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This chapter explores the reforms brought about through the Kentucky Education Reform Act and the changes that occurred in higher education from the Patton years to the near present. Education in Kentucky in the latter decades of the twentieth century could not help but change, owing to the forces both within the state and beyond that pushed for reform. In the early twenty-first century, Kentucky appeared to have the most integrated public school system in the nation. Public higher education in Kentucky, under the leadership of the Council on Higher Education from the mid-1980s into the 1990s, continued to search for a better way to fund an increasingly expensive system. The year 2006 may have been a high-water mark early in the new century for public higher education in Kentucky. As it has happened throughout the history of Kentucky, education moves forward in fits and starts, regressing during difficult economic times or because of indifference by the citizens of the state.

This chapter describes Winter’s efforts to reform the public education system. Winter believed that better public schools and a more educated citizenry were necessary to create a stronger state economy. He achieved of the greatest legislative victories of the twentieth century in Mississippi, the Education Reform Act of 1982, through a combination of skillfully working with legislators and ably mobilizing public opinion.

Themes, and variations within them, are considered. They have informed debate about school admissions as an aspect of education policy (and social policy more generally) in England post-1945. A historical trace is provided, from what is often presented as a consensual settlement under the Education Act 1944, through debates about grammar schools and comprehensive schools in the 1960s and 1970s, to the positions under the Education Reform Act 1988 and subsequent legislation, including most recently that of the Coalition government formed in 2010. The roles and limitations of the legal system in this context are discussed throughout, and questions relating to children with Special Educational Needs are given particular attention.

This chapter examines the political steps, and the legislative and regulatory approaches taken by central government, to secure the necessary pre-conditions for establishing choice as the key policy for school admissions: the creation of a quasi-market through school diversity, greater freedom to control admissions at school level, and the limiting of local government powers. Three phases are identified: the phase of policy initiation that started with the Thatcher governments and found its greatest expression in the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA); the period of continuity and expansion as the market ‘baton’ was passed to the New Labour reformers in government in the period from 1997 to 2010; and, at the time of writing, the current phase of policy acceleration under the Coalition government.

In Chapter 5, I examine rights claims that are expressed and pursued outside courtrooms through a case study of a leading community organization, Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth in San Francisco, that has long advocated for children’s rights in the education arena. The purpose of this case study is two-fold: to demonstrate how the rights claims I have argued for can be powerful tools in democratic politics in the US, and to suggest ways in which deliberative theory needs to be revised in light of the inequalities that advocates face as they employ rights claims. I consider what type of citizenship and view of politics Coleman’s efforts endorse, and how it uses rights discourse to advance its education reform goals. I also consider how deliberative ideals may need to be relaxed to make room for rights-based advocacy in non-ideal conditions.

This chapter uses knowledge mobilisation (KM) to look at issues in education in the People's Republic of China. The first part provides background about the Chinese education system, research capacity and the achievements of recent education reforms. The second part examines education research institutes to see how they influence policy at governmental level. In the third part the features of KM are discussed. The fourth part describes four challenges China is facing. In the last part, a general picture of KM is outlined.

This chapter describes Jack Reed’s activities between 1985 and 2006. On June 22, 1985 Reed addressed the Mississippi Press Association at its annual luncheon meeting in Biloxi, where he thanked the newspapers from around the state for their role in securing passage of the Education Reform Act of 1982 and gave them a glimpse of things to come for Mississippi schoolchildren. In 1990, his focus turned to the national stage when President George H. W. Bush appointed him to a three-year term on the National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement. In the fall of 2004, Reed, now eighty years old, was called to speak out on behalf of public education in Mississippi before the Coalition for Children and Public Education.

