Using American schools as a reference point, this book provides a comprehensive, comparative description of schooling as a global institution. Each chapter develops a story about a particular global trend: continuing gender differences in achievement, new methods nations employ to govern their schools, the rapidly increasing use of private tutoring, school violence, the development of effective curriculums, and the everyday work of teachers, among other topics. The authors draw on a four-year investigation conducted in forty-seven countries that examined many aspects of K-12 schooling, such...