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While the achievement gap has dominated policy discussions over the past two decades, relatively little attention has been paid to a gap that is even more at odds with American ideals: the opportunity gap. Opportunity and achievement, while inextricably connected, are very different goals. Every American will not go to college. But every American should be given fair opportunities to be prepared for college. By treating opportunity as an afterthought and obsessively focusing on measuring achievement, the nation’s policymakers have made little progress in measuring or addressing inequitable opportunities. Policy has therefore failed to engage with these challenges or with the supports and resources that lead to improvements in student learning. The achievement gap has not arisen by coincidence; children learn when they have opportunities to learn, and gaps in opportunities have led to gaps in achievement. Moreover, students’ learning experiences and outcomes are deeply affected by many factors outside the immediate control of schools.Closing the Opportunity Gap brings together top experts who offer evidence-based essays that paint a powerful and shocking picture of denied opportunities. They also describe sensible, research-based policy approaches that will enhance opportunities. They highlight the discrepancies that exist in our society and in our public schools, focusing on how policy decisions and broader circumstances conspire to create the opportunity gap that leads inexorably to the outcome differences that have become so stark.

Human capital theory, the notion that there is a direct relationship between educational investment and individual and national prosperity, has dominated public policy on education and labor for the past fifty years. This book describes the development of human capital theory and why it has turned into a failed revolution. It outlines an alternative theory that re-defines human capital in an age of smart machines. The new human capital rejects the view that automation and AI will result in the end of waged work, but sees the fundamental problem as a lack of quality jobs offering interesting, worthwhile and rewarding opportunities. At stake in the new human capital are the future prospects for individual wellbeing in productive, sustainable and inclusive societies. It also connects with a growing sense that capitalism is in crisis, felt by students and the wider workforce, in offering a sober assessment of current realities at the same time as a sense of hope for the future.

The Indian higher education system commanded awe and respect in the ancient world. Important seats of learning like Nalanda and Takshashila attracted the best students and academics from across the globe. Unfortunately, over a period of time, our higher education system lost its global competitiveness. This is exemplified by the fact that not many Indian higher education institutions feature in the annual world university rankings like the Times Higher Education World University Rankings or the QS World University Rankings. At the same time, India’s aspirations to establish world-class universities have never been greater. The book is a culmination of a range of ideas and perspectives that will shape India’s aspirations of building world-class universities through comparative and international dimensions. It is a recognition that the future of Indian universities and their ability to seek global excellence will depend on three critical paradigms: first is the need for creating a vision for higher education that will focus on research and knowledge creation, institutional excellence, and global benchmarking as the indicators for standard-setting; second, the need for pursuing substantial reforms relating to policy, regulation, and governance of higher education; and third is the need for investigating a paradigmatic shift for promoting interdisciplinarity in higher education with a stronger and deeper focus on the pedagogy of teaching and learning in different fields of inquiry. Through a series of contributions from noted academics and scholars from India and around the world, this book discusses these three strings of thought, to create higher education opportunities that will enable the future generations of students to pursue world-class education in world-class universities in India.

This book chronicles the history of education policymaking in India. The focus of the book is on the period from 1964 when the landmark Kothari Commission was constituted; however, to put the policy developments in this period into perspective major developments since the Indian Education Commission (1882) have been touched upon. The distinctiveness of the book lies in the rare insights which come from the author’s experience of making policy at the state, national and international levels; it is also the first book on the making of Indian education policy which brings to bear on the narrative comparative and historical perspectives it, which pays attention to the process and politics of policymaking and the larger setting –the political and policy environment- in which policies were made at different points of time, which attempts to subject regulation of education to a systematic analyses the way regulation of utilities or business or environment had been, and integrates judicial policymaking with the making and implementation of education policies. In fact for the period subsequent to 1979, there have been articles- may be a book or two- on some aspects of these developments individually; however, there is no comprehensive narrative that covers developments as a whole and places them against the backdrop of national and global political, economic, and educational developments.

