Advanced industrialized countries share an "achievement gap" between students from low-income and high-income school districts, despite the different structures of their governments. This book examines the relationship between national planning and education in two urban school districts, Port City, USA and Montvelier, France. Through interviews with teachers and administrators and observations of classrooms in both settings, this book analyzes whether educational decision-making in the school districts has evolved toward national planning goals. Four education policy issues focus the...