ABSTRACT
This chapter will examine recent federal education policy, specifically NCLB, to analyze its ideological positioning and the ways that its language and symbols are co-opted from other domains and used in turn. NCLB needs to be understood not just as a set of institutional changes but more deeply as an attempt to redirect the public’s view on the nature and purpose of the public schools. Based on this idea, this chapter contends that, beyond its practical soundness and appropriateness, the ideological rhetoric underlying the Act needs further attention.