This book chronicles India’s quest for universal elementary education (UEE) with focus on the period after 1986, a period during which India made spectacular strides progressing from a country which accounted for a third to one with a minuscule 0.3 per cent of the out-of-school children in the world. This was also the period in which following the Jomtien Conference on Education for All and the acute macroeconomic crisis of early 1990s India mobilized funding on an unprecedented scale from development agencies like the World Bank, European Community, DFID, and UNICEF. For the first time, this book comprehensively narrates against the backdrop of national and global ideational, economic, political, and educational developments the dynamics of the engagement with development agencies, and all developments, policies, and programmes which contributed to spectacular strides. The distinctiveness of the book lies in the fact that for the first time for a book on education, and unusual even for books on policy and development cooperation the book illuminates the inner workings of governments and development agencies, the political and administrative processes and policy conflicts that were crucial in conceptualizing and implementing the policies and programmes, the complex web of interactions between the central government, state governments, and development agencies, and the innovative manner in which external funds were mobilized with the Indian government exercising leadership in its relationship with agencies, and without compromising its right country to autonomously and self-reliantly plan and implement programmes. All in all, the book provides information and many insights few, even experts, possess, and should be of interest to not only to educationists, and educational administrators but also to scholars and practitioners of development cooperation and policymaking in general.

No school district can be all charismatic leaders and super-teachers. It can't start from scratch, and it can't fire all its teachers and principals when students do poorly. Great charter schools can only serve a tiny minority of students. Whether we like it or not, most of our youngsters will continue to be educated in mainstream public schools. The good news, this book reveals, is that there is a sensible way to rebuild public education and close the achievement gap for all students. Indeed, this is precisely what's happening in a most unlikely place: Union City, New Jersey, a poor, crowded Latino community just across the Hudson from Manhattan. The school district—once one of the worst in the state—has ignored trendy reforms in favor of proven game-changers like quality early education, a word-soaked curriculum, and hands-on help for teachers. When beneficial new strategies have emerged, like using sophisticated data-crunching to generate pinpoint assessments to help individual students, they have been folded into the mix. The results demand that we take notice—from third grade through high school, Union City scores on the high-stakes state tests approximate the statewide average. In other words, these inner-city kids are achieving just as much as their suburban cousins in reading, writing, and math. What's even more impressive, nearly ninety percent of high school students are earning their diplomas and sixty percent of them are going to college. Top students are winning national science awards and full rides at Ivy League universities. These schools are not just good places for poor kids. They are good places for kids, period.

In a conversation about youth agency, the most common discourses that come up are of acts of liberation, resistance, and deviance. However, this perspective is fairly narrow and runs the risk of reinforcing pervasive and often polarizing depictions of youth. In order to broaden the understanding of young people’s collective actions and their potential social implications, it is necessary to ask: What types of agency do young people demonstrate? This book aims to scrutinize some of the conceptual ideas that underlie prevalent visions of youth as agents of social change and as a source of hope for a better future. As a part of the Education and Society in South Asia series, it provides insightful accounts of students’ daily routines on and around a public university campus in Kathmandu, Nepal, and calls attention to a group of non-elite university students who have remained less visible in scholarly and public debates about student activism, youth unemployment, and international migration. By placing different strands of literature on youth, aspiration, and mobility into conversation, In Search of a Future unveils new and important perspectives on how young people navigate competing social expectations, educational inequalities, and limited job prospects.

An all-too-popular explanation for why black students aren't doing better in school is their own use of the “acting white” slur to ridicule fellow blacks for taking advanced classes, doing schoolwork, and striving to earn high grades. Carefully reconsidering how and why black students have come to equate school success with whiteness, this book argues that when students understand race to be connected with achievement, it is a powerful lesson conveyed by schools, not their peers. Drawing on over ten years of ethnographic research, the book shows how equating school success with “acting white” arose in the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education through the practice of curriculum tracking, which separates students for instruction, ostensibly by ability and prior achievement. Only in very specific circumstances, when black students are drastically underrepresented in advanced and gifted classes, do anxieties about “the burden of acting white” emerge. Racialized tracking continues to define the typical American secondary school, but it goes unremarked, except by the young people who experience its costs and consequences daily. The narratives in this book throw light on the complex relationships underlying school behaviors and convincingly demonstrate that the problem lies not with students, but instead with how America organizes its schools.

