Ethnic Studies
- Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention
- Family and Community Partnerships in Education
- Family Day Care
- Federal Government Programs and Issues
- Feminization of Labor in Academia
- Finance, Education
- Financial Aid
- Formative Assessment
- Future-Focused Education
- Gender and Achievement
- Gender and Alternative Education
- Gifted Education
- Global Mindedness and Global Citizenship Education
- Global University Rankings
- Governance, Education
- Grounded Theory
- Growth of Effective Mental Health Services in Schools in t...
- Higher Education and Globalization
- Higher Education and the Developing World
- Higher Education Faculty Characteristics and Trends in the...
- Higher Education Finance
- Higher Education Governance
- Higher Education Graduate Outcomes and Destinations
- Higher Education in Africa
- Higher Education in China
- Higher Education in Latin America
- Higher Education in the United States, Historical Evolutio...
- Higher Education, International Issues in
- Higher Education Management
- Higher Education Policy
- Higher Education Research
- Higher Education Student Assessment
- High-stakes Testing
- History of Early Childhood Education in the United States
- History of Education in the United States
- History of Technology Integration in Education
- Homeschooling
- Inclusion in Early Childhood: Difference, Disability, and ...
- Inclusive Education
- Indigenous Education in a Global Context
- Indigenous Learning Environments
- Indigenous Students in Higher Education in the United Stat...
- Infant and Toddler Pedagogy
- Inservice Teacher Education
- Integrating Art across the Curriculum
- Intelligence
- Intensive Interventions for Children and Adolescents with ...
- International Perspectives on Academic Freedom
- Intersectionality and Education
- Knowledge Development in Early Childhood
- Leadership Development, Coaching and Feedback for
- Leadership in Early Childhood Education
- Leadership Training with an Emphasis on the United States
- Learning Analytics in Higher Education
- Learning Difficulties
- Learning, Lifelong
- Learning, Multimedia
- Learning Strategies
- Legal Matters and Education Law
- LGBT Youth in Schools
- Linguistic Diversity
- Linguistically Inclusive Pedagogy
- Literacy
- Literacy Development and Language Acquisition
- Literature Reviews
- Mathematics Identity
- Mathematics Instruction and Interventions for Students wit...
- Mathematics Teacher Education
- Measurement for Improvement in Education
- Measurement in Education in the United States
- Meta-Analysis and Research Synthesis in Education
- Methodological Approaches for Impact Evaluation in Educati...
- Methodologies for Conducting Education Research
- Mindfulness, Learning, and Education
- Mixed Methods Research
- Motivation
- Multiliteracies in Early Childhood Education
- Multiple Documents Literacy: Theory, Research, and Applica...
- Multivariate Research Methodology
- Museums, Education, and Curriculum
- Music Education
- Narrative Research in Education
- Native American Studies
- Note-Taking
- Numeracy Education
- One-to-One Technology in the K-12 Classroom
- Online Education
- Open Education
- Organizing for Continuous Improvement in Education
- Organizing Schools for the Inclusion of Students with Disa...
- Outdoor Play and Learning
- Outdoor Play and Learning in Early Childhood Education
- Pedagogical Leadership
- Pedagogy of Teacher Education, A
- Performance Objectives and Measurement
- Performance-based Research Assessment in Higher Education
- Performance-based Research Funding
- Phenomenology in Educational Research
- Philosophy of Education
- Physical Education
- Play
- Podcasts in Education
- Policy
- Policy Context of United States Educational Innovation and...
- Politics of Education
- Portable Technology Use in Special Education Programs and ...
- Pre-Service Teacher Education
- Problem Solving
- Productivity and Higher Education
- Professional Development
- Professional Learning Communities
- Program Evaluation
- Programs and Services for Students with Emotional or Behav...
- Psychology Learning and Teaching
- Psychometric Issues in the Assessment of English Language ...
- Qualitative Data Analysis Techniques
- Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Research Samp...
- Qualitative Research Design
- Quantitative Research Designs in Educational Research
- Race and Affirmative Action in Higher Education
- Reading Education
- Refugee and New Immigrant Learners
- Relational and Developmental Trauma and Schools
- Relational Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education
- Reliability in Educational Assessments
- Religion in Elementary and Secondary Education in the Unit...
- Researcher Development and Skills Training within the Cont...
- Research-Practice Partnerships in Education within the Uni...
- Response to Intervention
- Restorative Practices
- Scale and Sustainability of Education Innovation and Impro...
- Scaling Up Research-based Educational Practices
- School Accreditation
- School Choice
- School Culture
- School District Budgeting and Financial Management in the ...
- School Improvement through Inclusive Education
- School Reform
- Schools, Private and Independent
- School-Wide Positive Behavior Support
- Science Education
- Secondary to Postsecondary Transition Issues
- Self-Regulated Learning
- Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices
- Service-Learning
- Severe Disabilities
- Single Salary Schedule
- Single-sex Education
- Single-Subject Research Design
- Social Context of Education
- Social Justice
- Social Network Analysis
- Social Pedagogy
- Social Science and Education Research
- Social Studies Education
- Sociology of Education
- Standards-Based Education
- Statistical Assumptions
- Student Access, Equity, and Diversity in Higher Education
- Student Assignment Policy
- Student Engagement in Tertiary Education
- Student Learning, Development, Engagement, and Motivation ...
- Student Participation
- Student Voice in Teacher Development
- Sustainability Education in Early Childhood Education
- Sustainability in Early Childhood Education
- Sustainability in Higher Education
- Teacher Beliefs and Epistemologies
- Teacher Collaboration in School Improvement
- Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Effectiveness
- Teacher Preparation
- Teacher Training and Development
- Teacher Unions and Associations
- Teacher-Student Relationships
- Teaching Critical Thinking
- Technologies, Teaching, and Learning in Higher Education
- Technology Education in Early Childhood
- Technology, Educational
- Technology-based Assessment
- The Bologna Process
- The Regulation of Standards in Higher Education
- Theories of Educational Leadership
- Three Conceptions of Literacy: Media, Narrative, and Gamin...
- Tracking and Detracking
- Traditions of Quality Improvement in Education
- Transformative Learning
- Transitions in Early Childhood Education
- Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities in the Unite...
- Understanding the Psycho-Social Dimensions of Schools and ...
- University Faculty Roles and Responsibilities in the Unite...
- Using Ethnography in Educational Research
- Value of Higher Education for Students and Other Stakehold...
- Virtual Learning Environments
- Vocational and Technical Education
- Wellness and Well-Being in Education
- Women's and Gender Studies
- Young Children and Spirituality
- Young Children's Learning Dispositions
- Young Children's Working Theories