The American Dream and the Public Schools |  | Authors: Jennifer L. Hochschild, Nathan Scovronick
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 113582
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0195176030
Dewey Decimal Number: 379
EAN: 9780195176032
ASIN: 0195176030
Publication Date: October 21, 2004
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Product Description
The American Dream and the Public Schools examines issues that have excited and divided Americans for years, including desegregation, school funding, testing, vouchers, bilingual education, and ability grouping. While these are all separate problems, much of the contention over them comes down to the same thing--an apparent conflict between policies designed to promote each student's ability to succeed and those designed to insure the good of all students or the nation as a whole. The authors show how policies to promote individual success too often benefit only those already privileged by race or class, and often conflict with policies that are intended to benefit everyone. They propose a framework that builds on our nation's rapidly changing population in order to help Americans get past acrimonious debates about schooling. Their goal is to make public education work better so that all children can succeed.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Must read for anyone involved in education public policy June 23, 2005
way finder (Mountain View, CA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
It is very refreshing to find a work that illuminates many of the major issues and debates in education public policy in a clear and cogent way. Hochschild and Scovronick should be commended for fairly presenting multiple viewpoints, the history of the issue where appropriate, and relevant and reputable research that sheds light on the matters. I especially like the section on school financing which shows the weakness of the silly assertion that additional money would not help improve the quality of public schools, but also explains why major school finance reform is so difficult.
 Summary of some of the education wars December 26, 2007
Richard Gibson (Woodland Hills, CA)
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
This book is an overview of recent educational issues, from a left of center perspective. It discusses a half dozen of the recent controversial education issues: busing, school funding, school reforms, choice and the fights over including (or not) special education students, students who do not speak English and so forth. Hochschild and Scovronick are not very focused on school quality; they think that our public schools are, by and large, doing fine. Instead they are very focused on certain abstract issues of equality.
First, they think that the effort, in the 1970s, to mix black poor kids from the inner city, with white rich kids from the suburbs, via forced busing was a fabulous idea. They think it was terrible that political resistance killed the effort. While our authors love the idea, because is so exactly dovetails with their passion for a certain kind of equality, there is little evidence on whether it works or not. How could there be evidence? Politics killed the idea before it was tried on a large scale.
Second, they believe strongly that all schools should get the same amount of money per student. Their discussion on this issue is rather abstract. They do not argue that a good education requires any particular amount of money, and that urban schools are below it. Rather, they have philosophic objections to inequality. You come away from their discussion on this subject feeling that if the legislature created equality, not by giving more to poor kids, but by taking money away from rich kids, our authors might grumble a bit but they would basically be OK with it.
Third, our authors do not care very much about school reform. They do not necessarily oppose reforms like a focus on accountability and standards, but they are not excited about them either. Their basic viewpoint is that our suburban schools are basically perfect, and that all would be well if we could just make inner city schools like suburban schools by either: (a) busing inner city kids to the suburbs and suburban kids to the inner city; or (b),making sure that all schools have the same amount of money per kid, or, preferably, giving poor kids a bit more money per kid to compensate for them being poor.
Fourth, our authors oppose school choice for two reasons. (a) They feel that we do not need it, because our schools are already wonderful. (b) They believe it is essential that the schools indoctrinate all kids the same way, and, if there was choice, this would not happen.
Fifth, our authors take a careful middle position on the inclusion wars. They are in favor of multiculturalism, when it teaches about other cultures, but are against it when it turns into radical racial or ethnic separatism. They are agnostic on whether special ed kids should be mainstreamed or not.
All in all, this book provides a very complete summary of a certain set of issues. If you care about those issues, you will benefit from this book. If your concern is the more ordinary one -- why do our schools stink and how can they be fixed? -- you won't find much here.
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