Political Dynamics of American Education - Hardcover

This new edition of The Political Dynamics of American Education is a major revision of the most widely used text in the politics of education. The authors have devised an original conceptual framework to organize and chart the increasingly complex political web of American education. These competing forces of challenge and steady state now affect all levels of policymaking and administration. Combined, these conflicting forces constitute the dynamic nature of American education.
The fourth edition of The Political Dynamics of American Education places more emphasis on school choice, reflecting the political conflict and stress evident in recent reform chal-lenges. The authors expand both on the current increase in local political activity and on the external context of local schools to analyze the political momentum behind education standards. At the same time, the limits of both deregulation and centralized strategies are stressed as academic standards policies confront complex local politics.
The most contemporary issues are treated: the 2008 election, politics of charter schools, mayoral control, and the evolutionary politics of NCLB. Each chapter covers the latest school politics research and reviews new political research dimensions and the current state of education politics scholarship.
This text is designed in part for practitioners involved in education administrators, teachers, state officials, and lay groups. It will also be valuable to scholars of educational administration, political science, and sociology because of its comprehensive framework and extensive synthesis of current research.