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An annual report from EdChoice is designed to provide a yearly updated list and synthesis of empirical studies exploring the impacts of school vouchers across a set of outcomes. EdChoice presents itself as a clearinghouse of "evidence" that school vouchers "work" and that school choice is an effective and efficient reform. Along those lines, the report showcases the purported personal and community benefits that arise from voucher implementation, such as an increase in test scores, educational attainment, parental satisfaction, increased civic values, improvements in racial segregation, and fiscal benefits through governmental cost savings. However, the report is a limited collection of cherry-picked studies chosen from an "overwhelming" number, largely from sources that are not peer-reviewed and primarily authored by voucher advocates. For these reasons, the report is so misleading that it is not useful for decision-making or research purposes.

This paper explores the politicization of school reopenings in two swing states against the backdrop of rising COVID cases, public health warnings, and the hyper-partisan weaponization of "choice" rhetoric by parents to send children back into school. Rhetoric surrounding parental choice partnered with economic considerations placed significant pressure on school boards to navigate their reopening plans from a partisan frame of reference. We explore, compare, and contrast the landscape of school reopening plans in Wisconsin and Georgia, which both served as pivotal states in the contentious 2020 Presidential election. Within each state we consider two districts that are situated in either a more traditionally conservative or liberal environment. Our guiding questions are: (1) How is the conversation about school reopening reflective of politicized and polarized approaches to COVID? and, (2) How are school reopening discussions different in politically liberal and conservative communities? ; Este documento explora la politización de la reapertura de escuelas en dos estados "oscilantes" en el contexto del aumento de casos de COVID, las advertencias de salud pública y el uso de la retórica sobre la "elección" de los padres para enviar a los niños de vuelta a la escuela. La retórica en torno a la elección de los padres asociada con consideraciones económicas ejerció una presión significativa sobre las juntas escolares para navegar sus planes de reapertura desde un marco de referencia partidista. Exploramos, comparamos y contrastamos el panorama de los planes de reapertura de escuelas en Wisconsin y Georgia, que sirvieron como estados fundamentales en las polémicas elecciones presidenciales de 2020. Dentro de cada estado, consideramos dos distritos que están situados en un entorno tradicionalmente más conservador o liberal. Nuestras preguntas guía son: (1) ¿De qué manera la conversación sobre la reapertura de las escuelas refleja los enfoques politizados y polarizados de COVID? y (2) ¿En qué se diferencian las ...

We describe the alumni engagement efforts by Teach For America (TFA) in Detroit as a case study of the specific ways that the organization works to influence its alumni's involvement in educational politics and disposition towards particular types of educational reform. During the 2019-20 school year, TFA Detroit facilitated a series of "policy workshops" for its alumni, intended to inspire TFA corps members and alumni to engage in political and policy advocacy. Combining field notes and other artifacts from the policy workshops with a social network analysis of the featured participants and central organizations, we show that TFA Detroit drew upon its local, state, and national policy networks to construct workshops that in turn would politically mobilize alumni to support their networks' preferred city and state policies and reforms. ; Describimos los esfuerzos de participación de los egresados de Teach For America (TFA) en Detroit como un estudio de caso de los esfuerzos de la organización para influir en la participación de los egresados en la política educativa y la disposición hacia tipos particulares de reforma educativa. Durante el año escolar 2019-20, TFA Detroit facilitó una serie de "talleres de políticas" para sus exalumnos, con el objetivo de inspirar a los miembros y exalumnos del cuerpo de TFA a participar en la promoción de políticas. Combinando notas de campo y otros artefactos de los talleres de políticas con un análisis de redes sociales de los participantes destacados y las organizaciones centrales, mostramos que TFA Detroit usó sus redes de políticas para construir talleres para movilizar a los exalumnos para apoyar las políticas y reformas de la ciudad y el estado preferidas de la redes. ; Descrevemos os esforços de engajamento de ex-alunos pela Teach For America (TFA) em Detroit como um estudo de caso dos esforços da organização para influenciar o envolvimento dos ex-alunos em políticas educacionais e disposição para determinados tipos de reforma educacional. Durante o ano letivo de 2019-20, a TFA Detroit facilitou uma série de "workshops de políticas" para seus ex-alunos, com o objetivo de inspirar os membros do corpo da TFA e ex-alunos a se envolverem na defesa de políticas. Combinando notas de campo e outros artefatos dos workshops de política com uma análise de rede social dos participantes em destaque e organizações centrais, mostramos que a TFA Detroit usou suas redes de política para construir workshops para mobilizar ex-alunos para apoiar as políticas e reformas preferenciais da cidade e do estado do redes.

