We live in times of changing demographics and social upheaval. One
doesn't have to search too far in current world events to see this--for
example, consider the massive immigration of Hispanics, South East
Asians, and now Russians to the United States; Russian immigration to
Israel; social upheaval in Germany; prospects of the same in the Middle
East; economic recession in the United States and the world; increasing
unemployment; and social upheavals such as in Los Angeles following
the verdict in the Rodney King case. Despite this, schools in the United
States have remained extremely traditional, going about business as
usual. Indeed, schools vary little from the social efficiency movement of
the 1920s, one whose function was to explore and implement the most
efficient ways to increase student achievement (through higher test
scores) and which saw teacher output as a form of accountable produc-
tion. The more one produced, the better. This implied the need for better
and/or more efficient teaching and student learning. Teachers in this so-
cially efficient system are judged by how well students achieve, particu-
larly on standardized tests. The higher the student achievement, the
better and/or more productive a teacher is judged to be. Schools, it has
been argued, in direct relationship with social efficiency ideology, pre-
pare students for the market economy. They do it, argue Bowles and
Gintis ( 1976), in unequal ways. That is, race, class, and gender are dis-
tributed unevenly and unequally into the work force in massive ways.

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