The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud and the Attack on America's Public Schools

A Policy History of Standards-Based Education in America

“…Understanding the past more concretely, we will also be better able to shape the future as well. Berliner and Biddle (1996) perform a similarly non-longitudinal analysis, although identifying fewer change agents, dwelling on them more briefly, and considering them over a shorter timeframe than Apple. They see neoconservatives, far right, and religious right as the main culprits.…”

“…Berliner and Biddle (1996) are passionate defenders of public education who wrote a worthy rebuttal to more than a decade of fear mongering. Nevertheless, after Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), public education is still mass compulsory schooling and still presupposes the police power of the state.…”

Crise do projeto de democratização da educação e da formação ou crise de um modelo de democratização? Algumas reflexões a partir do caso francês (1980-2010)

“…Celui-ci a jeté les bases d'un nouveau système de référence où le but essentiel de la formation n'est plus l'égalité ou la cohésion à l'intérieur d'une société mais le maintien du rang du pays au sein de la concurrence mondiale. Ses conclusions, aujourd'hui très discutées (Berliner, Biddle, 1995), mettaient en cause les politiques compensatoires des présidences démocrates. Celles-ci n'étaient pas seulement coûteuses et inefficaces, elles avaient détourné les investissements de l'essentiel : la formation d'élites performantes.…”

Mathematics and Academic Diversity in Japan

“…Contrary accounts of Japanese education also have appeared over the same period of time. For example, returning from a fact finding mission sponsored by the Reagan administration, prominent American educators offered enthusiastic accounts of Japanese education and how it should be adopted in the United States (see Berliner & Biddle, 1995). A decade later, Stevenson and Stigler's (1992) popular press book, The Learning Gap, attempted to dispel many of the negative stereotypes of Japanese education cited above.…”

“…Bracey (1996) and Wolferen (1989) argue that this dark side of the education system is hidden from (or overlooked by) American researchers who are highly supportive of Japanese instructional methods. Researchers (Berliner & Biddle, 1995, Westbury, 1992 even question the superior performance of Japanese students on international comparative exams by suggesting that only the best students in the country are allowed to take these tests. They also argue that high test scores in subject areas like mathematics reveal little about broader abilities in problem solving and creativity that might be stifled by a rigid, testoriented educational system.…”