“Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife,” wrote John Dewey in his classic work The School and Society. In School, Society, and State, Tracy Steffes places that idea at the center of her exploration of the connections between public school reform in the early twentieth century and American political development from 1890 to 1940. American public schooling, Steffes shows, was not merely another reform project of the Progressive Era, but a central one. She addresses why Americans invested in public education and explains how an array of reformers subtly transformed schooling into a tool of social governance to address the consequences of industrialization and urbanization. By extending the reach of schools, broadening their mandate, and expanding their authority over the well-being of children, the state assumed a defining role in the education—and in the lives—of American families. In School, Society, and State, Steffes returns the state to the study of the history of education and brings the schools back into our discussion of state power during a pivotal moment in American political development.

This widely used text has been expanded to include the most important issues in contemporary schooling, including: New end-of-chapter sections for Further Reading. New references added to the useful Additional Resources section. School and Society, Fifth Edition uses realistic case studies, dialogues, and open-ended questions designed to stimulate thinking about problems related to school and society, including curriculum reform, social justice, and competing forms of research. Written in a style that speaks directly to today’s educator, this book tackles such crucial questions as: Do schools socialize students to become productive workers? • Does schooling reproduce social class and pass on ethnic and gender biases? • Can a teacher avoid passing on dominant social and cultural values? • What besides subjects do students really learn in schools? School and Societyis one of the five books in the highly regarded Teachers College PressThinking About Education Series, now in its Fifth Edition. All of the books in this series are designed to help pre- and in-service teachers bridge the gap between theory and practice. Praise for Previous Editions! “I have been surprised and pleased by the relevance of this particular book to the lives and work of my beginning teachers.” —Teaching Education “[This series] does a masterful job of bringing together the basic issues and teaching methods that should frame social and philosophical foundations curricula.” —Educational Theory Walter Feinbergis Professor of Educational Policy Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Jonas F. Soltisis William Heard Kilpatrick Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

American Educational History: School, Society, and the Common Good is an up-to-date, contemporary examination of historical trends that have helped shape schools and education in the United States. Author William H. Jeynes places a strong emphasis on recent history, most notably post-World War II issues such as the role of technology, the standards movement, affirmative action, bilingual education, undocumented immigrants, school choice, and much more!

When education activists in New York, Chicago, and other urban school districts in the 1980s began the small-schools movement, they envisioned a new kind of public school system that was fair and equitable and that encouraged new relationships between teachers and students. When that movement for school reform ran head-on into the neo-conservative takeover of the Department of Education and its No Child Left Behind strategy for school change, a new model of federal power bent on the erosion of public space and the privatization of public schooling emerged. Michael and Susan Klonsky, educators who were among the early leaders of the small-schools movement, tell the story of how a once-promising model of creating new small and charter schools has been used by the neocons to reproduce many of the old inequities. Small Schools is the engaging story of what happens when the small-schools movement meets the Ownership Society.

"In this comprehensive volume, a roster of leading scholars in educational policy and related fields offer eighteen essays seeking to illuminate new ways for American public education to counter persistent racial and socioeconomic inequality in our society. Drawing on extensive research, the contributors reinforce the key benefits of racially integrated schools, examine remaining options to pursue multiracial integration, and discuss case examples that suggest how to build support for those efforts"--

Argues that the rise in school violence is the consequence of a society that promotes and encourages aggressive and competitive behavior, and proposes ways to transcend these destructive trends and stress compassion over bullying.