| Author(s): | Harlow G. Unger |
| Date: | 2007; 3rd Edition |
| Pages: | 1,403 p |
| Size: | 9.92 Mb |
| Format: | |
| Language: | American English |
Description
Education in the U.S. has changed significantly since 1996 when the first edition of this volume was published, so it is no surprise that
Facts On File updated it. The surprise rests in the number of entries
that did not change. The work still includes about 2,500 entries in
about 200 subject areas.
Topics
range from history to current issues, from leading figures and
movements to legislation and Supreme Court cases, from administration to
adolescence. About 50 new articles deal with distance learning and
other emerging trends. Approximately 500 articles have been updated.
Some statistics were revised (although the number of California State
University campuses was not updated). Library has some very current
information, while Children's literature is severely out of date.
Entries
range in length from a couple of sentences to several pages. Length
does not necessarily correlate with current importance; for instance,
Missionary education movements is longer than Minority education, and
Military education is longer than Migrant education. The humanities are
covered more extensively than the sciences. Individual colleges and
historical aspects of education outweigh research and reform (e.g.,
there is no index listing for statistics, and ethnography is missing
entirely). Literacies are under-represented; computer literacy is
included but media, visual, and information literacies are excluded.
There is no mention of young adult literature, which continues to be a
controversial and important topic. Except for those appended to new
entries, lists of references contain few current titles.
Several
appendixes follow the entries: a sketchy chronology of significant
educational benchmarks (none for the 1980s), a list of significant U. S.
Supreme Court decisions in education, a list of education majors and
degrees, and a topical bibliography of generally older resources.
Despite
some gaps this set covers much ground and is useful for many libraries,
but should not be considered the definitive source or the only purchase
in this area. Given the limited amount of updating, libraries may
choose not to replace the previous edition.