“This fine and brave book more than delivers on its claim of common sense -- an uncommon virtue in the world of school reform.  It will empower parents and liberate teachers.   I hope it will be widely read, for its message desperately needs to be heeded.”

E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

Founder, Core Knowledge Foundation

Author of The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them

Order Today

“The sanest, most commonsensical education-reform book I have seen in many years,

What’s Wrong With Our Schools is a trove of clear-thinking, hard-won front-line wisdom,

rich experience and policy sagacity. Our schools and children will be a lot better off if the

authors’ advice is widely heeded.”

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Author of Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform since Sputnik

“If you read only one book on current affairs this year, make it this one.

What goes on in our schools is at the core of all that happens in our

country—what citizens know, what they believe, and how they behave.”

“The authors have marshaled all of the issues at stake in the so-called

school wars, explained them lucidly and sensibly, and made recommendations that

affect every American parent, teacher, school administrator, and taxpayer. They

illustrate all sides of the arguments in the vast and often confusing literature on the

various aspects of the education debates and they offer practical answers to some

of the most vexing questions of the day, beyond spin and image, ideology and the

cant. An illuminating, eminently readable guide to the ways in which we could make

our schools the instruments they should be for educating men and women to live in

a democracy.”

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Chapters Include

• Tests are good for kids

• Some Teachers are Better than others

• A Little Homework Doesn’t Hurt

• A Pass Should be Earned

Rita Kramer

“A clear, fluent and (yes!)

common-sensible alternative to

the culture of romantic

progressivism which has

captured so completely the

education establishment

throughout North America.

The authors have read the

research, but they draw also

critically on classroom experience

and make recommendations

that are practical in the distinctly

unideal reality of today's public

school systems.”

Author of Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America’s Teacher

“For parents puzzled by school rules and practices that don't make sense to them,

What’s Wrong With Our Schools is a useful corrective. It illumines the principal arguments

now raging over education policy, and explains how to get in depth information that

allows us bewildered parents and other onlookers to figure out who is right.”

Jay Mathews

Washington Post education columnist

Author of New York Times bestseller Work Hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers

Created the Most Promising Schools in America.

“The authors do an outstanding job of puncturing the balloon of progressive education, explaining in straightforward, clear, and compelling fashion why much of American k-12 education has failed over the past couple decades. Whole language, fuzzy math, constructivism, and the usual suspects are nicely critiqued. As What’s Wrong With Our Schools indicates, the main culprit in all this is an abandonment of common sense by the gurus who dominate the profession. All in all, a great read, especially for parents wondering whether the emperor has any clothes or not.”

Peter Brimelow

Author of The Worm in the Apple

J. Martin Rochester

Curators' Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political ScienceUniversity of Missouri-St. Louis

Author of Class Warfare: Besieged Schools, Bewildered Parents, Betrayed Kids and the

Attack on Excellence

“This is simply the best book on the public school I have seen. Written in

straightforward language, parents are informed about the foolish fads that

still afflict our public schools. Consistent with the research and without

condescension the book advocates a return to common sense.”

Mark Holmes, Ph.D.

Assistant Director and Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto

Author of The Reformation of Canada’s Schools: Breaking the Barriers to Parental Choice

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