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Title: The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and Tougher Standards by Alfie Kohn ISBN: 0-618-08345-6 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (27 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Kohn Opens the Standards Debate and Issues a Call to Action
Comment: Alfie Kohn's "The Schools Our Children Deserve" helps to make contentious educational insider debates on learning, standards and testing accessible to a general readership. Notably he does this, while making sure to bolster his ideas with copious references to educational research, encouraging more - and, importantly, more honest - appraisal of what research really tells us about learning, schools and the possibilities for public education. Kohn forcefully analyzes the "Tougher Standards" approach dominant in U.S. education reform, seeing it as fundamentally flawed. He describes faulty historical and research perspectives that have led to the standards fixation and describes five specific ways that "Tougher Standards" are troublesome: (1) they create a preoccupation with achievement, constantly focusing students on improving performance, which, according to Kohn, is "not only different from, but often detrimental to, a focus on learning;" (2) the approach favors "Old School teaching," as opposed to progressive, developmental learning, and creates a misguided focus on so-called "basic skills" and "core knowledge;" (3) the movement is "wedded to standardized testing," with teach-to-the-test activities routinely displacing higher level learning opportunities for children; (4) their implementation has created rationales for top-down control, "imposing specific requirements and trying to coerce improvement by specifying exactly what must be taught and learned;" (5) "Tougher Standards," so-called, create assumptions about "rigor" and "challenge" that can be summarized as "harder is better," with the notion that if teaching goes down like distasteful medicine that that is how it should be, regardless of whether it turns large numbers of students off to learning, and doesn't even succeed in providing the "just the facts" kind of education often touted by "basic skills" or "core curriculum" advocates.
Kohn goes on to describe, in a "back to the future" way (citing John Dewey and Jean Piaget as representative educational thinkers) that good, progressive approaches point the way towards something better, something our children deserve. He hopes that there are three ways to convince skeptics: theory, research and examples from practice. Kohn's prose is written in a popular-style, generally stripped of jargon, in order to be more inclusive of parents and community members outside of the education system who may not be privy to many of the coded debates and conflicts that have taken place within the walls of the formal education system. Kohn takes on standardized testing and grading as central culprits in the education reform drama, even outlining social action strategies to oppose current approaches to standardized testing. Alfie Kohn's voice offers a refreshing counterpoint to the sea of unchallenged standards rhetoric, worth listening to, for its attention to both research and a genuine concern for our children's educational future.
Rating: 5
Summary: Traditionalist vs. Progressive
Comment: The Schools Our Children Deserve is a wonderful tribute to our children. Kohn writes with passion about reforming "traditional education" that follows a model of tougher standards, standardized testing, and top-down delivery or "dumping " of curriculum into students. Kohn takes to task such issues as grades, testing, behavior modification, Direct Instruction, and especially standardized testing. In Kohn's opinion, grades, testing and public reporting and ranking of schools are not necessary to motivate children to learn. He feels that these things promote competitiveness and individualism. Portfolios and narrative summaries on student progress are far more valuable and reliable indicators.
Many traditionalist teachers will be offended, as Kohn does not take a gentle, middle of the road stance on these issues. In his opinion it's all been done wrong. He feels that "traditional" schooling turns learning into a chore. While "progressive" educators create learning environments that make learning engaging and productive. He relies on the words of John Dewey and Jean Piaget to lay foundation for a hands on, project-based, learner centered education.
His arguments are backed by 124 pages of notes, references, and statistical information. As if he has obviously heard the quote, "This sounds good in theory but where is the evidence?" He goes into great detail as to why Whole Language is still the best way to teach kids to read. He endorses integrated curriculum and performance based assessment. Kohn acknowledges that switching gears from the old model to the new will be a difficult transition for students, teachers and parents. Students will think more and do more in a progressive, constructivist learning environment. Teachers will have to give up some control of their classroom environments in order to form a more democratic classroom where the students have a say in what they are learning. Parents will have to give up the notion that their kids have to be taught in the same way they were taught. What comes through in this book is Kohn's obvious regard for children. He understands the unwillingness of most people to gamble on our childrens' education and hence their future. He provides a passionate account of how our educational system can evolve into one that will produce contented, fulfilled, compassionate people with lifelong learning skills.
Rating: 4
Summary: Standardized Testing Revealed
Comment: When asked what a set of national standards should look like, former U.S. commissioner of education, Harold Howe II, stated, "They should be as vague as possible". Alfie Kohn makes a powerful stance against the use of specific standards and standardized testing in his book, The Schools Our Children Deserve.
Education heads the news around the nation today. Everywhere you hear the cry for tougher standards for teachers and students, and accountability for schools and districts. Headlines scream that American children are falling behind their counterparts in other countries. The solution: an educational system that is 'back to basics' and has 'tougher standards'. Is this the answer? Alfie Kohn states a resounding 'No'.
Mr. Kohn's book takes you on a journey to explore how the American educational system is really doing. He then presents standardized tests for what they are: norm-referenced tests in which 50% of all children taking the test will fail. Kohn dissects how the tests are created and changed from year to year, indicating that if too many students get an answer correct, it is thrown out of the test. He delves into how standardized test scores are published in newspapers, and used by the government and school districts to hold schools and teachers hostage. He shows how the use of such scores are creating an educational community that teaches to the test, is devoid of meaningful learning, and does not address the needs of the individual child.
The Schools Our Children Deserve is written for parents and educators alike. It aims to educate its readers, so that they can become informed participants in the design of the schools our children deserve.
W.Joy Lopez
Pepperdine University Doctoral Student
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Title: What to Look for in a Classroom: And Other Essays by Alfie Kohn, Alfie Kohn ISBN: 0787952834 Publisher: Jossey-Bass Pub. Date: 01 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn ISBN: 0618001816 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools by Alfie Kohn ISBN: 0325003254 Publisher: Heinemann Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community by Alfie Kohn ISBN: 0871202700 Publisher: Association of Supervision Pub. Date: 01 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It by Peter Sacks ISBN: 0738204331 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: February, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
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