Written by acclaimed education experts, Global Education Reform examines the differing outcomes of large-scale education reforms in six countries that pursued ideologically and educationally distinctive approaches.

Contents1. Privatization or Public Investment? A Global Question2. Chile: A Long-Term Neoliberal Experiment and Its Impact on the Quality and Equity of Education3. Four Keys to Cuba’s Provision of High Quality Public Education 4. From Citizens Into Consumers: The Transformation of Democratic Ideals Into School Markets in Sweden5. The Finnish Paradox: Equitable Public Education within a Competitive Market Economy6. The Critical Choice in American Education: Privatization or Public Investment7. Developing High-Quality Public Education in Canada: The Case of Ontario8. Privatization and Public Investment: Is the Invisible Hand a Magic Wand?Index

"This book is both brilliantly conceived and timely. Through paired comparisons of education systems engaging with global education reforms, leading education scholars in this book investigate how a privatization versus public investment model tends to generate very different outcomes for their citizens, and ultimately for their societies. It is comparative education scholarship at its best in that its findings should be on every policy maker’s agenda." -- Susan L. Robertson, Professor, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, UK"Does educational choice and privatization create better schools or just segregation and inequality? The results in these studies may surprise you, but there is a verdict and an alternative."-- Henry M. Levin, William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA" The lessons in each chapter equip students, parents, policymakers and other education stakeholders with a clear understanding of how privatization and profit drive "education reform" instead of teaching and learning. The book clearly demonstrates that we should heed the warnings from around the world that market-based reforms further disadvantage our most vulnerable students."--Julian Vasquez Heilig, Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, California State University Sacramento, USA"Global Education Reform is a book with numerous strengths that should be studied carefully by policy makers and all students of educational change."-- Dennis Shirley, Boston College, USA