Political Spectacle and the Fate of American Schools: Symbolic Politics and Educational Policies FROM THE PUBLISHER
The authors argue that the most influential and well-known educational policy programs in the past 30 years are not based on democratic consensus, but are instead formulated by the political community as symbolic efforts meant to generate personal partisan gain.
SYNOPSIS
Smith (education leadership and policy studies, Arizona State U.) explores behind-the-scenes politics that have brought about significant changes in American educational policies in recent decades. An overview of the theory of symbolic politics and the political spectacle is followed by a series of case studies—assessment policy in Arizona, school choice in one Colorado school district, the contribution of mass media to desegregation in Phoenix—research on reading, and the role of the corporate world in education policy, and an assessment of what might be done to repair the damage that has been done to the educational system. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
No Child Left Behind. A Nation at Risk. School choice. Tennessee's STAR program and the Texas Assessment and Accountability System (TAAS). Yes, all of these educational policy programs deal with school reform, but, as the authors of this book assert, they have something else in common: politics. Smith (education leadership & policy studies, Arizona State Univ., Phoenix) and her coauthors here explore our nation's political climate and show its relationship to educational policy. They describe situations in which politics directly affects educational philosophy at specific schools and explain the role played by the media in this "political spectacle." They also show how research can be manipulated to produce the desired results and explain why the business world is so interested in educational policy. In the final chapter, attention is drawn to key problem areas in our society, with the authors showing, e.g., that disparities in wealth mirror disparities in school populations. Although the focus on today's political climate will quickly date this book, it is nonetheless recommended for academic and larger public libraries as a revealing discussion of our current dilemmas.-Terry Christner, Hutchinson P.L., KS Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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