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Book Summary
From Yale University Press:Why The Teacher Crisis Is Worse Than You Think And What Can Be Done About It by Vivian Troen and Katherine C. Boles Overview The most compelling difference between this book and others on education - and about most discussions of education reform - is that it focuses on transforming the job of the teacher as the key to education reform. The authors argue that no amount of money, no changes in curriculum, no recruitment or retention strategies, and none of the reforms currently put forth, will improve the quality of teachers and teaching until teaching itself is transformed into a true profession. Most people agree that American public education is in trouble, but few understand how serious the problems really are and how ineffective are the attempts at education reform. This book examines why, even with all the thousands of programs and billions of dollars being spent, reforms are failing to improve American education. Why do test scores of American students continue to compare poorly against international standards? Why is there a critical shortage of classroom teachers? Why do an increasing number of new teachers come from the bottom third of their college graduating class? Why do half of all beginning public school teachers quit teaching within their first five years - and the best even sooner? WHO'S TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN?: Why the Teacher Crisis is Worse Than You Think and What Can Be Done About It asks all these questions, and then answers them in a scathing indictment of education reforms. In their examination of the system's failures, the authors reveal public education's Trilemma Dysfunction, the self-perpetuating pathology that
When more able people are drawn into the profession, colleges and other teacher preparation programs will be forced, by the power of competition, to improve the quality of their training. When better prepared teachers enter the classroom, the quality of the profession will improve and better qualified candidates will be eager to enlist. Education reforms will continue to go nowhere, say the authors, until the job of the classroom teacher is reinvented. Chapter by Chapter
Chapter 1: Your Children Aren't Getting the Teachers They Deserve Explores reasons behind the single most critical problem in public education, the chronic shortage of good teachers. The authors present a diagram of the Trilemma Dysfunction and label its components to aid the reader in gaining an understanding of the three major areas being addressed (badly) by education reform. Chapter 2: How Teaching Got to Be This Way Presents a brief history of teaching in America from the one-room school house to the classrooms of today in order to explain the structure and organization of schools, the feminization of teaching, the impact of those developments on teaching and school culture, and the qualifications of those who choose to go into teaching. Chapter 3: Teacher Training: How Bad Is It? Exposes the weaknesses of teacher preparation and reveals the effects of inadequate teacher training and the lack of follow-up professional development on the quality of classroom teaching. Chapter 4: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Teachers Describes the professional worklife of the teacher and shows how the culture of schools and schooling defeats good teachers, obstructs education reform, and makes teaching an undesirable job for well qualified people who have other choices. Chapter 5: Band-Aids and Boondoggles: The Myths and Realities of "Educational Reform" Identifies the most popular of today's education reforms and analyzes why each of them fails to achieve its purpose. The chapter also describes the role of the unions in education reform, their obstructionist past and their transitional present, and an optimistic view of their future. Chapter 6: A Total Approach to Solving the Fundamental Problems of Elementary School Education Proposes a solution to the dysfunctions of public education in the form of what the authors call a Millennium School; the components and features of a Millennium School, how it is structured, staffed and operated. A fictional day in the life a "typical" Millennium School demonstrates how the whole thing works. "It's easy to be depressed about the condition of teaching in America's public schools, and learning how it all came about does little to ease the pain. But Vivian Troen and Katherine Boles go one step further and offer a practical vision of how our children can get the high-quality teaching they deserve. Their vision is worth pondering - and even implementing." -Ted Fiske Former education editor of the New York Times and author, with Helen F. Ladd, of "When Schools Compete: A Cautionary Tale" "Why do so few people go into teaching, or once they have begun a career in public school teaching, abandon it? Vivian Troen and Katherine Boles, teachers both, investigate that question and then propose considerable and thoughtful changes that would bring great benefit to our beloved profession." -Theodore R. Sizer and Nancy Faust Sizer Authors, "The Students Are Watching: Schools and the Moral Contract" "This book is sharp, engaging, warm, and critical - in both senses of that word. Many times I found myself saying 'I wish I'd written that.' Their concept of a 'Trilemma Dysfunction' is an important contribution and their Millennium School deserves serious consideration by everyone interested in improving public education." -John Merrow Host and executive producer, The Merrow Report, and author, "Choosing Excellence: 'Good Enough' Schools Are Not Good Enough" "Vivian Troen and Kitty Boles' account comes at a time when the American public needs to know the inside story. Here it is: not only a compelling analysis and convincing plan for action, but a darned good read." -Seymour B. Sarason Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University and author, with Kenneth G. Wilson, "Redesigning Education" | |
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| (c) 2003 Vivian Troen, Katherine Boles; All Rights Reserved. | ||||||