During the 1980s, widespread dissatisfaction with America's schools gave rise to a powerful movement for educational change, and the nation's political institutions responded with aggressive reforms. Chubb and Moe argue that these reforms are destined to fail because they do not get to the root of the problem. The fundamental causes of poor academic performance, they claim, are not to be found in the schools, but rather in the institutions of direct democratic control by which the schools have traditionally been governed. Reformers fail to solve the problem-when the institutions ARE the problem. The authors recommend a new system of public education, built around parent-student choice and school competition, that would promote school autonomy—thus providing a firm foundation for genuine school improvement and superior student achievement.

An economic analysis of schooling markets is developed, emphasizing both the strengths and weaknesses of orthodox analyses. This publication is designed to be accessible to all those concerned with education and economics.

Across the United States, test publishers, software companies, and research firms continue to take advantage of the revenues made available by federal policies like the No Child Left Behind Act, Race to the Top, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In effect, the education industry has assumed a central place in the day-to-day governance and administration of public schools—a previously hidden trend that has begun to be a ubiquitous component of public education. Drawing on analytic tools, Hidden Markets examines specific domains that the education industry has had particular influence on—home schooling, remedial instruction, management consulting, test development, data management, and staff development. With updated and new material added, this second edition also highlights how technology and technology policy shape the conditions for teachers’ work, the role of natural disasters as education market opportunities, and the connection between racism and educational privatization. Burch's analysis demonstrates that only when we subject the education industry to systematic and in-depth critical analysis can we begin to demand more corporate accountability and organize to halt the slide of education funds into the market. Additional updates include: Discussion of the role that policy elites play in allowing CEOS to regulate the student identity market Examination of the rise of online tutoring engineered in part by the No Child Left Behind Act New chapter that offers an updated road map for policymakers and activists concerned about the issues raised within the book

A colorful history of US research universities, and a market-based theory of their global success. American education has its share of problems, but it excels in at least one area: university-based research. That’s why American universities have produced more Nobel Prize winners than those of the next twenty-nine countries combined. Economist Miguel Urquiola argues that the principal source of this triumph is a free-market approach to higher education. Until the late nineteenth century, research at American universities was largely an afterthought, suffering for the same reason that it now prospers: the free market permits institutional self-rule. Most universities exploited that flexibility to provide what well-heeled families and church benefactors wanted. They taught denominationally appropriate materials and produced the next generation of regional elites, no matter the students’—or their instructors’—competence. These schools were nothing like the German universities that led the world in research and advanced training. The American system only began to shift when certain universities, free to change their business model, realized there was demand in the industrial economy for students who were taught by experts and sorted by talent rather than breeding. Cornell and Johns Hopkins led the way, followed by Harvard, Columbia, and a few dozen others that remain centers of research. By the 1920s the United States was well on its way to producing the best university research. Free markets are not the solution for all educational problems. Urquiola explains why they are less successful at the primary and secondary level, areas in which the United States often lags. But the entrepreneurial spirit has certainly been the key to American leadership in the research sector that is so crucial to economic success.

Across the U.S., test publishers, software companies, and research firms are swarming to take advantage of the revenues made available by the No Child Left Behind Act. In effect, the education industry has assumed a central place in the day-to-day governance and administration of public schools—a trend that has gone largely unnoticed by policymakers or the press until now. Drawing on analytic tools, Hidden Markets examines specific domains that the education industry has had particular influence on—home schooling, remedial instruction, management consulting, test development, data management, and staff development. Burch's analysis demonstrates that only when we subject the education industry to systematic and in-depth critical analysis can we begin to demand more corporate accountability and organize to halt the slide of education funds into the market.

Publisher description

In Market Education: The Unknown History, Andrew J. Coulson explores the educational problems facing parents and shows how these problems can best be addressed. He begins with a discussion of what people want from their school systems, tracing their views of the kinds of knowledge, skills, and values education should impart, and their concerns about discipline, drugs, and violence in schools. Using this survey of goals and attitudes as a guide, Coulson sets out to compare the school systems of civilizations both ancient and modern, seeking to determine which systems achieved the aims of parents and the public at large and which did not. Drawing on the historical evidence of how these various systems operated, Coulson concludes that free educational markets have consistently done a better job of serving the public's needs than state-run school systems have.

Award-winning author and former teacher Jane R. Wood shares the many strategies she has used since 2004 to successfully market and sell her books to schools. In 2014, a large school district purchased 6,400 copies of one of her juvenile fiction books. Wood tells authors how to tap into this unique market - whether a book is a children's picture book, a middle reader, a YA book, or a nonfiction book appropriate for older students. Authors will learn how to contact schools; develop relationships with educators; create educational resources to accompany their books; and develop dynamic presentations for author visits to schools, both in-person and virtual. Wood shows how both teachers and students can benefit from a meaningful connection with an author.

This title was first published in 2000. A series of major reforms during the 1980s and 1990s have led to the transformation of the Education System in England and Wales. The new system is now based on market principles in schooling resources. Parents now have the opportunity to state a preference over the school they would like their children to attend. This fascinating book sets out the new geographies of education, focusing on the spatial organization of the new market system. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS), it examines patterns of competition and choice based on pupil home postcodes and relates these to the decision-making process of parents. It also makes comparisons between different LEAs and schools in urban and rural areas, analyzing the constraints created by space and geography. In considering the effectiveness and impact of this new form of provision, the book plays an important role in understanding and appreciating the impact of the education market upon social mobility and community structure.

Choice and selection are now cornerstones of education policies wherever these have been shaped by market economics. Now, as never before, schools can face uncertain futures, because their survival is determined by external factors such as admission policies and parental preferences. Because of the link between schooling, and housing and other public sector services, the implications of increasing choice extends well beyond education. Schools, Markets and Choice Policies brings together the findings of the most comprehensive research ever conducted into choice in secondary education, and provides in-depth context, analysis and discussion. In assessing the impact of choice policies not only upon the education system itself, but also upon wider society, it provides valuable insights into economic and social segregation. A groundbreaking contribution to the debate on the role of choice and market economies in education, this book is essential reading for anyone involved in determining or implementing education policy at all levels.