Education Under Siege - Frauds, Fads, Fantasies and Fictions in Educational Reform

We Americans seem prone to bandwagon onto fads, particularly now that reforming education has become a national priority. Unfortunately, many of those fads now caroming across our continent are outright frauds; some are fantasies, even fictions. Even more unfortunately, many are undermining our public schools, teachers, kids and communities, and pillaging our tax dollars in the process.

This book analyzes each major reform — No Child Left Behind, Common Core State Standards, grading schools, evaluating teachers, failing students, vouchers, charters, online virtual charters — and finds them seriously wanting. We conclude with reforms that work actually helping teachers, kids, parents and communities.

List of contents

Acknowledgments
Dedication
Preface
Chapter 1 No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Race to the Top (NCLB 2.0), and
Their Basis, The Accountability Movement
Chapter 2Common Core State Standards
Chapter 3Merit and Teacher Evaluation - Another Fraud
Chapter 4Instead of Teacher Evaluation, which Isn't Working: A Different Approach
Chapter 5Evaluating Teachers by Using Value-Added Models (VAMs)
(Whatever that Means): Another Political tool to Hold Schools Accountable
Chapter 6Failing Kids - Still A Failure
Chapter 7 Evaluating Vs. Grading (Really Rating) Schools
Chapter 8Privatization: Fad, Fraud, Fantasy and/or Fiction?
Chapter 9Charter Schools-A Form of Privatization
Chapter 10Vouchers-Another Form of Privatization
Chapter 11Virtual Charter Schools - Privatization on Steroids
Chapter 12Miracles (or, Really Mirages) - for the Gullible
Chapter 13Major Reforms that Really Work
Bibliography
About the Author

About the author

Arthur Shapiro has been a senior executive and consultant with the world's leading spirits and wine companies for 30 years. During this time, Shapiro held top management positions with Seagram Spirits and Wine, including a decade as head of marketing for the U.S. and the Americas. Other marketing assignments in the U.S. and globally included: New Products (U.S.), Marketing Services (Global), SVP Marketing (Asia), and EVP Marketing (U.S.). While at Seagram he was chosen to Ad Age magazine's Power 50 and Marketing 100.

In 2002, Arthur founded AM Shapiro & Associates, a consulting company with expertise in both the spirits business and general consumer marketing. His clients have ranged from the large multi-nationals liquor companies to those in startup modes. He is widely known and respected in the spirits and wine industries.

Currently, Shapiro is a part-time marketing consultant with a full time passion for storytelling. In 2010 he being writing and publishing his stories, strong opinions, lessons learned, and commentary on his popular blog, Booze Business.

Mr. Shapiro began his work life in marketing research and public opinion polling working for such companies as Yankelovich, Skelly and White and the Roper Organization.

Inside The Bottle, delves deeper into the people, brands and stories that abound in the alcohol industry.

As he describes it, "The spirits and wine industry is fascinating. It's an industry that, despite its size and growth, is small. It's a business of people, relationships and stories... lots of stories. It's about marketing and sales; about brand building; about brand image and product excellence. It's also a window on a world most people know little to nothing about."

In addition to writing about the industry, Arthur is also a playwright and member of the Dramatist Guild. More recently, he has turned his attention to filmmaking and screenwriting and is a founding partner of Warwick Street Productions.

He is a native New Yorker and currently lives with his wife on the Upper East Side of NYC. Arthur is an alumnus of Hunter College (City University of New York) and has an MBA from Fordham University GBA. He has taught marketing and marketing research at Fordham in 2005.

Inside the Bottle: People, Brands, and Stories, is his first book.

Summary

This book analyzes each major reform — No Child Left Behind, Common Core State Standards, grading schools, evaluating teachers, failing students, vouchers, charters, online virtual charters — and finds them seriously wanting. We conclude with reforms that work actually helping teachers, kids, parents and communities.

Product details

• Authors: Arthur Shapiro
• Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 21.10.2013
• EAN: 9781475803082
• ISBN: 978-1-4758-0308-2
• No. of pages: 206
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Education system; Reform, USA, EDUCATION / Educational Policy & Reform / General, United States of America, USA, Educational strategies & policy, Educational strategies and policy