Changing the Course of Failure: How Schools and Parents Can Help Low-Achieving Students

Sandra Stotsky

May 2018 · Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

About this eBook

The basic purpose of this book is to help policy makers at all levels of government understand that (1) widespread adolescent underachievement is not susceptible to solution by educational interventions no matter how much money is allocated to public education; and (2) there are unidentified educational and civic costs to focusing on low achievement and to expecting public institutions of education (for K–12 and college) to solve a growing social problem. Many policy makers seem to think that teachers/schools are the primary cause of low achievement. Educational institutions still cannot solve a non-education-caused problem and haven’t done so for over fifty years despite all the public and private money that has been allocated. The book concludes with suggested policies for addressing the damage to public education from “gap-closing” standards and with suggested areas for policy making in order to change the current course of failure for many low-achieving students.

About the author

Sandra Stotsky is professor of education emerita, University of Arkansas, and was Senior Associate Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from 1999-2003. She has authored several books and many reports and articles on the school curriculum, K-12 standards, teacher training, and teacher licensing tests.