ABSTRACT
In the past quarter century or so, the voices of the corporate world have infl uenced the rhetoric and the policy frameworks defi ning the schooling agenda. Not only in the United States, but increasingly so among both industrialized and developing nations, the language of investment, effi - ciency, productivity, and capital accumulation has crept into the ways governments think about schooling. Th e term “capital” has become a metaphor for the creation of resources and reserves-not simply in monetary terms-by, through, and with which countries, communities, and organizations develop a technological and cultural infrastructure that will increase their productivity. Just as countries and communities and organizations invest their monetary resources to increase productive capacities, so they likewise invest in human and social capital for meeting their longrange needs.