First in the series on Education and Society in South Asia, this volume focuses on the educational thought of a world-renowned teacher, thinker, and writer—Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986). This edited volume examines Krishnamurti’s work and explores his contemporary relevance in educational endeavours and practices in different parts of the country. The contributors to the volume argue that Krishnamurti sought to change the way education is perceived, from the mere teaching of curriculum into a life-changing experience of learning from relationships and life. Through a range of essays that address diverse issues and themes, the contributors seek to uncover the practices and processes at some of the institutions that Krishnamurti established in different parts of rural and urban India. These include essays on curriculum building, inclusive education, pedagogy, debates on educational philosophy and practice, and teacher education. They help bring out the barriers and breakthroughs in the educational processes as practiced in these schools and how they may further be applied to other educational institutions.

How can we help African American and Latino students perform better in the classroom and on exams? Why are so many African American and Latino students performing less well than their Asian and White peers? Researchers have argued that African American and Latino students who rebel against “acting white” doom themselves to lower levels of scholastic, economic, and social achievement. However, this book argues that what is needed is a broader recognition of the unique cultural styles and practices that non-white students bring to the classroom. Based on extensive interviews and surveys of students in New York, the book demonstrates that the most successful negotiators of the American school systems are the multicultural navigators, culturally savvy teens who draw from multiple traditions, whether it be knowledge of hip hop or of classical music, to achieve their high ambitions. The book refutes the common wisdom about teenage behavior and racial difference, and shows how intercultural communication, rather than assimilation, can help close the black-white gap.

This book reconstructs the subjective interpretation of school life as perceived by teachers and pupils at Rishi Valley School (in Andhra Pradesh, India) which is often considered the hallmark of progressive education. It argues that the individual is significant to the schooling process in terms of the worlds that are created, managed, negotiated, contested, and developed. It also contends that the school's ‘ideology’, in the case of Rishi Valley, is especially explicit in underlining how the individual catalyses the transformation of the social world. The book explores the dilemmas and contradictions in the functioning of the transcendental and local orders in the everyday life of the school, and cites the fact that the students and teachers learn to negotiate their way through these contradictions and the conflict they may generate. It also considers the significant relations between philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti's ideas and the institutions that seek to implement them. The Rishi Valley School is one such institution in India, with a dynamic character which is reflected in its ability to engage in a continuous process of transformation. The book also discusses ideology and education, school organization, school culture (rituals and ceremonies), teacher culture, formal and informal interaction between teachers, pupil culture, and freedom and constraint in teacher-pupil interaction.

Negotiating Opportunities reveals that the middle-class advantage in school is, at least in part, a negotiated advantage. Essentially, this means that middle-class students secure advantages not only by complying with teachers’ expectations but also by requesting (and successfully securing) support in excess of what is fair or required. This book traces that negotiated advantage from its origins at home to its consequences at school. It follows a group of middle-class and working-class students from third to seventh grade and draws on observations and interviews with children, parents, and teachers. The middle-class students learned to negotiate advantages from their parents’ coaching at home. Teachers tended to grant those requests, even when they wanted to say “no.” As a result, middle-class students received the bulk of teachers’ assistance, accommodations, and positive attention. That extra support gave middle-class students advantages over their working-class peers, including more correct answers on tests, more time to complete assignments, more opportunities for creativity, and more recognition for their ideas. The book concludes with a discussion of these findings and their implications for scholars, educators, parents, and policymakers. It argues that teaching working-class students to act like their middle-class peers will not be enough to alleviate inequalities because middle-class families will find new ways to negotiate advantages that keep them one step ahead.

