Civic Function and Market: the school system in the United States

Abstract

Designed to be a bulwark of democracy and in view of a widespread access to cultural opportunities, the US school system has recently been losing its civic function due to the difficulty in reacting to the increase of social inequalities and the tightening of quality assessment almost exclusively based on testing. However, a reaction to this situation is taking place among teachers, in a growing number of families, and at the forefront of the educational and pedagogical debate.