Samples of Future Articles:

The Relocation of Education Governance: Trail of Fears ... by Dara Wakefield.

POLICYMAKERS AND CITIZENS ALIKE were shocked when the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite glided across U.S. skies in 1957. The United States, many thought, was not keeping up with the Soviets technologically. A consensus developed: make public schools produce more mathematicians and scientists. It took decades to learn that the fears had been unfounded, for all along, the United States and other Western societies had possessed ample intellectual and economic power to deal with the Soviet challenge.

Nonetheless, fear continued to act as a powerful political motivator and source of leverage in formulating U.S. education policy. To deal with the alleged Soviet (and later, “Asian tiger”) educational superiority, local school boards were hounded for five decades to relinquish their responsibilities for educational oversight to state and federal governments. ...

The Persistent Purpose of Schooling: Institutionalizing Conscience ... by Edward G. Rozycki

SUPPOSE RESEARCH SHOWED THAT teachers who permitted elementary school students in their classes to exhibit persistent back-biting, bullying, bigoted behavior received superior results on standardized tests . (We can imagine our more entrepreneurial confrères touting “the 3-B method.”) Nonetheless, would many parents want to subject their kids to such persistent abuse, even though math and reading achievement were improved? ...

Although schoolpeople have some reason for confusing the distinction, legality (or “following the rules”) and morality are not the same. They are somewhat complexly related independent concepts. What is illegal (“breaks the rules”) is not necessarily immoral. What is not immoral is not necessarily legal (“following the rules”). Some common examples illustrate these distinctions: ...

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(A complete copy of the article previewed below can be accessed by clicking HERE.)

Ten More Years of Dumdums: Dissenting Thoughts on Education Reform ... by Wade A. Carpenter

I believe that . . . the teacher always is the prophet of the true God
and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God.—John Dewey

Shut up, ye saints of God! His kingdom He will bring
Whene’er He will, so just sit still, You cannot do a thing!—The Lame Doc

HAPPILY, BOTH DEWEY’S MESSIANIC pretensions and the Lame Doc’s false humility miss the mark . Schoolteachers are not likely to usher in The Kingdom all by our lonesomes . Nonetheless, politics and red tape haven’t totally neutered our profession yet; we are still able to accomplish feats of brilliance and beauty. But we won’t be able to do so much longer unless we can stop our political leaders from corrupting us. ...

A Note from the Editors and Columnists

In a top-down era of rubrics, standards, and bureaucracy, and in an unprecedented atmosphere of teacher-bashing, NEW EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS will offer independent and alternative voices. We invite outside-the-box critiques and nonstandard suggestions, ranging from opinion pieces to scholarly articles, for an online refereed journal of ideas and dialogue.

Because we expect to establish NEW EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS (NEF) within the framework of a nonprofit organization, we are relying on NewFoundations Press (newfoundations.com) for support only during our start-up phase.

In this journal we are looking for neither cheerleading nor venting — those are for blogs. We will neither favor nor reject any ideological bent, since as a group, we, the editors and reviewers of NEF ourselves, represent different, often conflicting commitments to fundamental beliefs.

Nor do we want to nurture either the culture of complaint or that of compliance — we have politicians who do that for a living. Rather, we are looking for the kind of ideas and research that just don't normally arise in committee meetings or handpicked commissions, selecting for quality of thought and presentation and editing principally for space and grammar.

This journal will be a forum for independent-minded teachers, professors, administrators, and researchers who prefer intelligent practice over merely implementing the will of others. We fear that "professionals" who just do what they are told may as easily serve a tyranny as a democracy, and if they're good enough at it, it becomes hard to tell the difference. There are alternatives to this scenario, and NEF will explore those alternatives.

Of course, we're also looking for readers. We hope to have an a complimentary first issue published for late summer or early fall 2012. This introductory issue will be available online via an address to be announced on this website. After that we hope to offer a yearly subscription of four issues for under $10. Because electronic publication eliminates the costs of printing, binding, and mailing, we hope to keep the price of subscription low.

So, if you want to become a contributor, send your monograph or letter of interest to info@newfoundations.com.

Cordially,
Roberts Ehrgott, Wade Carpenter, Gary Clabaugh, Richard Phelps, Edward Rozycki