Table of Contents
Part One: How School Reform Undermines Education
1. “We’re Number Umpteenth!”: The Myth of Lagging U.S. Schools
2. Competitiveness vs. Excellence
3. What Passes for School Reform: “Value-Added” Teacher Evaluation and Other Absurdities
4. STEM Sell: Do Math and Science Matter More Than Other Subjects?
5. How to Sell Conservatism: Lesson 1—Pretend You’re a Reformer
6. Operation Discourage Bright People from Wanting to Teach
7. Remember When We Had High Standards? Neither Do I
Part Two: Grades, Tests, and “Data”
8. The Case Against Grades
9. Schooling Beyond Measure
10. Turning Children into Data: A Skeptic’s Guide to Assessment Programs
11. Whoever Said There’s No Such Thing as a Stupid Question Never Looked Carefully at a Standardized Test
12. Why the Best Teachers Don’t Give Tests
Part Three: In the Classroom
13. A Dozen Essential Guidelines for Educators
14. What We Don’t Know About Our Students—and Why
15. The Trouble with Calls for Universal “ High-Quality” Pre-K
16. Poor Teaching for Poor Kids . . . in the Name of Reform
Part Four: What Kids Don’t Need
17. Grit: A Skeptical Look at the Latest Educational Fad
18. What Waiting for a Second Marshmallow Doesn’t Prove
19. What Do Kids Really Learn from Failure?
20. Criticizing (Common Criticisms of) Praise
21. Five Not-So-Obvious Propositions About Play
Part Five: Misrepresenting the Research
22. Homework: An Unnecessary Evil?
23. Do Tests Really Help Students Learn or Was a New Study Misreported?
24. Studies Support Rewards and Traditional Teaching. Or Do They?
25. Lowering the Temperature on Claims of Summer Learning Loss
26. Is Parent Involvement in School Really Useful?
27. Perfect, It Turns Out, Is What Practice Doesn’t Make
Part Six: The Ends Behind the Means
28. Teaching Strategies That Work! (Just Don’t Ask “Work to Do What?”)
29. “Ready to Learn” Means Easier to Educate
30. Just Another Brick in the Wall: How Education Researchers Ignore the Ends to Tweak the Means
31. What Parents Aren’t Asked in School Surveys—and Why
Part Seven: Making Change
32. Change by Decree
33. Encouraging Courage