The Classroom Crucible: What Really Works, What Doesn't, And Why

According to Edward Pauly, education reformers have looked everywhere except the classroom, where education really takes place. Drawing on in-depth interviews, this brilliant book shows that, more than anything else, it is the give-and-take between students and teachers that determines what is actually taught and learned.

The United States has been debating how to make schools work since news of the orbiting Sputnik hit home during the 1950s. However, by most accounts, kids' test scores are in a state of decline. According to Pauly, an educational researcher at the Manpower Demonstration Group in New York, the answer is not system-wide policy changes or more money for new curricula, but rather more academic freedom for teachers and students to facilitate successful teaching and learning strategies in the "crucible" of the classroom. He comes to this conclusion based on the research of James Coleman and others, which revealed that individual student achievement within schools varies and that "a student who attends a particular school is not educated in the whole school," but rather "in particular classrooms within that school." The discovery of classroom differences shows "that classrooms and the people in them are at the core of successful schooling." Recommended for academic and public libraries supporting education collections.
- Jef frey R. Herold, Bucyrus P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.