An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.
Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice takes as its starting point a strikingly blunt question: "With so many major structural changes in U.S. public schools over the past century, why have classroom practices been largely stable, with a modest blending of new and old teaching practices, leaving contemporary classroom lessons familiar to earlier generations of school-goers?" It is a question that ought to be of paramount interest to all who are interested in school reform in the United States. It is also a question that comes naturally to Larry Cuban, whose much-admired books have focused on various aspects of school reform--their promises, wrong turns, partial successes, and troubling failures. In this book, he returns to this territory, but trains his focus on the still baffling fact that policy reforms--no matter how ambitious or determined--have generally had little effect on classroom conduct and practice. "For forty years, Larry Cuban has been a voice of thoughtful analysis amid the overwrought rhetoric of American education reform. His distinctive contribution--updated, deepened, and extended in this book--has been to focus our attention on the persistent gap between the misconceptions of policy elites and the realities of daily practice in the classroom. One hopes that the next generation of American educators will learn the essential lessons of Cuban's analysis more deeply than the current generation. Young people considering a career in education should hold the lessons of this book close to their hearts." -- Richard F. Elmore, Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership, Harvard Graduate School of Education "Larry Cuban's well-written book convincingly demonstrates why current education reforms don't work, can't work, and won't work." -- Diane Ravitch, research professor of education, New York University "Anyone with a deep interest in public schools should read Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice. Cuban takes the reader through the history of earnest efforts to improve our schools--through technology, structural reforms, and accountability systems--and shows why they have met with mixed and often disappointing results. His recommendations for us are both cautionary and hopeful, and always respectful of the dilemmas that teachers face each day they walk through the classroom door." -- Gary Yee, board director, District Four, Oakland Unified School District, and retired vice chancellor, Educational Services, Peralta Community College District Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University.
James Anderson critically reinterprets the history of southern black education from Reconstruction to the Great Depression. By placing black schooling within a political, cultural, and economic context, he offers fresh insights into black commitment to education, the peculiar significance of Tuskegee Institute, and the conflicting goals of various philanthropic groups, among other matters. Initially, ex-slaves attempted to create an educational system that would support and extend their emancipation, but their children were pushed into a system of industrial education that presupposed black political and economic subordination. This conception of education and social order--supported by northern industrial philanthropists, some black educators, and most southern school officials--conflicted with the aspirations of ex-slaves and their descendants, resulting at the turn of the century in a bitter national debate over the purposes of black education. Because blacks lacked economic and political power, white elites were able to control the structure and content of black elementary, secondary, normal, and college education during the first third of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, blacks persisted in their struggle to develop an educational system in accordance with their own needs and desires.
In dozens of places in New York City where a charter school and a traditional public school hold classes in the same building, charter school students in those buildings have achieved "proficiency" on statewide tests several times more often than traditional public school students taking the same tests. In 2013, a fifth-grade class in a Harlem charter school scored higher on a mathematics test than any other fifth-grade class in the entire state of New York. That included, as the New York Times put it, "even their counterparts in the whitest and richest suburbs, Scarsdale and Briarcliff Manor." Nationwide, charter schools have only a fraction of the number of students who attend traditional public schools. But charter schools enrollment is growing faster, especially in low-income minority communities. From 2001 to 2016, enrollment in traditional public schools rose 1 percent, while charter school enrollment rose 571 percent. In cities across the country, with many students on waiting lists to transfer into charter schools, public school officials are blocking charter schools from using school buildings that have been vacant for years, in order to prevent those transfers from taking place. Even in states where blocking charter schools from using vacant school buildings is illegal, the laws have been evaded. In some places, vacant school buildings have been demolished, making sure no charter schools can use them. Book jacket.
An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The American educational system has been declining for years, and it has been made worse by the rise in grade inflation and cheating. #2 American educational deficiencies extend far beyond mathematics. When asked if they thought they were good at mathematics, only 23 percent of American 13-year-olds said yes, compared to 68 percent of Korean 13-year-olds. #3 American students are lacking in knowledge and the ability to tie what they know together to form a coherent chain of reasoning. Many American students seem unaware of the need for such a process. #4 The phrase I feel is often used by American students to introduce a conclusion, rather than say I think, or I know, or even I conclude. This is often considered sufficient by many teachers and students.
With a focus on the future of American education--and the goals and nature of teaching in a global economy--this forward-thinking text provides you with a comprehensive overview of the foundations of modern American schooling. The book's premise is that education in the 21st century must facilitate more complex, deeper, and more varied learning that will enable all citizens to survive and thrive in an ever-changing world. In presenting traditional topics and important educational issues--including diversity and equity, the accountability movement, effective schools, instructional best practices, and alternatives to public schools--the authors cultivate the very skills and knowledge base that they believe are critical for success in a "flat" world. With the overarching goal of furthering higher-order thinking, they model the principles of evidence-based practice and the critical-thinking process by examining issues and controversies in depth and presenting supporting research to validate their conclusions. Activities support the critical-thinking focus and promote your self-understanding, challenging you to weigh "common knowledge" against real evidence and form your own conclusions. Written in an appealing, conversational style, and using examples that immediately resonate with prospective student teachers, this thought-provoking new text provides a timely and insightful perspective of American education.