Contrary to the conventional belief that social movements cannot engage the state without becoming co-opted and demobilized, this study shows how movements can advance their struggles by strategically working with, in, through, and outside of state institutions. The success of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST) in occupying land, winning land rights, and developing alternative economic enterprises for over a million landless workers has made it an inspiration for progressive organizations globally. The MST’s educational initiatives, which are less well known but equally as important, teach students about participatory democracy, collective work, agroecological farming, and other practices that support its socialist vision. This study details how MST activists have pressured municipalities, states, and the federal government to implement their educational proposal in public schools and universities, affecting hundreds of thousands of students. Based on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork, Occupying Schools, Occupying Land documents the potentials, constraints, failures, and contradictions of the MST’s educational struggle. A major lesson is that participating in the contentious co-governance of public education can help movements recruit new activists, diversify their membership, increase practical and technical knowledge, and garner political power. Activists are most effective when combining disruption, persuasion, negotiation, and co-governance into their tactical repertoires. Through expansive leadership development, the MST implemented its educational program in local schools, even under conservative governments. Such gains demonstrate the potential of schools as sites for activists to prefigure, enact, and develop the social and economic practices they hope to use in the future.

The central message of this book can be summarized in one sentence: It is still important to create adequate demand for education, especially from certain sections of society, along with improvements in the supply or provision of schooling, if we want to address the known problems in this regard in India. This is evident from the fact that certain socio-economic factors act as significant determinants of not only—non-enrolment, dropouts, irregular attendance—but also inadequate learning in Indian schools. It is also noted that mere growth in income or expansion of economic opportunities need not encourage all sections of parents to use schooling for their children. Hence, demand-side interventions (which may include social interventions beyond the provision of monetary incentives) continue to be important in Indian context. Conventional demand-side interventions like midday meal seem to be ineffective in the current context when unskilled wage rates have increased and a meal at school may not be a serious attraction to send kids to school. Though the Right to Education (RTE) Act can be interpreted as a demand-side intervention since denying education to a child is reckoned as an unconstitutional act there, it may also be not that effective in ensuring quality schooling for all. It does not have an enforcement machinery to see that all children attend school on a regular basis. The book also examines different social interventions attempted in different parts of the world which enabled the creation generation of demand for schooling and draws a few practical lessons.

This book examines English studies in the school curriculum in India and, using this as a lens, explores the shifts in the construction of nationalism, modernity, and identity in independent India. Discussing the national education policy in general and the English language policy in particular, it traces the development of a specific ideology of postcoloniality in India. It examines State-produced school textbooks, identifies how English curriculum both reflects and constructs identity in particular ways, and discusses classroom practice in schools to consider the ways in which ideology shapes pedagogic practice.

This volume examines the history and research on the sociology of education (SoE) in India. It analyses the influence of culture, identities, structural inequalities, and poverty on education, and evaluates how sociological tools can be used to address the impending crisis in the educational system. The consistent study of SoE has been slow in India, as is evident in the only recent attempts to establish the structure of the discipline. This volume places the SoE as a sub-discipline of Indian sociology, with the first few studies on education being undertaken in the 1950s/1960s by Kothari Commission (1964-6). The book emphasizes the need to grow the sociological imagination as there is still a lack of understanding of education as a social institution and its interlinkages with poverty, cultural diversity, and the world of work. This book attempts to deal with how structural inequalities, cultural diversity, and identities of different social groups mediate institutional practices and influence learning. These are areas of research where sociologists of education in India have a critical role to play.

This book details a sociological, comparative analysis of the institutional and group dynamics in eight schools located within four cities in the United States and South Africa. This book details how even as discussions and approaches to educational equality differ significantly in two nations rebounding from centuries of overt practices of racial and social inequality, many everyday school exchanges and practices parallel one another. Educators in the United States and South Africa are faced with the continual challenges of how to make schools work better for all students and of how to incorporate diverse groups of students better within these schools. This book argues chiefly that schools in these two societies, weakened historically by racial and ethnic discrimination, will greatly miss the benefits of a critical social policy for reducing inequality via education if they do not pay sufficient attention to the school's socio-cultural context. This book sheds insight into how to enable school-communities to better incorporate previously disadvantaged groups and to engender equity by promoting “cultural flexibility.” It also raises important and timely questions about the social, political, and philosophical purposes of schooling that have been greatly ignored by many and cautions against myopic approaches to education that merely focus on test-scores and attainment outcomes.

