Harlow G. Unger – Encyclopedia of American Education (Third edition)

Автор: Harlow G. Unger
Название книги: Encyclopedia of American Education (Third edition)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: История Америки, Австралии, Океании
Страницы: 1403
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

The only comprehensive reference to the development and present state of American education, Encyclopedia of American Education, Third Edition includes more than 2,000 entries spanning the colonial period to the present. This authoritative three-volume reference provides a wealth of information on virtually every aspect of education, from the evolution of school curriculum, education funding, and church-state controversies to the latest debates on multiculturalism, prayer in school, and sex education. Author Harlow G. Unger, one of the country’s foremost education experts, has substantially updated existing entries and added more than 40 new entries. Appendixes include significant federal legislation, important U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and lists of undergraduate majors and graduate school programs. More than 10 new photographs have been added to this edition, and more than half a dozen experts in education served as editorial consultants for this encyclopedia.

The Encyclopedia of American Education,
Third Edition is designed as an easy-to-use
reference for the entire educational community:
above all, students of education, but also
teachers, librarians, parents, school administrators,
school board members, legislators and
all others directly or indirectly affiliated with
or interested in education and the education
process. With more than 2,500 entries, the
encyclopedia was honored by the American
Library Association as one of the best new reference
works when the first edition appeared
in 1996. The second edition, published five
years later, improved and expanded the contents,
and now this third edition has raised the
standards still higher. The most comprehensive
reference work of its kind, the new edition of
the encyclopedia covers every broad area of
education: administration, federal and state
legislation, court decisions, finance, pedagogy,
special education, vocational education, history,
school reform, classroom technology, and
so on. The list is all but endless. The encyclopedia
also presents in-depth examinations of
the many complex problems facing American
educators: illegal immigrants, the spread of
Islam, bilingual education, ethnic and racial
educational achievement gaps, campus crime,
charter schools, intelligent design, rewards and
risks of Internet in classrooms and libraries,
failing schools, failing students, digital libraries,
illiteracy, high school and college graduation
rates, national testing, school vouchers,
financial aid and hundreds of other topics. The
appendixes add another dimension, providing
an extensive cross-referenced bibliography for
each subject area, a chronology of education
in America since 1607, a listing and summary
of significant federal legislation in education
since 1787, and a listing with summaries of
major U.S. Supreme Court decisions affecting
education since the first decision in 1819 to the
most recent.
Another new dimension in the third edition
of the encyclopedia is the revelation of
new research into academic rankings for each
state public school system and the correlation
among student academic proficiency, education
funding, teacher salaries, pupil/teacher
ratios, poverty and other factors affecting student
achievement. Startling statistics disclose
that failing schools and failing students may
have less to do with funding and education in
schools than the economy, culture and society
of neighborhoods that surround schools.
Since the groundbreaking first edition
appeared in American libraries, American education
has changed dramatically, and the encyclopedia
has kept pace, adding nearly 100 new
articles on a variety of topics, including electronic
classrooms, digital libraries, and breakthroughs
in special education such as RTI and
DIBELS. Wireless and virtual classrooms did
not exist when the first edition went to press,
and e-textbooks and interactive whiteboards
seemed little more than high-tech curiosities
when the second edition appeared. These
and dozens of other electronic teaching tools are elements of growing importance to mainstream
American education today and, accordingly,
to this third edition of the Encyclopedia of
American Education.
In compiling the third edition, we have
updated thousands of statistics and revised
more than 750 articles, including entries on the
history, trends and quality of education in each
of the 50 states and the District of Columbia;
the results of national tests under the National
Assessment of Educational Progress program,
and the development of national academic
standards. Like the two previous editions, the
third edition does not shy from controversial
areas—the decline in affirmative action and
resegregation of American public schools, the
obsessive struggle of Christian fundamentalists
to inject biblical “truths” and creationism
into public school science curricula and, perhaps
the most controversial, the failure of the
U.S. Department of Education’s massive, multibillion-
dollar spending schemes to improve
student academic proficiency or to budge the
persistently low high school and college graduation
rates from their levels of more than a
decade ago.
The information in this encyclopedia was
culled from the references cited in the bibliography
as well as a host of other sources. Some are
standard reference works, of course, but others
include the range of great works on education
from Plato’s Republic to Rousseau’s Émile. Not
every source can be cited for every iota of data
in this work. The list would be endless, stretching
from antiquity to Horace Mann, Booker T.
Washington, Emma Willard and, more recently,
John Goodlad and Theodore Sizer.
In addition to the many famous names
that do appear, I would also have to list dozens
of officials in public and private organizations
who have invariably responded willingly and
generously to my endless queries. They work at
the U.S. Department of Education and at various
state education departments, at schools
and colleges and universities and at many nonschool
educative organizations such as museums,
private foundations, trade associations
and charitable organizations. Many teachers,
librarians and school administrators have also
proved generous with their insights, knowledge
and time. I also wish to thank the brilliant educators
who serve on the board of editorial consultants.
I owe special thanks to editor in chief
James Chambers and the entire editorial and
production staff at Facts On File for invaluable
contributions in producing this complex work
and making it so important a contribution to
teacher education in the United States.
—Harlow G. Unger