美国教育政策英文Word文件下载.docx

1、Education is an instrument of the broader social order. When society changes, education, sooner or later, also changes. Few activities or agencies, however, change as slowly, or in such small increments, as formal educationboth schools and colleges as well as both public and private institutions. Ed

2、ucations roots are deep and wide, penetrating almost every facet of society. Hence, education is subject to virtually every political force, including those that want change and those that want to protect the status quo.Public K12 educationwhich operates across fifty states, 14,000 local school dist

3、ricts, and 100,000 schools; involves 5 million employees and more than 48 million students; and costs more than $2 billion each dayis too large, too costly, and too enmeshed in political dynamics to change quickly. Postsecondary institutionscolleges and universitieshave become equally ponderous. Wit

4、h the advent of post World War II enrollment increases; the significance of university-based research for preserving the nations economic, medical, and military preeminence; and the substantial assumption of student financial aid by government, higher education also has become a major feature of the

5、 political landscape and become engulfed by much of the inertia that immobilizes lower schools.For most of American history, the nations most prestigious elementary and secondary schools and elite colleges have been few in number, and their private charters and religious affiliations have rendered t

6、hem generally independent of government. But for colleges and universities, nearly all of which, in the early twenty-first century, are accepting student financial-aid subsidies from government and engaging in government-sponsored research, this situation has changed. Government now is a major const

7、ituent for higher education, both public and private.Even for private preparatory and religious elementary and secondary schools, the condition of independence from government could change. If the U.S. Supreme Court approves allocation of public funds for private and religious institutions, private

8、schools could come under the full umbrella of public policy in the same way as their public institutional counterparts.Still, even as subjects of increasing politicization, and even if only at a glacial pace, schools and colleges do change. Formal education at the onset of the twenty-first century e

9、xhibited many differences from that of even thirty years previous, and it certainly was different from what children and parents experienced in the early part of the twentieth century.The Basics of Educational PolicySocieties rely upon the informal socialization of youth and immigrants and the forma

10、l education of citizens to preserve the polity and facilitate pursuit of individuals collective and personal preferences. Because of this mediating role in maintaining a society, formal education systems, and those who steer them, are unusually sensitive to alterations in citizens will or shifts in

11、decision makers views. When a society perceives itself subjected to threat or is engrossed in a major economic, technological, demographic, or ecological transformation, the education system is a principal instrument to which it turns in order to adjust to change and seek a new social equilibrium.Th

12、e larger and more democratic a society, the less linear and less transparent its education system alterations will be. In a dictatorship or narrow oligarchy, it is relatively easy to change an education system. In the booming, buzzing cacophony of the open, modern information age and a globally inte

13、rdependent society, education reform is episodic, conflict prone, inconsistent, and, sometimes painful.Indeed, the more porous and dynamic a society, the more inconsistent and conflictual its efforts to change its education system will appear. Interests deeply rooted in spheres such as economics, re

14、ligion, ideology, institutions, geography, race, and ethnicity will vie to have their worldview represented most forcefully in whatever education system emerges. These are the centrifugal forces that threaten the momentum and unity of any society. Countering these are centripetal （unifying） forces,

15、mostly institutions, ideologies, and influential individuals that seek consensus and cohesion. It is the tension between these dynamics that eventually shapes changes to a democracys education system.The Pressure for Reform in American EducationThe twentieth century, particularly its last two decade

16、s, represented a period of remarkably intense change. A brief review of what took place globally during this period suggests the reason why Americas education system has been under such intense pressure to reform.The postWorld War II cold war rivalry between East and West ended in the early 1990s. D

17、emocratic capitalism generally surmounted totalitarian socialism to become the worlds dominant political economy. Modern communication and transportation technologies contributed to globally oriented, highly mobile, and rapidly paced societies. Economic developments created a heretofore-unknown degr

18、ee of individual, organizational, and international interdependence. The United States emerged as the leading economic and political power in the world. This condition, coupled with globalization, generated added diplomatic, military, and humanitarian responsibilities for the nation and its citizens

19、.The United States is fortunate in having vast resources. It has become expected, however, to deploy these riches not only for the protection and promotion of its citizens but also for the well-being of the world. Issues of health in Africa, overpopulation in Asia, political instability in Latin Ame

20、rica, religious conflict in the Middle East, trade restrictions in Europe, ozone depletion in Antarctica, overfishing in the North Atlantic, or ice cap reductions in the Arctic are no longer remote issues. The eventual outcome of these conditions now matters as much for a child being raised on a pro

21、ductive family farm in South Dakota as to an apartheid-liberated farm family in South Africa.This new and fast-paced world has dampened some old issues. Widespread fears of nuclear annihilation, pestilence, and global famine have become ameliorated. But age-old concerns regarding religious and racia

22、l intolerance, social injustice, economic inequality, and discouraging instances of inhumanity have by no means been eliminated. Even a few new issues have evolved, for example, fear of widespread environmental degradation and uneven economic development between nations in the northern and southern

23、hemispheres.In making its adjustments to the new global world, American education policy is moving on two fronts simultaneously. First, the new world order necessitates that everyone be educated. Hence, issues of access and equality remain important. Second, it is no longer sufficient that individua

24、ls simply be exposed to schooling, it is increasingly important that they actually learn. Hence, the additional policy pressure is to render education institutions effective, both in achieving their objectives and in the use of the vast resources they command. The upshot is that both equality and ef

25、ficiency are paramount issues on the education policy agenda. When pressures emerge, however, for maximization of these two ends, then, inevitably, counterforces arise out of reaction to protect and extend the other policy objective, liberty.Defining PolicyPolicy is one of the principal vectors thro

26、ugh which influence flows between the larger society and education institutions. The term policy refers to the decisions and rules enacted by the three branches of government at all levelsnational, state, and local. The policy pipeline is capable of reciprocal transmission. Whereas societys preferen

27、ces shape and continually reshape education, the outcomes of education continually influence the values and preferences of the broader society.The word policy is derived from the Greek polis, referring to city or citizen. Subsequent Roman usage led to the term polity, meaning government, government

28、organization, regime, or nation. In modern parlance, policy refers to a uniform decision rule, a regulation, or a set of prescriptions that applies in all similar circumstances. The term public policy refers to a government-specified or -enacted decision rule. Of course, when people speak of educati

29、on policy, or at least public education policy, they are referring to government decision rules regarding education, schools, colleges, or related matters.Government rules regarding school attendance, graduation, college entry, what will be studied, who will teach, who will be paid, and who will pay

30、 are all illustrations of education policies. Policies are enacted by all three branches of government in the form of executive orders from the president, governors, and mayors; statutes and ordinances enacted by legislative bodies such as the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, and city councils; an

31、d judicial decisions issued by courts.The Public Values Underlying Education PolicyAmerican culture contains three strongly held values that significantly influence public policy in general and education policy specifically. They are equality, efficiency, and liberty. Government actions regarding national defense, housing, taxation, antitrust regulation, racial desegregation, and literally hundreds of other policy dimensions, including education, are motivated and molded by one or more of these three values.The overwhelmi