This powerful account of how decades of mostly well-intended litigation have eroded the moral authority of teachers and principals and degraded the quality of American education offers a rigorous analysis enriched by vivid descriptions of individual cases. The book explores 1,200 cases in which a school's right to control students was contested.
"Built on interviews and detailed surveys of almost a thousand recent college graduates from a diverse range of colleges and universities, Aspiring Adults Adrift reveals a generation facing a difficult transition to adulthood. Recent graduates report trouble in finding decent jobs and developing stable romantic relationships, as well as in assuming civic and financial responsibility--yet at the same time, they remain surprisingly hopeful and upbeat about their prospects. ... Analyzing these findings in light of students' performance on standardized tests of general collegiate skills, the selectivity of institutions they attended, and their choice of major, Arum and Roksa not only map out the current state of a generation too often adrift, but enable us to examine the relationship between college experiences and tentative transitions to adulthood"--Back cover.