Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 176
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-4758-1700-3 • Hardback • June 2015 • $70.00 • (£54.00)
978-1-4758-1701-0 • Paperback • June 2015 • $36.00 • (£28.00)
978-1-4758-1702-7 • eBook • June 2015 • $34.00 • (£26.00)
Donald Parkerson is Distinguished Professor of Teaching in the History Department at East Carolina University. This is his fifth book focusing on the history of education with his colleague and coauthor, Jo Ann Parkerson.
Jo Ann Parkerson is professor emerita of education at Methodist University. She draws upon her extensive teaching background as coauthor of five books on educational history.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter One: The World We Have Lost
Chapter Two: Assessment, Bureaucracy and Consolidation
Chapter Three: Seizing the Schools: States and Municipalities Take Control
Chapter Four: The Consolidation Century
Chapter Five: Embracing the Corporate Model
Chapter Six: The Roots of Standardized Assessment
Chapter Seven: Testing in Schools
Chapter Eight: Problems in Corporate and School Bureaucracy
Chapter Nine: What have we Done?
Chapter Ten: What is to be Done?
References
Index
In a field characterized by fads and short attention spans, Issues Facing Schools Today: The Challenges of Assessment, Bureaucracy and Consolidation is welcome indeed. The Parkersons explore the origins of school and district consolidation, educational bureaucracy, corporate influence, and political meddling in an organized and readable manner. In combination, these factors have produced an educational system that is both alien to, and ineffective in educating, increasingly large number of our children. Although there is “much to be done” to reclaim the promise of education for all, the Parkersons remain cautiously optimistic.
— Lorin Anderson, Carolina Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of South Carolina
As a long-time student of politics, I can say without hesitation that Issues Facing Schools Today is a timely treatment of an extremely important topic of contemporary public and elite discourse. Where we are in our thinking about education policy, and how we have come to this point, are often forgotten in public debate, though ignorance of the past undoubtedly increases the likelihood of making the same mistakes over and over again. The Parkersons’ systematic treatment of themes central to the evolution of education policy provides a crucial context in which to view present and future changes in education policy. Their historical analysis of “Assessment, Bureaucracy and Consolidation” will no doubt better inform our deliberations regarding future directions in these policy areas, as well as identifying pitfalls in the formulation of education policy. Issues Facing Schools Today will be highly thought-provoking, unquestionably controversial, and will no doubt become essential reading for those propagating and studying educational reform—it’s a “winner.”
— Glenn Parker, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Purdue University
The Parkersons’ work is a must read for everyone interested in the major issues effecting our schools. Through careful historical analysis they argue that the trifecta of assessment, bureaucracy and consolidation is ultimately responsible for the crisis in public education today. This book is timely and immensely intriguing.
— Herbert J. Walberg, Professor Emeritus & University Scholar, University of Illinois Chicago
As school systems naively accepted and endorsed the consolidation of their local schools to fit a cost-saving business model, they forgot about educating their children. Issues Facing Schools Today is a superb, thoughtful overview of how this happened and its devastating impact on our children.
— William Grobe, associate professor, Department of Educational Leadership, East Carolina University; past president, The National Association of Secondary School Principals