The School Reform Landscape Reloaded

The School Reform Landscape Reloaded: More Fear, Myths, and Lies peels back the curtain of school reform to examine the tensions that exist between the democratic and equitable system of public education and the emerging dual system based on elite interests aimed at profit-making and decreasing education equity. The author takes in-depth and controversial look at school reform since the launch of Sputnik I. Education reform events, proposals, and policies are examined through the lens of progressivist philosophy and critical social theory. Some of the issues and policies critiqued include the neoliberal corporate influence on education, the Sputnik myth, A Nation At Risk, standardization, charter schools, and other relevant topics. The author provides an evidence-based view of the free-market reform ideas and he pierces the veil of the new reform policies to find that they are not built upon empirical evidence, but instead rest solidly on foundations of myth, fear, and lies. Ideas for a new set of reform policies, based on empirical evidence and supportive of a unitary, equitable, and democratic system of education are presented.

Christopher H. Tienken is an associate professor at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ in the College of Education and Human Services, Department of Education Leadership, Management, and Policy.

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Education Equity and Democracy
Chapter 2: Neoliberalism, Social Darwinism, and Consumerism Masquerading as School Reform
Chapter 3: The Education Reform King With a Styrofoam Crown
Chapter 4: A Catalogue of Reform Myths
Chapter 5: The Path of High-Risk Implications in the Dual System
Chapter 6: High Stakes, Low Quality
Chapter 7: World-Class Standards That Are Too Big to Fail
Chapter 8: Charter Schools: Separate But Legal
Chapter 9: What Now? A Way Forward