Common Sense School Reform

by Frederick M. Hess

Book Overview

Forget everything you think you know about school reform. Cutting through the cant, sentiment, and obfuscation characterizing the current school reform debate, Frederick M. Hess lacerates the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1403963533
• ISBN13: 9781403963536
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Solid but unreadable book

Hess knows his stuff. This book is very solid and packed with information. In a really few number of pages, it lays out what is wrong with American public education. As Hess shows, the problems are with the entire way that public education is managed. These problems will not be fixed with the usual solutions: increased funding or the latest curriulum fad. Instead, we need very basic changes in how the schools are managed. The problem with the book is that it is curiously unreadable. It just does not flow. The information is good, the ideas are good, but the book is just clunky. It is hard to follow his logic. I would suggest Ouchi's book, which covers the same material and has the same basic analysis, as being both far more readable and far ore practicl in its suggestions.

Good ideas on how to improve public schools

This book makes a number of good points about the basic problems of public education in America today. It is easy for school reformers to get distracted from what they have influence over. Many school reformers point to factors outside their control, "education will get better with better nutrition, or better families, etc..." Frederick Hess says this approach lets teachers and administrators off the hook. Frederick Hess talks about some specifics of the problems with education in public schools, for example: teachers are hired with very little attention to merit, or principals can't deny pay raises to ineffective teachers. In talking about reform Frederick Hess makes the distinction between two types of school reformers. First are those who want cosmetic reform, without changing anything fundamental. He calls this "status quo" reformers, for they want to preserve the status quo. The second type of reformer he calls the "common sense" reformers, those who recognize that to truly fix public education we need to make major changes. According to Frederick, who I agree with, two major components of the needed change have to deal with: 1) accountability, 2) flexibility. He spend a lot of time talking about why we need to have both. The book is good; there is a lot of insight into the problems with education in America. For anyone interested in learning about the problems of public educations, and way to help make things better, this is a good book to read.

A great addition to the debate

As a teacher, I have often been frustrated by structural impediments that force some students to contend with subpar instruction. Although I don't know if all of Dr. Hess's suggestions will improve this situation in a timely fashion, I am heartened to know that there are people out there thinking outside the box and offering different answers. The problems we encounter cannot be chalked up to lack of funding or parental support. It is time to move beyond those excuses and consider options like those offered in this book to improve our school systems today even without the ideal conditions we would like.

Insightful and Thought-Provoking Work

It's amazing that the dichotomy Frederick Hess offers in his book between those who can truly help our public schools serve children better and those who are too self-interested to take such steps has never been clearly elucidated before. He underscores the simple first steps that can be taken to school improvement and I would love see some of his suggestions implemented. Hess's insights would be a cost-effective means of providing the quality schooling our nation needs to ensure our children can be competitive in a global marketplace.