Encyclopedia of American Education 3rd Edition, 3 Volume Set

This three-volume set by an education journalist contains nearly 2,500 entries on every aspect of education at all levels from colonial times to the present. Legal issues, teaching methods, types of schools, educational organizations and programs, tests, publications, administration, and leading educators are some of the broad areas covered. Articles range from a few sentences (voucher system, classical realism, phoneme) to several pages (school choice, prayer-in-school, student unrest), with most falling somewhere in between (Channel One, Coleman Report, multicultural education). Entries for each state briefly survey the history of education there. The one for Alabama states that "fewer than 30% of its adults have high school diplomas" ; other sources say more than 60 percent are high-school graduates. Entries give concise definitions and descriptions, which will be sufficient for most users. The treatment is often historical, however; entries do not always delve into current issues. For instance, the incorporation of trade books into the elementary curriculum is not mentioned in children's literature; the controversy over alternatives to vivisection is not found under biology. There is no entry for the Internet, a topic that certainly has many implications for education, and it is not mentioned in computers. Curiously, saving space is provided as the reason library catalogs and other holdings were converted to computer files in recent years.

The bibliographies found at the end of every article are frustrating. For books, they list only title, author, and date. Others cite only the name of an organization or a general reference, such as U.S. Supreme Court proceedings or ERIC. Patrons will appreciate the numerous entries for court cases and public laws, although citations or law numbers are not provided, necessitating the use of an additional index if the text is required. A 40-page bibliography, divided into 41 major topics, supplements the text. Bibliographic references are incomplete here as well. Four appendixes provide a brief chronology of U.S. education from 1607 to 1994; significant federal education legislation, 1787^-1993; significant U.S. Supreme Court decisions; and lists of college majors, including separate lists of undergraduate and graduate specialties in education. Black-and-white photographs include mostly historical scenes, such as child labor and a portrait of John Dewey. The extensive index notes illustrations.

This will prove to be the best general education encyclopedia for many libraries; it is somewhat larger and more comprehensive than the revised edition of the American Educator's Encyclopedia (Greenwood, 1991), though the bibliographic references in the latter are complete. Libraries that own the more expensive Pergamon titles (Encyclopedia of Higher Education, International Encyclopedia of Education, and single-volume subject encyclopedias) will still want to acquire this set for its emphasis on the U.S.