The ``R's of School Reform'' and the Politics of Reforming or Replacing Public Schools

Pressures to reform or replace public schools have flowed from a variety of social trends interacting with a growing perception that the schools are performing poorly or are inadequate for the demands of the new global economy they now face. Since the 1980s, many reforms have been attempted, but with little evidence of real improvement, especially in the education of poor and disadvantaged children. As a result, support is growing, at the very least in elite circles, for more radical reforms that would dramatically alter or even privatize public education. Public educators increasingly recognize the threats they face, but have trouble seizing upon the opportunities these threats present because they challenge fundamental aspects of the paradigm and ideology of public education to which they are wedded. This paper focuses on competing views of the policy problems and possible solutions public educators face in this situation, with particular reference to the experience of school reform efforts in the United States.