The only handbook of its kind that brings together materials from a wide range of authoritative works, providing the reader with a comprehensive overview of reform in American education. Are the institutions of the American educational system up to the task of passing the current presidential administration's performance-based testing, or are they a dinosaur of a bureaucracy that won't be able to avoid extinction? Read Educational Reform and gain first-hand insight into the state of the changing classroom. Crafted in ten skillfully written chapters, Educational Reform covers the history, politics, and processes of educational reform and addresses reforms in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Starting with a definition of educational reform and where its far-reaching results can lead, the work goes on to assess the role of the public in educational reform, the educational reform industry, and resistance to reform. Of interest to school boards and administrators and useful in graduate and undergraduate courses in education, it is written in a conversational tone that brings the subject out of the realm of dry analysis. Readers will benefit not only from the numerous case studies that intersperse the themes discussed, but also from the extensive bibliography of print and nonprint resources (including websites) listed for further study. There is little doubt that the classroom must change to meet the needs of the 21st centuryread Educational Reform to learn just how. - Eight narrative chapters that address the history, chronology, politics, and processes of educational