Synopses & Reviews
Twenty years ago, the National Commission on Excellence in Education delivered a shocking report called A Nation at Risk, which awakened millions of Americans to a national crisis in primary and secondary education. But today, while reverberations from that report are still being felt, solid and conclusive reforms in American primary and secondary education remain elusive. Why?
In Our Schools and Our Future, the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education looks at the response to the commission's report and analyzes why it produced so much activity and so little improvement. Among their findings, the members of the task force reveal how many bold reform proposals have been implemented in limited and piecemeal fashion. They conclude that fundamental changes are needed in the incentive structure and power relationships of schooling itself and offer recommendations based in three core principles: accountability, choice, and transparency.
Accountability, they explain, will mean that everyone in the system will know what results are expected, how they will be measured, and what will happen if results are not attained. Choice will bring freedom, diversity, and innovation. Transparency will yield the information needed to assure both top-down accountability and a viable marketplace of methods and ideas. The results of these three taken together, they assert, will be a reinvigorated yet very different system that will rekindle Americans' confidence in public education.
Synopsis
This book assesses the changes that have occurred in the twenty years since A Nation at Risk, which urged major reforms in American education, was issued by the National Education Commission. It offers recommendations based on three core principlesaccountability, choice, and transparencythat can reinvigorate the system and rekindle America's confidence in public education.
About the Author
Paul E. Peterson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task force on K-12 Education. Peterson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and the director of the Program on Education, Policy and Governance at Harvard University. His current research interests include educational policy, federalism, and urban policy, and he is currently evaluating the effectiveness of school voucher plans around the country.
Table of Contents
Are we still at risk? Findings and recommendations / Koret task force on K-12 education -- Pt. 1. "A nation at risk": then and now. A historic document / Diane Ravitch ; Little gain in student achievement / Paul E. Peterson ; What has changed and what has not / Caroline M. Hoxby ; Minority children at risk / Paul Hill, Kacey Guin, and Mary Beth Celio ; The importance of school quality / Eric A. Hanushek -- Pt. 2. Why so little was reformed. The politics of the status quo / Terry M. Moe ; Teacher reform gone astray / Chester E. Finn Jr. ; The curricular smorgasbord / Williamson M. Evers and Paul Clopton ; Neglecting the early grades / E.D. Hirsch Jr. -- Pt. 3. Getting serious. Real accountability / Herbert J. Walberg ; Real Choice / John E. Chubb.