Colleges and universities in the United States play a profoundly important role in American society. Currently, that role is being hampered by a climate that constrains teaching, research, hiring, and overall discourse. There are three core beliefs that define this climate. First, any initiative framed as an antidote to historical societal ills is automatically deemed meritorious, and thus exempted from objective scrutiny of its potential effectiveness. However, to use a medical analogy, not all proposed cures for a disease are good cures. Second, all differences in group-level outcomes are assumed to be due entirely to discrimination, with little tolerance given to exploring the potential role of factors such as culture or preferences. Third, everything must be interpreted through the lens of identity. Non-identity-centered perspectives, regardless of how worthy they might be, are viewed as less legitimate or even illegitimate. All of these beliefs are well intentioned and have arisen in response to important historical and continuing injustices. However, they are enforced in uncompromising terms through the use of social media, which has gained an ascendant role in shaping the culture of American campuses. The result is a climate that forecloses entire lines of research, entire discussions, and entire ways of conducting classroom teaching. The book explains these three beliefs in detail and provides an extensive list of case studies illustrating how they are impacting education and knowledge creation—and increasingly the world beyond campus. The book also provides a detailed set of recommendations on ways to help foster an environment on American campuses that would be more tolerant of diverse perspectives and open inquiry. A note about Covid-19: While the production of this book was done in spring and summer of 2020, we completed the manuscript in 2019, well before the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered American college campuses in March 2020. To put it mildly, the dynamics of campus discourse are very different when dorms have been largely emptied and instruction has been moved to Zoom. Of course, at present we cannot know when students will be able to return to campus in significant numbers. That said, we are confident that our call for a culture of more open discourse in higher education will remain relevant both during the pandemic and after it has passed.

Since the 1960s, universities have ignited new discourse as free speech movements, LGBT, feminism movements in the West. Universities not only served as centers of learning but also promoted resistance through critical thinking. The recent wave of student resistance in India has brought the role of the university to the forefront. The University as a Site of Resistance analyses massive protests that emerged in the aftermath of Rohith Vemula’s death in Hyderabad Central University, as well as the Azadi Campaign started by Jawaharlal Nehru University students in Delhi in 2016. Taking Osmania University in Hyderabad as a case study, the book provides an ethnographic account of the emergence of one of India’s longest student movements— the movement for Telangana statehood. Since its inception in the 1960s to its culmination in the formation of Telangana state in 2014, students at Osmania University played a decisive role. The book discusses protest strategies, methods, and networks among students. It also examines the role played by various caste and sub-caste groups and civil society in making the movement a success. The author argues that contemporary identity-based student movements are primarily cultural movements. As the traditional caste and class analysis becomes redundant to explain such contemporary collective action, the book establishes these unique resistances as New Social Movements and claim that these movements contribute to the democratization of institutional spaces. In this context, the volume provides a conceptual debate on contemporary cultural politics among university students.

Angry debates about polarizing speakers have roiled college campuses. Conservatives accuse universities of muzzling unpopular opinions, betraying their values of open inquiry; students sympathetic to the Left advocate for some regulation of speech, asking for “safe spaces” and protection against visiting speakers and even curricula they feel disrespects them. Some even call these students “snowflakes”—too fragile to be exposed to opinions and ideas that challenge their worldviews. How might universities resolve these debates about free speech, which pit students’ welfare against the university’s commitment to free inquiry and open debate? This book provides a new way of looking at this dilemma. It explains how the current dichotomy is false and is not really about the feelings of offended students, or protecting an open marketplace of ideas. Rather, what is at stake is our democracy’s commitment to equality, and the university’s critical role as an arbiter of truth. The book shows how and why free speech forges an otherwise uneasy alliance of liberals and ultraconservatives, and why this First Amendment absolutism is untenable in law and society in general. The book draws on law, philosophy, and the author’s extensive experience as a university administrator to show that the lens of equality can resolve this impasse, and can allow the university to serve as a model for democracy that upholds both truth and equality as its founding principles.