ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how education policy in the United States has evolved over the last several decades and how the resulting policies are affecting schools and the children who attend them. It describes the emergence of deep concerns about school performance and educational equity over the last half of the 20th century. The chapter provides the editors' reflections on lessons learned and conceptual guideposts for future policy development. It explores the market choice reform (MCR) strategy. As a reform idea, MCR is nearly the opposite of standards-based accountability reform (SBR) in that it assumes that, apart from some generalized common interest that can be pursued through modest market regulation, education content and goals are family and student centered rights by choice rather than public policy goals. The chapter provides a sobering assessment of problems associated with the implementation of education policies.
