Reforming American Education: From the Bottom to the Top (Paperback)

Reforming American Education: From the Bottom to the Top Book Description

"I hope this text . . . will encourage further dialogue and action beginning the movement of educational reform from the bottom to the top." - Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk

"What kind of school would you run if you didn't have to worry about getting students into college?" Here, some of the nation's most respected and controversial theorists, policy makers, and practitioners offer their vision of how to prepare children for the "incalculable future" foreseen by editor Evans Clinchy. Their specific methods are diverse and provocative. But the basis for their arguments is the same: So long as our colleges and universities maintain their constrictive, authoritarian, and antidemocratic admissions policies and educational practices, elementary and secondary schools will necessarily be straightjacketed. Only through a thorough and collaborative reformfrom kindergarten through graduate schoolcan meaningful change take place.

The ramifications of such radical reform would be enormous, yet enticing: Deborah Meier suggests that progressive kindergartensnot the scholarly disciplines of higher academeshould be the model for reinvigorating American education. Susan Ohanian and Joe Nathan explore what elementary classrooms might be like if this happened. Nel Noddings weighs the pros and cons of a college-bound high school curriculum. Higher education specialists like William Coplin and Patrick Shannon speculate on how colleges and universities would change to serve the graduates of reformed elementary and secondary schools. Nona Lyons considers how teacher training would be transformed. And sociologist Alejandro Sanz de Santamaria looks at the impact of education reform onpolitical life.

These discussions touch every issue in American education todayfrom standardized testing to decentralization to inquiry learning and beyond.

About the Author :

Evans Clinchy has contributed to Reforming American Education: From the Bottom to the Top as an author. Evans Clinchy is a senior consultant at the Institute for Responsive Education at Northeastern University. He is editor of Transforming Public Education and New Schools, Old School Systems, both published by Teachers College Press.

Evans Clinchy has contributed to Reforming American Education: From the Bottom to the Top as an editor. Evans Clinchy is a senior consultant at the Institute for Responsive Education at Northeastern University. He is editor of Transforming Public Education and New Schools, Old School Systems, both published by Teachers College Press.

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