Troublemaker (ebook)

Argumento de Troublemaker (ebook)

Few people have been more involved in shaping postwar U.S. education reforms--or dissented from some of them more effectively--than Chester Finn. Assistant secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, and an aide to politicians as different as Richard Nixon and Daniel Moynihan, Finn has also been a high school teacher, an education professor, a prolific and best-selling writer, a think-tank analyst, a nonprofit foundation president, and both a Democrat and Republican. This remarkably varied career has given him an extraordinary insider's view of every significant school-reform movement of the past four decades, from racial integration to No Child Left Behind. In Troublemaker, Finn has written a vivid history of postwar education reform that is also the personal story of one of the foremost players--and mavericks--in American education.

Finn tells how his experiences have shaped his changing views of the three major strands of postwar school reform: standards-driven, choice-driven, and profession-driven. Of the three, Finn now believes that a combination of choice and standards has the greatest potential, but he favors this approach more on pragmatic than ideological grounds, arguing that parents should be given more options at the same time that schools are allowed more flexibility and held to higher performance norms. He also explains why education reforms of all kinds are so difficult to implement, and he draws valuable lessons from their frequent failure.

Clear-eyed yet optimistic, Finn ultimately gives grounds for hope that the best of today's bold initiatives--from charter schools to technology to makeovers of school-system governance--are finally beginning to make a difference.

"An informative, feisty new book about education. You'll love it or hate it; Finn is never dull."--Theodore R. Sizer, former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Troublemaker is a lively and personal insider's guide to the last half-century of education reform, and no one but Checker Finn could have written it. He has indeed mastered the art of speaking candidly, unsettling conventional wisdom, and finding constant delight in the joys of intellectual independence."--Diane Ravitch

"Nobody knows more about education policy and school reform than Chester Finn and nobody has participated in--or shaped--more of it. His unique blend of memoir and history makes this book a must for anyone with a serious interest in American education."--William J. Bennett

"Checker Finn is irreverent, smart, and a scrupulous inspector of American education. His immensely readable tour of its last forty years offers a refreshing perspective for anyone who cares about children and schools."--Lamar Alexander, U.S. senator and former U.S. secretary of education

"This book is a treasure for present citizens and future historians. Chester Finn has been a hugely energetic participant in recent American education and one of its acutest observers. No one knows more about the subject than he. No one writes with a keener wit or more pungent style. The title, Troublemaker, is apt. With puckish good humor (and like Shakespeare's Puck), he makes trouble--for those who put their own comfortable habits ahead of what is good for children and the country."--E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

"Satisfying and hope-inspiring, Troublemaker makes sense of the last several decades of school reform as the product not of impersonal forces but of people with ideas and motivations."--Paul T. Hill, University of Washington

Honorable Mention for the 2008 PROSE Award in Education, Association of American Publishers

"Chester Finn's book is an indispensable guide and an inspiring portrait of what individuals and groups with common sense, civic commitment, and perseverance can accomplish in realizing the battered but noble promise of modern education--but also a sobering picture of what they are up against."--M. D. Aeschliman, Modern Age

"A lively and wise new memoir...Should be required reading for charter school leaders and left-wing teacher unionists alike. A 'personal history' of the last five decades of public schooling, Mr. Finn's memoir weaves America's story with his own...Mr. Finn's conclusions have the unpopular characteristic of adhering neither to one side nor to the other. Yes to vouchers, he says, as long as voucher schools have high quality; yes to business involvement, as long as it does not abandon sound instructional knowledge and the imperative of a civic mission; yes to standards, but only if they are rigorous. These are not sexy answers, but they are thoughtful ones, and for the field of education, that is quite the right medicine."--Elizabeth Green, New York Sun0Introduction ix

Part I: Early Days 1
Chapter 1: Schoolkid in the Fifties 7
Chapter 2: Into the Sixties 14
Chapter 3: Becoming an Educator 26

Part II: The Seventies 33
Chapter 4: White House Days 41
Chapter 5: Out of Washington 56
Chapter 6: The Politics of Aiding Private Schools 66
Chapter 7: A Federal Department of Education? 77
Chapter 8: Becoming a Republican 87

Part III: The Eighties 95
Chapter 9: Quality Gains Traction 101
Chapter 10: Educators Awaken 108
Chapter 11: Professing in Tennessee 118
Chapter 12: Inside the Beast 125
Chapter 13: The Quest for Better Information 134
Chapter 14: Goals, Standards, and Markets 149

Part IV: The Nineties 165
Chapter 15: Bipartisan Reform in Action--and Inaction 169
Chapter 16: Charters and Vouchers 181
Chapter 17: International Alarums, Contentious Responses 187
Chapter 18: Whittling and Think- tanking 194
Chapter 19: Clinton, Goals, and Testing 204
Chapter 20: Priests, Professionals, and Politicians 211
Chapter 21: Choices and Summits 216
Chapter 22: Back to Dayton 224
Chapter 23: Leaving No Child Behind 237
Chapter 24: Shaky Tripods 246
Chapter 25: The Burden of Choice 261
Chapter 26: Technology and Governance 273
Chapter 27: Teachers, Time, and Money 283
Chapter 28: Still Learning 296

Epilogue: Two Little Girls 307 Glossary 313 Notes 319 Index 347