Changing the Course of Failure: How Schools and Parents Can Help Low-Achieving Students

The basic purpose of this book is to help policy makers at all levels of government understand that (1) widespread adolescent underachievement is not susceptible to solution by educational interventions no matter how much money is allocated to public education; and (2) there are unidentified educational and civic costs to focusing on low achievement and to expecting public institutions of education (for K–12 and college) to solve a growing social problem. Many policy makers seem to think that teachers/schools are the primary cause of low achievement. Educational institutions still cannot solve a non-education-caused problem and haven’t done so for over fifty years despite all the public and private money that has been allocated. The book concludes with suggested policies for addressing the damage to public education from “gap-closing” standards and with suggested areas for policy making in order to change the current course of failure for many low-achieving students.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1. The Current Education Problem Chapter 2. The Political Context for the Education of Low-Achieving Students Chapter 3. Highlights of Early U.S. Educational History Chapter 4. Fragmentation of the English Curriculum in the 20th Century Chapter 5. Evolving Explanations of Low Achievement; How Well Education Programs and Strategies Have Addressed It Chapter 6. Who Should Teach Low-Achieving Students—and All the Others? Chapter 7. Testing Concerns Chapter 8. What Might Desperate Policy Makers Do? Chapter 9. What Could State Legislatures with a Spine Do? Chapter 10. Policies to Reduce Adolescent Under-Achievement or High School Drop-Outs About the Author

About the Author :
Sandra Stotsky is professor of education emerita, University of Arkansas, and was Senior Associate Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from 1999-2003. She has authored several books and many reports and articles on the school curriculum, K-12 standards, teacher training, and teacher licensing tests.

Review :
Sandra Stotsky differs from most other commentators on public education in one crucial respect. While many of them push their untested (or demonstrably ineffective) ideas to achieve “transformation,” Stotsky actually knows what transformation looks like – because she helped achieve it in Massachusetts. From her guidance in catapulting the Massachusetts public schools to international prominence, to her untiring campaign against the wretched mediocrity of the Common Core standards, Stotsky has demonstrated a deep knowledge of “what works” and an eloquent impatience with those who advance policies that hurt the children to whom she has devoted her life. Her new book is unflinching in analyzing the problems and provocative in offering solutions. It offers a bracing alternative to the federal government/private foundation/corporate cartel that tramples the Constitution and the evidence in pursuit of its own agenda. Parents owe a great debt to Sandra Stotsky. Thank you for writing a book that presents the cold hard truth about the current status of our public education system. Your honesty about the “achievement gap” and the need for education policy makers to get real about the causes is refreshing. Your consistent message about the importance of local control, and that parental rights and involvement are key, is greatly appreciated.