Education Myths: What Special Interest Groups Want You to Believe about Our Schools--And Why It Isn't So.Education Myths: What Special Interest Groups Want You to Believe about Our Schools--And Why It Isn't So. Jay P. Greene, with Greg Forster and Marcus A. Winters. Foreword fore·word n. A preface or an introductory note, as for a book, especially by a person other than the author. foreword Noun an introductory statement to a book Noun 1. by James Q. Wilson James Q. Wilson (born May 27, 1931) in Denver, Colorado is the Ronald Reagan professor of public policy at Pepperdine University in California, and a professor emeritus at UCLA. From 1961 to 1987 he was a professor of government at Harvard University. He has a Ph.D. . (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.) Buried bur·y tr.v. bur·ied, bur·y·ing, bur·ies 1. To place in the ground: bury a bone. 2. a. To place (a corpse) in a grave, a tomb, or the sea; inter. b. within this book is a powerful if familiar argument: the American education system is worse than we think and won't improve unless we change the incentive structure that drives it. Resource levels are hardly the main problem, say the authors; nor is increasing them a likely solution to our schools' ills. Choice and accountability, which focus on changing the incentives, offer a promising way forward. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What is unique about this concise volume is the authors' systematic debunking de·bunk tr.v. de·bunked, de·bunk·ing, de·bunks To expose or ridicule the falseness, sham, or exaggerated claims of: debunk a supposed miracle drug. of an array of myths--18 in all--that grip our beliefs about how schools work. At the same time they expose the ways that potent interest groups feed the myths and interfere with the authors' reformist vision. The task of reform is, of course, Herculean, and critical readers will remain unpersuaded by one or two of the arguments. But the rigor rigor /rig·or/ (rig´er) [L.] chill; rigidity. rigor mor´tis the stiffening of a dead body accompanying depletion of adenosine triphosphate in the muscle fibers. , clarity, and energy with which the authors press their case make this book one the teacher unions do not want you to read. |
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