Education as Civic Good: Children’s Services Perspectives

Two events from the 1950s continue to shape a debate over improving education through services to children and families. The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision regarding school desegregation introduced an array of stillactive concerns over student-enrollment composition and the socio-economic circumstances of schools as predictors of equal opportunity. The continuing debate shows that community context matters. A second event, the launching of Sputnik, expanded ongoing discussions of a school’s instructional quality as a predictor of eff ectiveness, economic productivity, and leadership. School achievement outcomes matter.