Category: School Reform

Opportunities for Swift Achievement Gains

Educator Mike Schmoker paints a disturbing picture using “brutal facts” to explain why so many students are not learning at high levels. Cathy Gassenheimer says that reading Results Now 2.0 is disturbing but notes Schmoker includes a way out of “the current education quagmire.”

A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education

John Merrow weaves a narrative that explores the history of America’s failed school reform efforts and offers a vision for ridding public education of our addiction to more of the same in favor of long-term, meaningful and sustainable change, writes teacher Rita Platt.

Wounded by School: Broken, then Healing

Reviewer Lorie Shiveley agrees with many of Kristen Olson’s concerns about wounded students in Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture, but Shiveley says teachers get too much of the blame.