Description: School reform has been a preoccupation of Americans since the 1980s. Demands by parents, reformers, and politicians have included a return to basics, a longer school year, accountability through state-wide testing, more effective vocational training, and workforce preparation for a more global, technological economy.

Activists sometimes forget that schools are a product of history, that many proposed reforms were tried before with mixed results, and that understanding the past offers a valuable perspective on current efforts to improve schools.

Indiana turned to public schools in the mid-19th century to help solve a host of social, political, and economic problems. Despite conservative critics' fears of "creeping federalism", public schools remain largely a state and local responsibility.

This volume presents a series of original studies of school reform in Indiana, from the crucial decades before the Civil War to the most recent efforts to reshape local schools for a postmodern society. Hoosier Schools offers perspective on the recurring struggle to remake the public schools in a new image.

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