S. G. Grant

Framing a Scholarly Life

Had I any real talent, I might have pursued a career in art. I don’t and I didn’t, but I do have an artist’s eye: the tendency to notice detail in form, size, color, and texture and the disposition to look for patterns and themes. Such inclinations sensitized me to the importance of framing; after all, how images are framed, how they might be reframed to different effect, and even how frames function to include and/or exclude are key elements of an artistic view.

Evaluation of Social Studies and Civic Education Programs

Although social studies and civics are largely ignored in the George Bush era No Child Left Behind legislation, these are subjects that have generated considerable activity in terms of state-level curriculum and testing. These efforts, however, have not been coherently or consistently evaluated. Most of the recent social studies/civics curriculum work has occurred at the state level; yet most of the curriculum evaluation has been focused on narrowly defined, foundation-sponsored projects. These evaluations demonstrate some effect, but the challenges of assessing the large state-level curriculum efforts have thwarted any real sense of the impact.

Book Review Essay

Although it seems to stop no one from trying, Susan Follett Lu si’s (1997) conclusion is nevertheless apt: “No one knows exactly how to bring complex reform about” (p. 170). Reforming schools has been steady work at all levels of the education system since at least the early 1980s. Until recently, however, state departments of education (SDEs) have been at the trailing edge of reforms. No longer backwaters of monitoring and regulation, SDEs in several states have positioned themselves as leaders of education reform. Lusi’s book is one of the few that takes us deeply inside the worlds of SDEs. Using the Kentucky and Vermont departments of education as case studies, Lusi helps readers understand the complexity of SDEs’work as they negotiate changes in schools and in their own organizational structures and practices. The organizational analysis Lusi uses to analyze changes in the SDEs is crisp and thoughtful. No analytic approach, however, can serve every need. Given the limits of an organizational perspective and the complexity of an SDE’s mission, it is no surprise that some pieces of Lusi’s analysis seem underdeveloped. As a complement to her valuable study, then, I offer two examples where analysis from a different perspective—one that views policy making and policy enactment as an issue of teaching and learning—raises addi tional issues. Susan Lusi’s compact book packs a punch. In just more than 200 pages (including references), she presents case studies of school re form in two states, Kentucky and Vermont. She gives most attention to action at the state level by devoting separate chapters to the his tory of and impetus for reform in each state and to descriptions of