Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School ReformFor over a century, Americans have translated their cultural anxieties and hopes into dramatic demands for educational reform. Although policy talk has sounded a millennial tone, the actual reforms have been gradual and incremental. Tinkering toward Utopia documents the dynamic tension between Americans' faith in education as a panacea and the moderate pace of change in educational practices. In this book, David Tyack and Larry Cuban explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to reinvent schooling? Tyack and Cuban argue that the ahistorical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and that reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education. |
Contents
1 | |
1 Progress or Regress? | 12 |
2 Policy Cycles and Institutional Trends | 40 |
3 How Schools Change Reforms | 60 |
4 Why the Grammar of Schooling Persists | 85 |
5 Reinventing Schooling | 110 |
Other editions - View all
Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform David B. Tyack,Larry Cuban Limited preview - 1997 |
Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform David B. Tyack,Larry Cuban Limited preview - 1995 |
Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform David B. Tyack,Larry Cuban Limited preview - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
academic achievement adapt administrative advocates American American Education basic became become believed better Books called Carnegie central century challenge cities citizens classes classroom College common continued Contracting courses create critical curriculum David decade Department developed districts early economic educa educational reform effective efficiency elementary elites equality example experiment Ford Foundation forms Foundation goals governance grades grammar of schooling groups History implementation improve individual innovations institutional instruction John junior high schools kindergarten leaders learning March means organization parents past percent performance periods policy talk political practice Press problems produced professional programs progress public education public schools pupils question Report Research school boards school reform secondary schools social society sometimes standard Study subjects success teachers teaching tion traditional trends Tyack United University urban wanted Washington York young