Introduction : regional overview / C.M. Posner -- Introduction to education in contemporary Mexico / C.M. Posner, Christopher Martin and Elsa Guzman -- The Mexican education reform project / Carlos Ornelas -- Improving educational quality : teacher professional development / David Turner and Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez de Turner -- Obstacles to educational reform in Mexico : the contradictions between educational policies and the political system / Bonifacio Barba -- Can we improve education by hammering it with evaluations? : assessing the current educational reforms / Rodolfo Ramirez -- 7. Mexico : summary and conclusions / Christopher Martin, Charles Posner and Elsa Guzman -- Costa Rica : education as a tool for social mobility / Luis Carlos Morales -- Education in El Salvador : past, present, prospects / D. Brent Edwards Jr., Pauline Martin, and Irene Flores -- Guatemala : a failing system / C.M. Posner -- Education reform in contemporary Honduras / Javier Luque -- Nicaragua : education for sustainable human development / Cefas Asensio Florez with the collaboration of Ana Patricia Elvir -- Panamanian education : an overview / Rolando de la Guardia Wald -- Cuba : "one huge school" : the impact of the Cuban Revolution / Rosi Smith -- Education in the Dominican Republic / Molly Hamm and Rebeca Martinez -- Haiti : building more of the same old "very best Haitian schools the panacea"? / Pierre Lubin and Roselor François.

"Education in Mexico, Central America and the Latin Caribbean examines the development and practice of education in México, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panamá. The chapters, written by local experts, provide an overview of the structure, aims and purposes of education in each of these ten countries with very different socio-economic backgrounds. The authors present curriculum standards, pedagogy, evaluation, accountability and delivery, discussing both how the formal systems are structured and how they actually function. The volume explores the origins of proposed reforms and their implementation, emphasising the distinctiveness of each country and attempting to locate new practices that could lead to better education. Including a comparative introduction to the issues facing education in the region as a whole and guides to available online datasets, this book is an essential reference for researchers, scholars, international agencies and policy-makers."--