The role of schools in promoting social reproduction is the focus of unproductive debate among proponents and between adherents and others. This essay is concerned with how this body of theory may become a force for progressive, practical transformation. (MT)

The roots of the American testing movement lie deeply imbedded in the American progressive temper which combined its belief in progress, its racial attitudes and its faith in the scientific-expert working through the state authority to ameliorate and control the evolutionary progress of the race. (Author)

Two perspectives on the sociology of education were identified and related to general sociological perspectives. The theme of constraint and construction was considered in relation to the institution of education and its role in capitalist society. (JN)

This essay examines how themes emerging in the writing of New Left thinkers resemble those espoused by traditional American cultural conservatives. The views of Donald Davidson, a representative of the Southern Agrarian movement, concerning industrialization in the United States and the role of progressive education in socialization are discussed.…