The introduction provides an overview of the book’s argument for a right to education and how that right can be realized through democratic activism. The introduction first notes how rights discourse is increasingly used in education reform today despite challenges it faces. Two challenges are highlighted: from a practical perspective, educational rights have an uncertain place in the US legal system; and from a theoretical perspective, rights claims are in tension with the principle of majority rule. The introduction then explains the two questions the book addresses: What is the place of a right to education in a participatory democracy? And how can this right be realized? The rationale for using deliberative democracy as a framework for analysis is explained, and a brief overview of the chapters is offered. The introduction highlights the reciprocal relationship between the book’s theoretical arguments and case studies; the case studies of democratic activism showcase theory in action to some degree, but they also determine the practical value of theoretical arguments about educational justice. The analysis therefore considers how activism may bring democratic theory to fruition, and how theory may need to be revised given constraints advocates face as they press for education rights.

In 1999, China implemented one of the most important educational policies in recent decades–college expansion, allowing more than five times as many youth per year to attend colleges since then. This paper describes the historical policy reforms in higher education in China, compares college attendance trends in China to other countries, and explores the extent to which access to higher education across different social strata has changed in post-expansion years. The analysis is based on pooled data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) collected in 2005 and 2006. Results suggest that gender gap in college attendance has significantly narrowed. Stark disparities remain by urban/rurualhukou origin and by family socioeconomic background. However, data do not allow an adequate evaluationstudy of the college expansion policy. The paper discusses unintended consequences of this policy such as an increase in unemployment rate for college graduates and a potential decline of the quality of higher education in China, as well as some of the measures used by the government to alleviate such problems. Finally, I suggest that abolishing hukou system to allow greater mobility in the labor market will help alleviate the regional mismatch between the supply and demand. More resources allocated to the rural areas and to minority groups from school systems much earlier than at college entrance time is critical in reducing regional and class inequality in higher education in China.

This chapter examines the 1988 Education Reform Act in England. It particularly examines the change in governance that took place, highlighting the development of an education system that is more in semblance with the governance model of plurally controlled schooling. While the focus of this chapter is on England, the directions of change and conceptual frameworks that are presented and outlined in the following chapters are also considered. Some of the topics discussed herein include; central control, which is manifested in content change such as modifications of curriculum and structural change; and autonomy, which aimed to replicate competitive market governance and which is hoped to advocate the empowerment for educational stakeholders.

This chapter focuses on Jack Reed’s activities in support of public education. Throughout the sixties, seventies, and eighties, Reed played an active role in the growth of the Community Development Foundation (CDF), Tupelo’s economic development organization made up of business and industry leaders in Lee County. The CDF, with Reed as one of its main spokesmen, stressed the need for strong public schools in Tupelo and Lee County. Reed was also appointed as chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Education, which laid the groundwork for the passage of the historic Education Reform Act of 1982—a sweeping piece of legislation that forever changed Mississippi’s schools.

Approaches to education reform rarely follow a simple, linear path. Rather than pursuing one approach single-mindedly over an extended period of years, school reform—informed by research, changes in public policy, and differences in the dynamic needs of students from changing communities—tends to be characterized by continuous change and sometimes seems to recycle approaches that have been tried before. For those of us who have worked toward education reform throughout our careers, this process of change does not betray a lack of consistency or commitment but constitutes a necessary response to the continually changing conditions in which public schools must operate. The demographics of our schools are dynamic, particularly because of escalating numbers of immigrants from around the world. Our fiscal circumstances are in continual flux. Community expectations of what schools should provide are subject to change as well, often through a growing national awareness of the connection between the quality of America’s schools and the character of our democratic institutions. Two of the most significant reform strategies to emerge during the past decade may seem contradictory: on the one hand, those strategies that concentrate relentlessly on instructional improvement, and, on the other hand, those that seek to establish the school as a community centerpiece for addressing a broad range of personal, social, and family needs that relate to the health of the community as a whole. At first glance these two strategies—a narrow focus on teaching and learning contrasted with a wider focus through what are called extended-service or full-service schools— appear to be at cross-purposes. Poor student performance, particularly when combined with difficult economic times, gives rise to a set of tough questions that all educational leaders sooner or later must confront: Can schools be all things to all people? Are educators being asked to take on too much? Can schools be expected to solve all of society’s problems with very limited resources? Is it not better for schools to do a few things well, rather than taking on too much and risking superficial results?