Details

Subject(s)

• Public schools—United States [Browse]
• Educational change—United States [Browse]

Related name

• Biddle, Bruce J. (Bruce Jesse), 1929-2016 [Browse]

Summary note

• Over the past decade a rising chorus of critics - from William Bennett to Allan Bloom - has decried the supposedly dire state of our public schools. Kids aren't learning what they should, violence and chaos reign in the classroom, and bureaucracy strangles attempts at reform. But how much of that grim image is really true?
• In The Manufactured Crisis, two prominent scholars, prize-winning educational psychologist David C. Berliner and leading social psychologist Bruce J. Biddle, fight back with the good news. They debunk a whole series of familiar but untrue statistics about public schools - that SAT scores have been dropping, when for many groups they are in fact rising; that illiteracy is up, when in fact the numbers have been skewed because schools are now educating the traditionally disenfranchised in ever larger numbers; that investments in public education do not pay off when, in fact, they lead to greater student achievements and life earnings; that private schools are inherently better than public schools when, in fact, the evidence does not support this charge. Berliner and Biddle tear through these and other sensational myths to give the reader an honest look at public education in America and the misguided, often tragic proposals that critics have urged for correcting these fictive problems. In addition, they expose and offer solutions to the real problems American public schools face today, schools that continue to provide an increasingly diverse citizenry with the opportunity to better their lives.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-391) and indexes.

Participant(s)/​Performer(s)

WJC Memorial to Woodson Warder.

Contents

• Thinking about education in a different way
• Myths about achievement and aptitude
• Other myths about American schools
• Why now?
• Poor ideas for reform
• Real problems of American education
• Toward the improvement of education
• Fundamentals of school improvement: research and compassion.

Show 5 more Contents items

ISBN

• 0201409577
• 9780201409574
• 0201441969
• 9780201441963

LCCN

95003271

OCLC

31938522

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