"College and Career Pathways" is an educational policy initiative widely acclaimed as a commonsensical and effective measure to ease students' transitions between secondary and postsecondary education and into the middle-skill jobs. This article investigates the internal dynamics of the "Pathways'" curricular model as well as…

The small school movement originated in the democratic ideology of Deborah Meier, who sought to create schools that gave students, parents, teachers, and all stakeholders in the communities they served a voice in education. In New York City, Meier's vision was implemented haphazardly by a group of business and political elites able to pour…

This policy study critically compares two different efforts to implement an accountability system in the New York City public schools. In 1971, the New York City Board of Education contracted with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), which created a lengthy accountability plan for the district. Fitful maneuvers to execute the ETS plan fizzled…

This article shows the process through which one teacher and a group of eleventh-graders worked to create spaces for democratic education in a hierarchically organized New York City public school that is heralded as a model of success under current reform initiatives. In response to student resistance to a required unit on Tim O'Brien's novel, The…

This article provides a case study of how a business culture imposes modes of educational leadership on a public school system in New York City that has little if any concerns for empowering children, teachers, and the communities. The article provides a counter-narrative that serves to dispel the notion that the culture of educational empowerment…

State support for public colleges and universities is based on a historic relationship; these institutions were established to perform the public service mission of predominantly educating residents from local and state-wide communities at a lower price than private, independent colleges and universities. In return, the states appropriated funds…

Many urban school districts have recently implemented sweeping reforms that alter the ways in which educational services are administered. The environment in which these reforms are embedded is increasingly and more directly tied to core political institutions and business elites. Hence, as this dependence has grown, districts have become more…

In this article the authors tell the story of their separate but related journeys toward "coming of age in methodology," journeys that brought them, as non-indigenous women, into relationships with indigenous peoples, who challenged them to unlearn their taken-for-granted notions about research. The first study highlights the pervasive…