Failure Up Close

What Happens, Why It Happens, and What We Can Learn from It

By: Michael Q. McShane (Editor), Jay P. Greene (Editor)

Write A Review

eText | 17 January 2018 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Format
ePUB

eText

$60.29

or 4 interest-free payments of $15.07 with

or

Instant online reading in your Booktopia eTextbook Library *

For many reasons, failure in education reform is rarely admitted. Even though it is incredibly hard work to try and improve the enormous and diverse American education system, because there are political consequences of admitting that a particular effort did not live up to its promises and pressure from philanthropic funders to show success, unsuccessful efforts are often swept under the rug or papered over with public relations efforts that avoid wrestling with the tough realities of educational improvement. This doesn't help anyone. As any educator will tell you, failure is an essential part of learning. Insofar as education reform needs to be a learning movement itself, it has to be able to admit where it has failed and learn from it. Failure Up-Close engages a select group of scholars from across the ideological spectrum to examine particular education reform efforts of recent years that have not succeeded and offer lessons for school and system improvement that can be learned from them. Rather than view failure as negative, this volume looks at failure as an opportunity to learn and grow. In fact, the editors endeavored to find authors that would analyze reforms for which they had some fundamental sympathy. The goal is not to bash particular efforts or castigate their supporters but rather to help those supporters understand how to do what they do better, and ultimately, do better for children.

Industry Reviews

Jay Greene and Mike McShane have compiled a powerful assortment of essays addressing the vicissitudes of the education reform era that have led to major changes in policy but arguably marginal impact in practice and outcome. By problematizing the question of failure, Greene and McShane lead us to a new paradigm of change that embraces the complexity of taking well-intended policy from the design stage through implementation all the way to impact. While no politician, policy maker or educator ever wants to fail kids, Greene and McShane show that NCLB, vouchers, VAM, SIG, teacher preparation, technology and philanthropic investments suffer from a disconnect between intention and impact. Wherever you sit on the highly volatile education reform continuum, this book is a must-read for those who actually want to embrace the complexity of public education transformation in order to improve conditions and outcomes for our nation’s kids.