The Urban Review, Vol. 22, No. 2, 1990

Editor's Introduction

This is the first of what we hope will be several special issues that explore school reform in different countries. We have decided to start this series of special issues with the United Kingdom because of the number of similarities between the reforms evolving from the Education Reform Act (1988) and recent developments in this country.

Stephen Ball and Geoff Whitty, the guest editors, have assembled authors for this special issue who explore such critical themes as a national curriculum, mandatory systemwide norm-referenced achievement testing, decentralization of decision making, privatization of schools, and magnet schools. Most importantly, they analyze the political motivation for each initiative, while asking to what extent each activity can advance the quality of schooling, especially for inner city youth. The kinds of questions each contributor raises, together with both the logic and evidence that they bring to answer these important questions, are very informative to the ongoing debate in this country concerning the best strategies for improving the educational opportunities for students attending urban schools. Consequently, this special issue on school reform in the United Kingdom deserves the very close attention of the reader.

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0042-0972/90/0600-0075506.00/0 © 1990 Human Sciences Press. Inc.