eBook

Troublemaker

Finn, Chester E

2008

Overview

Few people have been more involved in shaping postwar U.S. education reforms--or dissented from some of them more effectively--than Chester Finn. Assistant secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, and an aide to politicians as different as Richard Nixon and Daniel Moynihan, Finn has also been a high school teacher, an education professor, a prolific and best-selling writer, a think-tank analyst, a nonprofit foundation president, and both a Democrat and Republican. This remarkably varied career has given him an extraordinary insider's view of every significant school-reform movement of the past four decades, from racial integration to No Child Left Behind. In Troublemaker, Finn has written a vivid history of postwar education reform that is also the personal story of one of the foremost players--and mavericks--in American education. Finn tells how his experiences have shaped his changing views of the three major strands of postwar school reform: standards-driven, choice-driven, and profession-driven. Of the three, Finn now believes that a combination of choice and standards has the greatest potential, but he favors this approach more on pragmatic than ideological grounds, arguing that parents should be given more options at the same time that schools are allowed more flexibility and held to higher performance norms. He also explains why education reforms of all kinds are so difficult to implement, and he draws valuable lessons from their frequent failure. Clear-eyed yet optimistic, Finn ultimately gives grounds for hope that the best of today's bold initiatives--from charter schools to technology to makeovers of school-system governance--are finally beginning to make a difference.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press,Princeton Univ. Press
• Subject: A Nation at Risk / Academic achievement / Academic Standards / Accountability / Advanced Placement / Adviser / American Federation of Teachers / Americans / Attendance / Bildungsreform / Board of education / Career / Catholic school / Chairman / Charter Schools / Classroom / College Board / Common school / Curriculum / Desegregation / Diane Ravitch / Diploma / E. D. Hirsch / Economist / EDUCATION / EDUCATION / General / EDUCATION / History / Education policy / Education reform / Education Week / Educational Change / Educational History / Educational Policy / Educational Policy & Reform / Educational program / Educational Technology / Educational Testing Service / Educational Trends / Effective schools / Eighth grade / Federal Legislation / George W. Bush / Geschichte (Histor) / Governance / Grading (education) / Graduation / Grandparent / History / Institution / Jimmy Carter / Kindergarten / K–12 / Lamar Alexander / Learning / Middle school / Milton Friedman / National Center for Education Statistics / No Child Left Behind Act / Of Education / Parochial school / Peace Corps / Pedagogy / Policy / Policy Analysis / Policy Formation / Politics of Education / Private school / Profession / Public school (United Kingdom) / Racial Integration / Requirement / Salary / School / School Choice / School district / School Restructuring / Schulreform / Secondary school / Seminar / State school / Statute / Tax / Teach For America / Teacher / Teacher education / Technology / Textbook / Tuition payments / United States / USA / Writing / Year
• ISBN: 9781400828210, 140082821X, 0691129908, 9780691129907, 9780691171036, 0691171033