Setting the Record Straight: Responses to Misconceptions about Public Education in the U.S. - Softcover

Bracey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 032500594X ISBN 13: 9780325005942

Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books,U.S., 2004

Synopsis

Gerald Bracey knows there are three kinds of lies in education policy: lies, damned lies, and the statistics that reactionary reformers tout as evidence in favor of dismantling our public schools. In this second and substantially updated edition of the hard-hitting Setting the Record Straight, Bracey, whom Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews called "one of this country's most authoritative defenders of the work of public school teachers," goes toe-to-toe with the opponents of quality public education. You'll learn how to discredit them in your own discussions by using the very logic and statistical analyses they purport to have on their side.

In this series of smart, forceful analyses, Bracey homes in on specific topics like vouchers, school funding, and comparisons to international test scores, themes around which agitators have created a host of mythological American school failures from the flimsiest of evidence. In fact, each essay begins with a question you might commonly hear in conversation about these alleged shortcomings, to which Bracey provides a brief, sound- byte-ready rebuttal. Then he follows it up with a full-length explanation, replete with statistical data and talking points that fully support his assertions-and silence those who would undermine education with disinformation.

Beginning in his introduction with the seed that germinated in Ronald Reagan's "Nation at Risk" sloganeering and quickly fast-forwarding to the present-day federal intrusion into schools that has propelled so many political careers, Bracey stamps out the weeds of anti-public education advocacy and leaves no threat to quality teaching and learning behind. With Gerald Bracey and the truth behind you, you'll confidently take on the foes of public education in your own community and never again be cowed by the insidious arguments of education "reformers."

About this title

About the Author

Beginning in 1984 Gerald W. Bracey wrote a monthly column for Phi Delta Kappan making research accessible to teaching practitioners. In 2003 the column received the Interpretive Scholarship Award from the American Educational Research Association. Bracey was both an independent researcher and writer and worked at both George Mason University and the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. He earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Stanford University and held positions in private firms, local school districts, universities, and state departments of education.

Synopsis

The proponents of vouchers, charter schools, and other aspects of the school "reform" use scare tactics in their arguments that are often based on false or misleading data. Bracey (George Mason U.) offers this work as a corrective, rebutting right-wing "reform" arguments on vouchers, the unimportance of poverty, dropping SAT scores, school privatiz

Edition details

• Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books,U.S.
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 032500594X
• ISBN 13: 9780325005942
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 229