SRN LEADS/Stanford University: School Redesign Network — Leadership, Equity & Accountability in Districts & Schools

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Reviewer's commentary

 

The Flat World and Education by Linda Darling-Hammond now available

Today, in the U.S., only 1 in 10 low-income kindergarteners goes on to graduate from college and, at a time when education matters more than ever, the U.S. high school graduation rate (currently 70 percent) has dropped from first in the world to the bottom half of rankings for comparable nations. While such sobering facts inform a new book by Stanford University education professor and SCOPE Co-Director and SRN Founding Director Linda Darling-Hammond, it is the successes of effective school systems in the U.S. and abroad that she focuses on to develop a clear and coherent set of policies that can be used to create high-quality and equitable schools.

In this eagerly awaited book, The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future, Darling-Hammond looks at the roots of our modern education system and how the skills required for our 21st century global economy can not be learned in traditional education systems, which have been in place since the early 1900s when the majority of students were expected to become factory workers. Darling-Hammond identifies an “opportunity gap” that has evolved as new kinds of learning have become necessary - a gap where low-income students, students of color, and English language learners often do not have the same access as others to qualified teachers, high-quality curriculum, and well-resourced classrooms.

After setting the stage on current conditions in the U.S., Darling-Hammond offers a coherent approach for effective reform, focusing on creating successful systems, inducting and supporting quality teachers, designing effective schools, establishing strong professional practice, and providing equitable and sufficient resources.

A former classroom teacher, and currently an esteemed professor, renowned researcher, and highly respected policy advisor, Darling-Hammond draws on her broad experience to inform her book. In reviewing the book, New York University professor Pedro Noguera notes, “Her arguments are sound, rooted in evidence, and unencumbered by the kinds of ideological partisanship that characterizes too much of current debates on education. After reading this book, one will understand why it was that candidate Obama, when seeking advice from the sharpest minds in education, turned to Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond.”

Former North Carolina Governor James Hunt notes, “Excellent schools are the key to America's economic future, and superb teaching is the key to great schools. This book makes clear as a bell how to organize schools for successful teaching and what state and national policies are required to support it.”

Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, a chief education advisor to President Obama, Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and Founding Director of the School Redesign Network at Stanford.

The Flat World and Education is available through Teachers College Press or through Amazon.com. ISBN: 978-0-8077-4962-3 (paperback, 21.95) or ISBN: 978-0-8077-4963-0 (hardcover, $54.00).

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Table of Contents

Series Foreword by James A. Banks

Acknowledgments

1. The Flat World, Educational Inequality, and America's Future

Education in Our Flat and Changing World
How America Is Losing Ground
How Policy Can Matter
The Legacy of Educational Inequality
What Must Be Done?

2. The Anatomy of Inequality: How the Opportunity Gap Is Constructed

Poverty and Lack of Social Supports
Limited Early Learning Opportunities
Resegregation and Unequal Schooling
Unequal Access to Qualified Teachers
Lack of Access to High-Quality Curriculum
Dysfunctional Learning Environments

3. New Standards and Old Inequalities: How Testing Narrows and Expands the Opportunity Gap

The Prospects and Pitfalls of Standards-Based Reform
Testing Without Investing
When New Standards Meet Ongoing Inequalities

4. Inequality on Trial: Does Money Make a Difference?

The Legality of Unequal School Funding
How Money Makes a Difference
Litigating for Adequacy
Under What Conditions Can Money Matter?

5. A Tale of Three States: What Happens When States Invest Strategically (or Don't)

The Cases of Connecticut and North Carolina: Strategic Resources Used Well
The Case of California: When Mismanagement Meets Aggressive Neglect
The Moral of the Stories

6. Steady Work: How Countries Build Successful Systems

The Finnish Success Story
Korea's Climb to Extraordinary Attainment
How Singapore Became a “Learning Nation”
Educational Leap Frog: The Common Practices of Steeply Improving Countries

7. Doing What Matters Most: Developing Competent Teaching

A Global Contrast
Building an Infrastructure for Quality Teaching

8. Organizing for Success: From Inequality to Quality

The Need for Major Redesign
Designing Schools for Teaching and Learning
Creating Systems of Successful Schools

9. Policy for Quality and Equality: Toward Genuine School Reform

Meaningful Student Learning
Intelligent, Reciprocal Accountability
Equitable and Adequate Resources
Strong Professional Practice
Schools Organized for Student and Teacher Learning
Conclusion

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Reviewer Commentary

“We are so fortunate that Linda Darling-Hammond has provided this roadmap for educational excellence for all children in today's flat world. She thoughtfully emphasizes the basic strengths that we need in these changing times and then outlines what our schools must do to respond to 21st-century learning needs. Linda is one of the education researchers whom I most respect. 'All children' must mean all children and this book shows us how to do it.”
-Richard W. Riley, Former U. S. Secretary of Education

"Linda has done it again. She uses her extraordinarily broad and deep knowledge of education in the USA and the world to lay out what needs to be done and how it could happen. She combines vision with hands-on policy and school understanding as virtually no one else does. This is a must."
-Deborah Meier, 45 years of experience working in public schools

“When Linda Darling-Hammond speaks, America's teachers listen! I listened and learned from her as we together led the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and created the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. Excellent schools are the key to America's economic future, and superb teaching is the key to great schools. This book makes clear as a bell how to organize schools for successful teaching and what state and national policies are required to support it.”
-James B. Hunt, Former Governor of North Carolina

“Anyone who desires a quantum leap in the educational achievements of American students-as opposed to the 'quick fix'-must address the issues raised in this carefully argued and well-documented work.”
-Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“Once again Linda Darling-Hammond brings clarity to complexity, thoughtful analysis to politically charged issues, and sound policy recommendations to the hysteria of what to do to save America's public schools. In this volume the macro meets the micro on terms that let all democratically minded citizens breathe a sigh of relief.”
-Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Her arguments are sound, rooted in evidence, and unencumbered by the kinds of ideological partisanship that characterizes too much of current debates on education. After reading this book, one will understand why it was that candidate Obama, when seeking advice from the sharpest minds in education, turned to Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond.”
-Pedro A. Noguera, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, New York University

"Linda Darling-Hammond has written the definitive description of the problems that drag down the quality and equity of our educational system. Writing with passion, solid scholarship, and compassion, she presents a vision of the changes that are necessary to build a better education system and a brighter future for all our children and our nation."
-Diane Ravitch, New York University, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System

“Linda Darling-Hammond's latest is a profoundly important book. She provides both a powerful rationale and a clear, detailed roadmap for how public education must be transformed to meet the challenges of teaching, learning, and assessment in the 21st century. It is a 'must-read' for educators, policymakers, and others concerned about the future of our country in a 'flat' world.”
-Tony Wagner, co-director, Harvard Change Leadership Group, author of The Global Achievement Gap

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