Chapter 15: Race and the Politics of Educational Reform

In a number of recent books, I have critically analyzed the ways in which neo-liberal and neo-conservative ideological movements have transformed our common sense. In the process, I have examined a range of proposals for educational “reform” such as marketization, standards, national/state-wide curricula and national/statewide testing. As I have demonstrated, even with the (supposedly) good intentions of the proponents of many of these kinds of proposals, in the long run these policies may actually exacerbate inequalities, especially around class and race. Furthermore, they may paradoxically cause us both to mis-recognize what actually causes difficult social and educational problems and to miss some important democratic alternatives that may offer more hope in the long run (see, e.g., Apple, 2000, 2001; Apple & Beane, 1995, 1999).