Education and Schooling

The Condition of Education
This site, from the National Center for Educational Statistics, is a compilation of statistical information about education and schooling in the United States from recent years relating to several topics in this chapter, including Contexts of Elementary and Secondary Education and Societal Support for Learning.

Imagery of Education and Schooling in American Pop Culture
This collection of magazine covers from the early 20th century has been collected by the Virtual Museum of Education Iconics at the University of Minnesota. What do the images "say" about American’s ideas of education versus schooling?

Four Basic Purposes of School

Thinkers on Education
This site, from the International Bureau of Education offers profiles of 100 thinkers on education, collected from the journal Prospects. Some of the educators whose perspectives are described in this chapter, including Emile Durkheim and Paulo Freire, are included.

Models of Schools

What Are Schools For?
This 2001 article from Education Week explores some of the possible models of school.

Schools as Cultures

Is Your School’s Culture Toxic or Positive?
This 2002 article from the Education World archives is written for an audience of school administrators, but the elements of school culture and suggestions for improvement can apply to teachers as well.

Trust in Schools
This 2002 book details the authors’ research on the importance of a trusting school culture to student achievement. Although this is the site where the book is sold, you can download the introduction and first chapter to read for free.

Schools as Transmitters or Re-creators of Culture

Multicultural Pavilion
Check out the Teacher’s Corner of this comprehensive web site created by Paul Gorski of the University of Virginia.

People You Should Know: Paulo Freire
This biography describes the life and influence of Paulo Freire and his theories about social reconstruction and education.

What Do Studies Reveal About the Nature of Schools?

What Happens During the School Day?
A team of researchers used time diaries from a nationally representative sample of teachers of grades 1-5 to study how their students spent their time. Their results, published in 2002, suggest some racial and economic differences in what children do at school.

Get Out of Junior High
This 2002 article from USA Today describes a growing trend to do away with middle schools in favor of plans that include K-8 schools and high schools.

What is a Good School?

Effective Schools and Teachers
This site from the World Bank profiles effective schools all over the world and offers a knowledge resource base on effective teaching and learning.

50 Signs Your School is a Great School
In this 2001 article from the Education World archives principals list 50 specific incidents that warmed their hearts and told them they were at a great school.