Chasing Success and Confronting Failure in American Public Schools

Chasing Success and Confronting Failure in American Public Schools PDF Author: Larry Cuban
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781682534557
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"The history of American education is rife with calls for school reform and efforts to turn so-called "failing" schools into "successful" ones. Cuban argues that, in the history of American education, standards of success and failure-as well as the reform efforts issuing from them-have been neither stable nor consistent"--

Chasing Success and Confronting Failure in American Public Schools

Chasing Success and Confronting Failure in American Public Schools PDF Author: Larry Cuban
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781682534557
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"The history of American education is rife with calls for school reform and efforts to turn so-called "failing" schools into "successful" ones. Cuban argues that, in the history of American education, standards of success and failure-as well as the reform efforts issuing from them-have been neither stable nor consistent"--

Confessions of a School Reformer

Confessions of a School Reformer PDF Author: Larry Cuban
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
ISBN: 1682536971
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
In Confessions of a School Reformer, eminent historian of education Larry Cuban reflects on nearly a century of education reforms and his experiences with them as a student, educator, and administrator. Cuban begins his own story in the 1930s, when he entered first grade at a Pittsburgh public school, the youngest son of Russian immigrants who placed great stock in the promises of education. With a keen historian's eye, Cuban expands his personal narrative to analyze the overlapping social, political, and economic movements that have attempted to influence public schooling in the United States since the beginning of the twentieth century. He documents how education both has and has not been altered by the efforts of the Progressive Era of the first half of the twentieth century, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s through the 1970s, and the standards-based school reform movement of the 1980s through today. Cuban points out how these dissimilar movements nevertheless shared a belief that school change could promote student success and also forge a path toward a stronger economy and a more equitable society. He relates the triumphs of these school reform efforts as well as more modest successes and unintended outcomes. Interwoven with Cuban's evaluations and remembrances are his "confessions," in which he accounts for the beliefs he held and later rejected, as well as mistakes and areas of weakness that he has found in his own ideology. Ultimately, Cuban remarks with a tempered optimism on what schools can and cannot do in American democracy.

Education Restated

Education Restated PDF Author: Elliot Regenstein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475865902
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Education Restated: Getting Policy Right on Accountability, Teacher Pay, and School Choice offers the education policy community a roadmap for change in three hot-button policy areas. In each of these areas policy has been anchored around the wrong core values. By putting the right core values at the heart of policy, state governments can create more favorable conditions for education improvement at the local level. Education Restated takes a pragmatic approach to policy change, recognizing that the forces that created today’s policies have not gone away—and that on complex issues there are legitimate competing interests. This book harmonizes the best ideas of opposing policy camps and identifies opportunities to strengthen connections between K-12 and early childhood. For advocates seeking common ground with historical adversaries, Education Restated provides some ideas on where they might find it.

The Principalship

The Principalship PDF Author: Frederick C. Lunenburg
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538123967
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 761

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Book Description
Today’s emphasis on student learning outcomes, coupled with federal legislation to that end, has placed more demands on the role of the principal than ever before in our nation’s history. To address the heightened demands for greater accountability for student learning, The Principalship uses a learning-centered approach, one that emphasizes the role of the principal as the steward of the school’s vision: learning for all. The critical aspects of the teaching–learning process are addressed here, including student motivation; individual differences; classroom management; assessing student learning; and developing, maintaining, and changing school culture. In addition, several topics not found in other principalship texts are addressed, including school safety, special education, gifted education, bilingual education, nontraditional organizational structures, gender-inclusive theories, diversity, ethics, political and policy context, human resource management, legal issues, and collective bargaining. The book is documented extensively throughout and grounded in the latest research and theory with suggestions for applying theory to practice, reflecting cutting-edge research and topical issues facing principals in schools today.

Successful Failure

Successful Failure PDF Author: Herve Varenne
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429976682
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In this controversial work, Herv Varenne and Ray McDermott explore education as cultural phenomenona construct of artifice and reality we impose upon ourselves. Questioning how the American education system defines and measures success and failure, Successful Failure is a must-read for anyone interested in educational reform, the American educational system, and the anthropology of education. }In this controversial work, Herv Varenne and Ray McDermott explore education as cultural phenomenona construct of artifice and reality we impose upon ourselves. The authors discuss in five case studies how the American education system defines and measures success and failure, why there is polarization between suburban schools and urban schools, and what about our system leads us to focus on the negative. Their exploration focuses not on the people or the activities of the system, but on the institutions themselves: who decided what was a success or failure? How was the identification done, and with what consequences?This important and timely book is a must-read for anyone interested in educational reform, the American educational system, and the anthropology of education.

Successful Failure

Successful Failure PDF Author: Herne Varenne
Publisher: Westview Press
ISBN: 9780813391298
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
In this controversial work, Hervé Varenne and Ray McDermott explore education as cultural phenomenon—a construct of artifice and reality we impose upon ourselves. The authors discuss in five case studies how the American education system defines and measures success and failure, why there is polarization between suburban schools and urban schools, and what about our system leads us to focus on the negative. Their exploration focuses not on the people or the activities of the system, but on the institutions themselves: who decided what was a success or failure? How was the identification done, and with what consequences?This important and timely book is a must-read for anyone interested in educational reform, the American educational system, and the anthropology of education.

