Horace's Hope

From America's "most prominent school reformer" (LOS ANGELES TIMES) comes a stirring personal meditation on what works-and what doesn't-in our high schools today. Revisiting America's classrooms, Sizer assesses the changes over the past decade and a half - from school choice to interdisciplinary learning - that give us reason to be hopeful. Tracy Kidder has called this"an eloquent book."

Horace’s Hope provides a clear-eyed look at the essential challenges of school improvement:

• Education Policy: An insider’s critique of why top-down mandates often fail and how real, lasting educational change must start from the ground up.
• Horace’s Compromise: A moving exploration of the compromises forced upon good teachers by large class sizes, rigid schedules, and a system that prevents them from truly knowing their students.
• Student Assessment: A powerful argument against over-reliance on standardized tests and a call for "Exhibitions" of mastery that measure what students can actually do.
• The Coalition of Essential Schools: A hopeful look at a nationwide movement of schools putting these principles into practice, with concrete examples of what school improvement looks like on the ground.

Theodore R. Sizer, University Professor Emeritus at Brown University, is the chairman of the Coalition of Essential Schools. He lives in Harvard, Massachusetts.