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Drawing on the traditions of critical race theory, the paper is presented as a chronicle - a narrative - featuring two invented characters with different histories and expertise. Together they explore the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative approaches to race equality in education. In societies that are structured in racial domination, such as the USA and the UK, quantitative approaches often encode particular assumptions about the nature of social processes and the generation of educational inequality that reflect a generally superficial understanding of racism. Statistical methods can obscure the material reality of racism and the more that statisticians manipulate their data, the more it is likely that majoritarian assumptions will be introduced as part of the fabric of the calculations themselves and the conclusions that are drawn. Focusing on the case of recent national data on the secondary education of minoritized children in England, the paper highlights statisticians' ability to define what counts as a 'real' inequality without public challenge or scrutiny; reflects on the dangers of statistical 'explanations' in the realm of public debate and policy outcomes; and questions quantitative assumptions about the intersectional relationships between different forms of oppression, including gender, class and race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A description of a recent report issued by the US-based Alliance for Childhood indicates the main criticisms made of the use of ICT in primary education. These criticisms are considered and the arguments developed in the report are examined. The effect of the report's publication is also discussed, as is the media response in the US and beyond. As a partial answer to the report's claims regarding creativity and computers, two practitioners provide case study evidence of the ways in which ICT has been used to develop innovative classroom activities. The paper concludes with a call for enlightened discourse in this area rather than polemical stance-taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the city with the largest charter-school market share in the United States, New Orleans, Louisiana exemplifies market-oriented models in education. For a city that is so ‘drenched in the past,’ the reform movement in New Orleans typically neglects historical context, often dismissing the education system pre-Katrina as simply corrupt and dysfunctional. This is an incomplete story. While national narratives and news media tend to downplay these features, there is no local consensus on the reforms. There is mistrust on both sides of the debate, and a growing opposition movement, which arises from decades of racial and political struggles, corrupt public officials, and previous experiences with the state exerting power over locally elected school boards, which disenfranchised African-Americans in New Orleans in particular. Although the new, post-Katrina educational system significantly altered political dynamics, it has not eradicated politics altogether. In this paper, I conduct a policy history of education reforms in New Orleans, connecting the historical and political context to current reform efforts. As researchers evaluate the effectiveness of the new reforms in terms of student achievement, it is important also to examine their impacts on communities and the democratic control of schools, as well as how they reproduce or break from historical patterns of political struggle and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses the research on crack-exposed children, their development and its implications for educational policy. It details the medical community's lack of consensus how, or if, crack-cocaine effects the cognitive development of children born pre-exposed to the drug. The article gives attention to some of the prevailing questions about crack-exposed children at school age and their educational needs. It addresses the question of whether crackexposed children are really doomed for failure, why educational policies and programmes designed specifically for crack children are necessary, and explores the implications for early intervention programmes and school-based programmes. At the heart of this paper lies a policy paradox. In the US one set of (health and social service) policies have targeted crack-exposed children and in so doing, have constructed the 'problem' as a public health issue. Other policies to address the 'crack-baby crisis' defined the 'problem' as a criminal issue, and thus punitive policies toward crack-using women became the focus of policy initiatives. This policy trajectory has thus masked and displaced the need for policy work in other areas; here, educational work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been considerable scholarship on the role of school and district leadership within instructional change, there has been little analysis of the values and orientations that undergird current policy debates about instructional leadership. This article outlines the importance of examining instructional leadership in the context of broader political and cultural debates about government and about how society should be organized. It identifies two distinct models of instructional leadership emerging as part of these dynamics: the market model and the polis model. Drawing on interviews and observations with 59 school staff across three cities and with 55 district administrators, it examines the tensions that these competing models create for school administrators working in improving schools within high poverty communities. In each district, system-wide press to improve instruction activated district management practices that contradicted reform goals of building a professional community of educators and administrators focused on teaching and learning. Further, how district staff viewed and approached their work departed in significant ways from the management practices of school administrators. Based on this research, the article identifies the importance of administrators' professional contexts in studies of instructional leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]