The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom?

This volume addresses one of the central issues in education: how best to instruct our students. From the late Jeanne S. Chall, Professor of Education at Harvard University and a leading figure in American education, the book reviews and evaluates the many educational reforms and innovations that have been proposed and employed over the past century. Systematically analyzing a vast body of qualitative and quantitative research, Chall compares achievement rates that result from traditional, teacher-centered approaches with those resulting from progressive, student-centered methods. Her findings are striking and clear: that teacher-centered approaches result in higher achievement overall, with particular benefits for children of lower socioeconomic status and those with learning difficulties. Offering cogent recommendations for practice, the book makes a strong case for basing future education reforms and innovations on a solid empirical foundation. In a new foreword to the paperback edition, Marilyn Jager Adams reflects on Chall's deep-rooted commitment to and enduring legacy in educating America's children.

Jeanne S. Chall, PhD, was Emeritus Professor of Education at Harvard University Graduate School of Education until her death in 1999. She founded and directed the Harvard Reading Laboratory. Her books include Learning to Read: The Great Debate, Stages of Reading Development, Readability Revisited and the New Dale-Chall Readability Formula, and Qualitative Assessment of Text Difficulty. A member of the National Academy of Education and the Reading Hall of Fame, Dr. Chall served on the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association and the National Society for the Study of Education. She received many awards, including the American Psychological Association's Edward L. Thorndike Award for distinguished psychological contributions to education, the American Educational Research Association Award, the International Reading Association Citation of Merit, and the Samuel T. Orton Award from the Orton Dyslexia Society.