The War Against Excellence: The Rising Tide of Mediocrity in America's Middle Schools

Here, veteran teacher Cheri Pierson Yecke details the chronological history of the middle school movement in the U. S. by tracing its evolution from academically-oriented junior high schools to the dissolution of academics in the middle schools of the late 1980s and beyond. In this book, evidence is presented to show how leaders of this movement designed to use the middle school as a vehicle to promote non-academic goals, contrary to the desires of parents and the community. Favored instructional practices-such as the elimination of ability grouping and the rise in cooperative learning and peer tutoring-have produced coerced egalitarianism, where education performance is equalized by bringing the achievement of gifted and high ability students down to the level of mediocrity. The War against Excellence examines the impact of: ·The reduction of academic expectations ·Widespread elimination of ability grouping Features include: ·Examples of how favored middle school instructional practices have been implemented in other countries, and ·An analysis on the implications of these changes for the future of our country The influence of these changes has seriously crippled our middle schools in their obligation to provide a solid academic foundation for all students. Yecke provides research-based information that will appeal to parents and educators who want to confront problems with specific instructional practices and improve public education.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Foreword by William J. Bennett Part 2 Preface Part 3 Prologue Chapter 4 1. Introduction Chapter 5 2. The Growth of the Middle School Movement Chapter 6 3. Middle School Curriculum Chapter 7 4. Ability Grouping Chapter 8 5. Cooperative Learning Chapter 9 6. Peer Tutoring Chapter 10 7. Analysis of Beliefs and Driving Convictions Chapter 11 8. Activist Implementation Chapter 12 9. Ethical Considerations Chapter 13 10. Implications for the Twenty-First Century Part 14 Appendices Part 15 Selected Bibliography Part 16 Index

About the Author :
Cheri Pierson Yecke, an award-winning teacher and noted author, lecturer, and researcher, has served as the Secretary of Education for Virginia, the Commissioner of Education for Minnesota, and as a senior official with the U.S. Department of Education. A highly regarded and influential education reformer, Yecke is the Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education and Social Policy at the Center of the American Experiment.

Review :
Cheri Yecke has made a profoundly important contribution to education policy research. Her meticulously documented study exposes the ongoing threat to the academic achievement of middle school students. She chronicles the destructive agenda of social hygienists and educational theorists to put a glass ceiling on student achievement in the name of an equity of mediocrity. And it shows what parents and policymakers can do to protect the integrity of this nation's public education. Cheri Pierson Yecke's [book] illustrates a vital but poorly understood aspect of education policy making: Educational improvement campaigns are often infused with social engineering motives. Dr. Yecke does an extraordinary job of documenting how the American Middle School Movement has become just such a campaign. Parents and policymakers often endorse educational innovations without any real understanding of how or whether they work. With regard to the Middle School Movement however, they can read The War on Excellence and judge for themselves... Cheri Yecke offers a chilling yet accurate account of how an army of elite educators can successfully manufacture an adolescent crisis that resulted in the flawed middle school concept. That concept, by every measure, has failed our students and shortchanged their abilities. The War against Excellence reveals the left's agenda that is turning public schools into academic wastelands. That the American middle school is an educational wasteland is not news, but in Dr. Yecke we finally have someone who convincingly reveals how middle schools were led down the paths of political correctness, academic sloth, and mediocre achievement-all of which endanger the American way of life. The results of Dr. Yecke's extensive research will frighten every parent in America, for although the liberals will deny it, their battle plan has now been laid bare and their covert means of using public schools to implement left-wing egalitarian ideas are exposed for all to see. This book is a manifesto for parental control of education. This lucid and passionate book does two great services for today's education policy debates. It shows-and explains-the extent to which American education has shamelessly turned 'giftedness' from a blessing and asset into an embarrassing mark of 'elitism.' And it begins the overdue task of unmasking the 'middle school' for what it has all too often become: not an educational institution where children learn important skills and knowledge but a social engineering vehicle that attends endlessly to dogma and dreamy notions while teaching very little. That turns out to be particularly damaging to the ablest of our children, on whom so much of our future will depend. Cheri Pierson Yecke's [book] illustrates a vital but poorly understood aspect of education policy making: Educational improvement campaigns are often infused with social engineering motives. Dr. Yecke does an extraordinary job of documenting how the American Middle School Movement has become just such a campaign. Parents and policymakers often endorse educational innovations without any real understanding of how or whether they work. With regard to the Middle School Movement however, they can read The War on Excellence and judge for themselves.