Abstract This article provides an exploratory overview of the history of homeschooling in the United States in addition to examining some of the claims made by advocacy organizations. There are two broad categories of rationales for homeschooling: (1) empirical — claims of greater efficiency, effectiveness, or pedagogical appropriateness; and (2) ideological – often informed by a religious or political disposition. A detailed discussion of both rationales is provided. First examined are claims made by homeschooling advocates related to effectiveness and efficiency, finding that this rationale does not have the same validity that ideological rationales like religion and safety may have. Finally, these rationales are cast against the backdrop of the aims of education as a mechanism for the collective good or for the individual good.

The 18th edition of the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress, and Reform draws on ratings from market-oriented advocacy groups to grade states in areas such as support for charter schools, availability of vouchers, and permissiveness for homeschooling. The authors contend that these grades are based on "high quality" research demonstrating that the policies for which they award high grades will improve education for all students. This review finds that, contrary to these claims, ALEC's grades draw selectively from these advocacy groups to make claims that are not supported in the wider, peer-reviewed literature. In fact, the research ALEC highlights is quite shoddy and is unsuitable for supporting its recommendations. The authors' claims of "a growing body of research" lacks citations; their grading system contradicts the testing data that they report; and their data on alternative teacher research is simply wrong. Overall, ALEC's Report Card is grounded less in research than in ideological tenets, as reflected in the high grades it assigns to states with unproven and even disproven market-based policies. The report's purpose appears to be more about shifting control of education to private interests than in improving education.

For the last few decades, teacher preparation has increasingly aligned itself with "best practices," standards, and accountability, and such policies became mandatory in P-12 schooling nationwide. Technical skills instruction and methods have become the common practice of teacher preparation and accreditation of programs. Teacher candidates are encouraged to be unquestioning servants of a school system rather than educators who govern the meaning of schooling. The purpose of this book is to present a view of how we got to where we are today and to offer strategies to bring the job of teaching back to its roots. It seeks to identify the conservative influences that treat students as a commodity rather than future citizen scholars. For teacher candidates, this has meant the excision of social foundations of education courses and any further explorations of the philosophy of education or the history of schooling in their curricula. The Commodification of American Education looks at ways to re-establish teachers as professionals rather than mere technicians, and to take back public education to transform schools into places that educate while eliminating inequality and oppression.

In this empirical, qualitative study, Teach For America (TFA) corps member teachers' lives are examined through the lens of George Posner's seven "frame factors," namely, (a) temporal, (b) physical, (c) cultural, (d) economic, (e) organizational, (f) political-legal, and (g) personal, which offer insight into the contextualized TFA experience from induction at Corps Training Institute (CTI) through the 2-year TFA teaching commitment. Hundreds of corps member responses to these frame factors and external mandates were coded and analyzed, using unpublished categories developed by Barone, with particular attention to the developmental time line of one's educational platform on TFAers' professional practice.

The non-project / Jenny Elliott -- A tale from the tail of the fish / Nickie Muir -- Disparities between expectations and impact in fellows' experience of an alternative teaching program in China / Yue Melody Yin & Hilary Hughes -- Teach first, ask questions later : an experience of Teach First New Zealand / Sam Oldham -- Leaders in the community or educators in the classroom? : problematic dual roles of fellows at Teach For China / Sara G. Lam, Tongji Philip Qian, & Fan Ada Wang -- Teach for All in Latvia : a case study and warning to the world / Elīna Bogusa & Leva Bērzîna -- Meritocracy and leadership : the keys to social and educational change according to Enseñá por Argentina / Victoria Matozo & Adri Saavedra -- Leadership as an antidote to poorly trained teachers : the Teach For India story / Vidya K. Subramanian -- Sign of the times : Teach For Sweden and the broken Swedish education system / P.S. Myers.

Ideology and Education: An Introduction -- "The Haves and the Have Mores:" Fueling a Conservative Ideological War on Public Education (or Tracking the Money)" [reprinted] -- The Haves and Have Mores": An Update, 2005-2018 -- Citizens of the United and the Disuniting of the United States -- Hidden Strategies State by State: The History and Work of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), 1973-2018 --Philanthropy Goes to College: Tracking the Money -- Ideological and Philanthropic Bedfellows: Elevating the Individual over the Collective Good in Education -- The Megaphone Behind the Myth: The Media's Role in Shaping Public Discourse about Education Reform -- Foundry10: A Case of Philanthropy Building School and Community Partnerships -- Collective Resistance: Resources for Change.

This book examines the ideologies behind philanthropic efforts in education from the 1970s until today. Authors examine specific strategies philanthropists have used to impact both educational policy and practice in the U.S. as well as the legal and policy context in which these initiatives have thrived. The book, aimed for a broad audience of educators, provides a depth of knowledge of philanthropic funding as well as specific strategies to incite collective resistance to the current context of hyperaccountability, privatization of schooling at all levels, and attempts to move the U.S. further away from a commiment to the collective good.