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| Foreword | |
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| Preface | |
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| Introduction: Critical Issues and Critical Thinking | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Democratic Vitality and Educational Criticism | |
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| The Political Context of Schooling | |
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| A Tradition of School Criticism and Reform | |
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| Whose Interests Should Schools Serve? Justice and Equity | |
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| School Choice: Family or Public Funding | |
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| Is family choice of schools in the public interest? | |
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| For Family Choice in Education | |
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| Against Vouchers | |
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| Financing Schools: Equity or Disparity | |
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| Is it desirable to equalize educational spending among school districts within a state or across the nation? | |
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| For Justice in Educational Finance | |
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| Against Centralization in Educational Financing | |
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| Gender Equity: Eliminating Discrimination or Accommodating Difference | |
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| Is it ever necessary to create schools or classroom settings that separate students by gender? | |
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| Eliminating Discrimination | |
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| Accommodating Differences | |
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| Standards-Based Reform: Real Change or Political Smoke Screen | |
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| Will the standards-based reform movement improve education or discriminate against poor and disadvantaged students? | |
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| Standards-Based Reform Promises Quality Education for All Students | |
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| Standards-Based Reform is a Political Smoke Screen | |
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| Religion and Public Schools: Unification or Separation | |
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| How do schools find a balance between freedom of religious expression and the separation of church and state? | |
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| For Religious Freedom in Schools | |
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| Against Violating the Separation between Church and State | |
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| Privatization of Schools: Boon or Bane | |
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| What criteria are most suitable for deciding whether schools are better when they are operated as a public or private enterprise? | |
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| Public Schools Should be Privatized | |
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| Public Schools Should be Public | |
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| Corporations, Commerce, and Schools: Complementing or Competing Interests | |
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| Does school support become corporate support? | |
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| Businesses are School Partners | |
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| Commercializing the School | |
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| New Immigrants and the Schools: Unfair Burden or Business as Usual | |
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| Should schools offer free opportunity to all children of new immigrants? | |
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| Schools Should Offer Educational Opportunities to All Children of New Immigrants. | |
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| Bad Policy Overburdens Schools | |
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| What Should be Taught? Knowledge and Literacy | |
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| The Academic Achievement Gap: Old Remedies or New | |
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| Are already existing policies and practices reducing the academic achievement gap or are new measures needed? | |
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| For Maintaining Existing Programs | |
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| For Innovative Solutions | |
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| Values/Character Education: Traditional or Liberational | |
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| Which and whose values should public schools teach, and why? | |
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| Teach Traditional Values | |
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| Liberation Through Active Value Inquiry | |
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| Multicultural Education: Democratic or Divisive | |
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| Should schools emphasize America's cultural diversity or the shared aspects of American culture? | |
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| Multiculturalism: Central to a Democratic Education | |
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| Multiculturalism is Divisive and Destructive | |
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| Technology and Learning: Enabling or Subverting | |
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| What technology deserves significant school attention and who should decide? | |
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| Technology Enables Learning | |
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| Technology Can Subvert Learning | |
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| Standardized Testing: Restrict or Expand | |
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| Should the use of standardized school tests be increased or decreased? | |
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| For Restricting Testing | |
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| For Expanding Testing | |
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| How Should Schools Be Organized And Operated? School Environment | |
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| Discipline and Justice: Zero Tolerance or Discretion | |
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| What concept of justice should govern school and classroom discipline? | |
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| Zero-Tolerance Disciplinary Policies Provide Justice in Public Schools | |
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| Zero-Tolerance Discipline Policies are Fundamentally Unjust | |
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| Teacher Unions and School Leadership: Detrimental or Beneficial | |
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| Should teachers and their unions be given a larger role in running public schools? | |
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| Teachers and Teacher Unions Should Play a Major Role in School Leadership | |
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| Teachers and Teacher Unions Should Not Play a Role in School Leadership | |
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| Academic Freedom: Teacher Rights or Responsibilities | |
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| How should the proper balance between teacher freedom and responsibility be determined? | |
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| For Increased Academic Freedom | |
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| For Teacher Responsibility | |
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| Inclusion and Mainstreaming: Common or Special Education | |
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| When and why should selected children be provided inclusive or special treatment in schools? | |
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| For Full Inclusion | |
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| Special Programs Help Special Students | |
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| Violence in Schools: School Treatable or Beyond School Control | |
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| Can schools deal effectively with violent or potentially violent students? | |
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| Schools Can and Should Curb Violence | |
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| The Problem of School Violence is Beyond School Control | |
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| Index | |