Educational Reform

Reform is a complex concept. As a noun, the term is used to describe changes in policy, practice, or organization. As a verb, reform refers to intended or enacted attempts to correct an identified problem. As an educational aspiration, its goal is to realize deep, systemic, and sustained restructuring of public schooling. Throughout the history of American public education, [Page 306]reform has been a means of conceiving and enacting visions of the collective good. From the establishment of common schools, through struggles over John Dewey's advocacy for public education as the primary method of social reform, to the far-reaching ambitions of the No Child Left Behind Act, reform efforts have responded to conditions of broad consequence that require ethically centered and future-oriented deliberation and action. ...