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This book provides a guide for a long-overdue public dialogue about why and how we need to reinvent our nation's schools. How has the world changed for our children; what do all students need to know in light of these changes; how do we hold students and schools accountable for results; what do good schools look like; and what must leaders do to create more of these schools? These are some of the questions that drive this book. The answers emerging to these questions may surprise many. The most successful public schools of the 21st century look a lot more like our 19th century village schools than our current factory model of schooling. This book describes these "new village schools" that have been created in the last decade and suggests that they are a prototype for the schools of the future.
List of contents
Foreward Introduction: What's Really Wrong With Our Schools? Chp. 1: How Has the World Changed for Children? Chp. 2: What Do Today's Students Need to Know? Chp. 3: How Do We Hold Students and Schools Accountable? Chp. 4: What Do Good Schools Look Like? Chp. 5: What Must Leaders Do? Bibliography Notes
About the author
Tony Wagner is Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and leads the Harvard Seminar on Public Engagement. Senior Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation education programs, he consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations in the U.S. and internationally. He is the author of HowSchools Change: Lessons from Three Communities.
Summary
Dramatically reframing the debate on education in America, Making the Grade shows why today's test-driven reforms will fail and points the way toward a system that benefits all students.
Additional text
"...offers a number of solutions that move the dialogue beyond tired debates." -- Publishers Weekly"...a laudable template for restructuring education..." -- Kirkus Reviews"With new ideas about school reform, Tony Wagner's Making the Grade is a 'must read' for educators and policy leaders who want to improve student and school performance. This book recognizes that our schools have historically spent far more time sorting kids than preparing them to succeed beyond the classroom. It confirms that standards-based reform - with its focus on standards, assessments and accountability - alone won't produce the results we want. We also need to restructure our schools and build their capacity to achieve higher-level learning. And Wagner has given us some valuable suggestions about how this can be done." -- Susan Tave Zelman, Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction
