ABSTRACT

The current debates over public education in the USA are replete with paradoxes. There is a cacophony of opinion and contradictory statements about the condition of the US public school. For example, while some commentators argue that the US public schools are utter failures in preparing students to meet the needs of an information-based, global economy, others document how public schools may be doing a better job than ever (Berliner and Biddle 1995, Bracey 1996). Also, we hear that schools are working hard to teach to the needs and values of a pluralistic, multicultural society, yet simultaneously we hear that the schools are neglecting fundamental US values (Bennett 1992, Capper 1993, Chavkin 1993, Ravitch 1995). Elsewhere the paradoxical assertion is made that while teachers feel powerless to alter the ways schools operate, school administrators and school board members feel hamstrung by union contracts. Political pressures from the community hamper school administrators, yet many citizens feel that public schools are operated by school professionals for their own personal benefit (Kerchner and Mitchell 1988, Kerchner and Koppich 1993). Finally, persons of colour and the poor believe that public schools are neglecting their children’s needs, killing their aspirations, while the affluent believe that schools have deteriorated beyond hope because they cater to problems of the least prepared (Berliner and Biddle 1995). How can we hope to reconcile these paradoxes?