Reddit reviews The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

The Death and Life of the Great American School System book addresses many of the issues from Superman

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Great-American-School-System/dp/0465014917

About the author Diane Ravitch:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704869304575109443305343962.html

The book looks at many of the debates such as teacher training, school funding, charter schools, nationwide curriculum, parental involvement, high stakes testing, Race To The Top, No Child Left Behind, and the rise of Michelle Rhee featured in Superman.

Wow. I know this comment is probably going to get lost in the masses, but NONE of these comments are really addressing the problem IMO. A bunch of people are blaming teachers, a bunch of people are blaming parents, and the top comment now is blaming "school spirit?!" WTF?! Let me break it down for you.

1. There are no quick fixes for education. This means that replacing a bunch of teachers based on a year of national testing data, getting rid of school spirit, shutting down a bunch of schools and replacing them with charter schools, forcing everyone to teach a certain way, will not fix the problem.
   
2. There are no quick fixes for education. There are no quick fixes for education.
   
3. A major reason is poverty. If you look at the data for testing in high schools where less than 10% of students are poor, students scored above countries like Finland, Japan, and Korea in the international assessment. There is still a huge gap between kids who come from affluent suburbs and kids who come from the inner city. People call this the achievement gap.
   
4. Another reason is culture. We live in a country where teachers are not respected, not only in terms of salary. The profession itself is not that respected. As a student from a top state University who had a couple of great job offers on the table and instead decided to go into teaching through a non-traditional way my parents, family, and friends think I'm making a huge mistake. Yes, I got a 2300 on my SATs, but YES I may still find it difficult to teach a classroom of 30 students. Mix in students who are disruptive, those who have learning disabilities, but are not "disabled enough" to go into the special ed classes, those who come from abusive homes, those who come hungry and unprepared, and those who are just plain disruptive kids, IT IS REALLY TOUGH.
   A quote that my friend had up was:
   "If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job." And not enough respect is given to teachers who choose to go into the profession, so why would someone who is smart who can make more money in other career paths go into a profession where you get criticized, disrespected, and are under appreciated. Now throw in inner city culture where other students and even parents don't believe in the value of education. They tell you school won't get you anywhere. And then throw in gangs, drugs, and parents who really hate schools.
   
5. Part of it is curriculum. There is a lack of developed curriculum where students don't learn the right things. Districts have to come together to develop a curriculum, teachers have to implement it, and principals have to keep these teachers accountable. Right now this is not the case for a lot of school districts. Instead it is, power-tripping mayor, governor, and a bunch of non-educators (including certain foundations and donors for charter schools) determine what is to be learned, students are tested, teachers & principals are fired/get merited. This leads to teachers/principles focusing solely on test-taking strategies (sometimes corruption) and teachers at the mercy of randomness if the students they have that year are cream of the crop or the worst in the crowd, because their job is on the line. We need a well-rounded curriculum for ALL subjects.
   
6. Book recommendation I grew up in a very affluent suburb (median income $100k+) with a great school system. And I used to blame a bunch of other factors mentioned here. Then I actually worked at a bunch of schools ranging from extremely poor to closer to my hometown school. And I researched one book to read The Death and Life of the Great American School System. If you are interested at all, get it and read it or read her articles online. If you didn't know, American Politicians suck, especially when it comes to education.

A great read if you are interested in this area is Diane Ravitch's book, The Death and Life of the American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

I thought it was written a little poorly but it drives home some important points about illusory performance gains.

It also makes a strong case for the idea that good education reform = curriculum standards, not testing standards, i.e., not focusing on performance but rather on what stops students must hit on the way to graduation.

you should do the same.

> During the campaign, Emanuel declared his support for curtailing teachers’ right to strike. He also made it clear that, if teachers won’t agree to work longer hours for extra pay, he’ll ask the Illinois General Assembly to mandate it.

This is bullshit. He doesn't care about kids, he's furthering his neoconservative Milton Freedman charter school ideology. This move is to make unions look bad, not to solve the problem. He wants to increase charter schools at the expense of unionized public schools, when it's painfully clear that charter schools are not the answer. He's gone as far as to spout false information about public schools to further his agenda.

If you want a hint of the damage Rahm is going to do to Chicago, check out Diane Ravich:

On the Daily Show | In the Wall Street Journal | Her book

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0465014917

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