So Much Reform, So Little Change

So Much Reform, So Little Change PDF Author: Charles M. Payne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781891792885
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This frank and courageous book explores the persistence of failure in today's urban schools. At its heart is the argument that most education policy discussions are disconnected from the daily realities of urban schools, especially those in poor and beleaguered neighborhoods. The result is that liberals and conservatives alike have spent a great deal of time pursuing questions of limited practical value in the effort to improve city schools. Yet while Charles Payne is unsparing in his exploration of the troubled recent history of urban school reform, he also describes himself as "guardedly optimistic." This book will be required reading for everyone interested in the plight--and the future--of urban schools. "A brilliant, thoughtful, and provocative analysis. Charles Payne shows why almost thirty years of school reform has brought so little change to urban public schools. Rooted in the reality of the Chicago Public Schools, Payne's book contains lessons that are relevant to schools everywhere." -- Pedro Noguera, New York University "Charles Payne's book is likely to anger teachers and administrators, conservatives and liberals, school reformers and the foundations that fund them. All will see themselves depicted as naïve about what it takes to improve urban schools. Many will see themselves depicted as part of the problem rather than part of the solution. At the same time no reader who has spent much time in urban schools will deny the accuracy of Payne's insights--for example, about why improving high schools has proved so much more difficult than improving elementary schools, why more resources alone won't produce successful urban schools, and why the choice of a particular whole school reform program is not the critical decision. While his analysis is deeply sobering, Payne shows that improvement in urban schools is possible--and indeed that significant improvements have already taken place." -- Richard J. Murnane, Harvard Graduate School of Education "This is a wonderful book, absolutely essential reading for educators, policymakers, and community and civic leaders who are committed to creating schools that promote high achievement for Black and Latino students. Payne helps us understand the challenges and possibilities for the transformation of urban schools. This is a smart book--one that should change our conversation about the reform of urban schools." -- Theresa Perry, Simmons College Charles M. Payne is the Frank P. Hixon Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous books, including I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.

Slaying Goliath

Slaying Goliath PDF Author: Diane Ravitch
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525655387
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, Slaying Goliath is an impassioned, inspiring look at the ways in which parents, teachers, and activists are successfully fighting back to defeat the forces that are trying to privatize America’s public schools. Diane Ravitch writes of a true grassroots movement sweeping the country, from cities and towns across America, a movement dedicated to protecting public schools from those who are funding privatization and who believe that America’s schools should be run like businesses and that children should be treated like customers or products. Slaying Goliath is about the power of democracy, about the dangers of plutocracy, and about the potential of ordinary people—armed like David with only a slingshot of ideas, energy, and dedication—to prevail against those who are trying to divert funding away from our historic system of democratically governed, nonsectarian public schools. Among the lessons learned from the global pandemic of 2020 is the importance of our public schools and their teachers and the fact that distance learning can never replace human interaction, the pesonal connection between teachers and students.

Schools in Crisis

Schools in Crisis PDF Author: Carl Sommer
Publisher: Advance Publishing, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
The national educational crisis can be solved by practical yet inexpensive methods, according to Carl Sommer. Shortly after becoming a high school teacher, he found serious limitations with the education his students received. He probed into the reasons why some schools were successful, even among traditionally low-achieving children, while so many others failed to provide students with a proper education. He interviewed parents, students, teachers, assistant principals, and principals. For 10 years he researched to find solutions for the problems facing American education. One basic reason for the massive educational decline, Sommer believes, is that many administrators have embraced progressive policies, such as: not encouraging reasonable educational standards for both students and teachers, lack of concern over students' deficiency in the basics, and permitting unqualified children to advance automatically from grade to grade.

The Rise and Fall of American Public Schools

The Rise and Fall of American Public Schools PDF Author: Robert J. Franciosi
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This volume provides a comprehensive and balanced survey of the state of American public education. It examines the trend in the quality of the public schools over the past 100 years, and reviews the possible reasons for a decline in quality. The work focuses on the importance of local control in American public education and how it has been steadily eroded. Franciosi advocates school choice as a way of restoring greater control by parents over their children's schools. This work is distinct among calls of reform in that it takes a skeptical attitude towards the centralized school reform movement that has culminated in the No Child Left Behind Act. It discusses important topics that have been the subject of research including the effect of teachers unions, Tiebout competition and local control, and school finance reform. Franciosi follows the many trajectories taken by America's public schools over the past century. It shows that the United States has been a world education leader in both access for all children and resources spent. Despite this there are still some worrisome trends. While school spending has steadily increased, student achievement has fluctuated, and remains below that of students in other developed nations. Initiatives to close the gap in achievement has fluctuated and remains below that of students in other developed nations. Initiatives to close the gap in achievement and resources among students of various socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds have been only partially successful. Past efforts to reform public education have led to increasingly centralized control over public schools. This piece will be important to those who are active on both sides of the school reform debate. It will also be useful to students who are researching education policy, the economics of education, or public policy.