Rethinking School Reform: Views from the Classroom

by Christensen, Linda; Karp, Stan

• ISBN13: 9780942961294
• ISBN10: 0942961293
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Rethinking Schools Ltd

Summary

Rethinking School Reform puts classrooms and teaching at the center of the debate over how to improve public schools. Drawing on some of the best writing from the quarterly journal Rethinking Schools, this new collection offers a primer on a broad range of pressing issues, including school vouchers and funding, multiculturalism, standards and testing, teacher unions, bilingual educatin, and federal education policy. Informed by the experience and passion of teachers who walk daily into real classrooms, Rethinking School Reform examines how various reform efforts promote--or prevent--the kind of teaching that can bring equity and excellence to all our children, and it provides compelling, practical descriptions of what such teaching looks like.

Table of Contents

Preface	iii
Sonia Nieto
Introduction	vi
Part 1 CRITICAL TEACHING
Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice by the Editors of Rethinking Schools	3	(7)
Untracking English	10	(23)
Linda Christensen
Unsung Heroes	33	(4)
Howard Zinn
Teaching About Unsung Heroes	37	(8)
Bill Bigelow
The Truth About Helen Keller	45	(8)
Ruth Shagoury Hubbard
Acting for Justice	53	(7)
Linda Christensen
One Teacher's Journey	60	(19)
Bob Peterson
Part 2 TAKING BIAS SERIOUSLY
Ebonics and Cuturally Responsive Instruction	79	(10)
Lisa Delpit
Once Upon a Genocide: Columbus in Children's Literature	89	(14)
Bill Bigelow
Arranged Marriages, Rearranged Ideas	103	(12)
Stan Karp
Presidents and Slaves: Helping Students Find the Truth	115	(11)
Bob Peterson
Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us	126	(12)
Linda Christensen
What Color Is Beautiful?	138	(6)
Alejandro Segura-Mora
Out Front	144	(11)
Annie Johnston
Part 3 EDUCATION POLICY AND POLITICS
Schools More Separate: A Decade of Resegregration	155	(10)
Gary Orfield
Neighborhood Schools: Deja Vu	165	(5)
Robert Lowe
``Choice'' and Other White Lies	170	(6)
Makani Themba-Nixon
For-Profits Target Education	176	(8)
Barbara Miner
Learning to Read ``Scientifically''	184	(8)
Gerald Coles
Bush's Bad Idea for Bilingual Education	192	(7)
Stephen Krashen
Let Them Eat Tests: NCLB and Federal Education Policy	199	(16)
Stan Karp
Part 4 STANDARDS AND TESTING
The Educational Costs of Standardization	215	(10)
Linda McNeil
Race, Testing, and the Miner's Canary	225	(6)
Lani Guinier
Standards and Multiculturalism	231	(9)
Bill Bigelow
Testing Slights Multiculturalism	240	(2)
Makani Themba-Nixon
Teaching in Dangerous Times	242	(10)
Gloria Ladson-Billings
Their Report Card --- And Ours by Portland Area Rethinking Schools	252	(7)
Part 5 ROADS TO REFORM
Drive-By School Reform	259	(7)
Stan Karp
Reconstituting Jefferson: Lessons on School Reform	266	(9)
Linda Christensen
Money, Schools, and Justice	275	(12)
Stan Karp
Teacher Councils: Tools for Change	287	(10)
Bob Peterson
``Summer Camp'' for Teachers: Alternative Staff Development	297	(8)
S. J. Childs
Survival and Justice: Twin Goals for Teacher Unions	305	(10)
Bob Peterson
Confronting Racism, Promoting Respect	315	(10)
Tom McKenna
Editors	325	(1)
Contributors	326	(3)
Acknowledgments	329	(1)
Index	330