Tinkering toward utopia
Subtitle: a century of public school reform
By: David Tyack & Larry Cuban.
Contributors: Cuban, Larry.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 184
Subjects: Educational change -- United States -- History -- 19th century; Educational change -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Education -- Social aspects -- United States; Education and state -- United States; Politics and education -- United States
Description: "In this book, David Tyack and Larry Cuban explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to "reinvent" schooling?"--BOOK JACKET.

"Tyack and Cuban argue that the ahistorical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and that reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [145]-176) and index.