Accountability and Choice in Schooling
Accountability and Choice in Schooling by Mike Feintuck. Bristol, Pennsylvania: Taylor and Francis, 1994.
Feintuck's book describes changes in English law since 1988 under the Conservative regimes of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Educational reforms that occurred under the pressure of the “populists, moral entrepreneurs, and the privatizers” were rammed through the Parliament, resulting in a centralization of state educational power, the creation of a national curriculum, and the imposition of standardized testing. The stated intention of the reforms was to improve education through school-to-school competition, accountability, and a resultant rise in educational standards. Opt-out mechanisms enabled entire schools to reject local authority control and instead receive funding directly by the central government, while being managed exclusively by their governing body.
What are the results of the Conservative reforms? Feintuck is especially critical of the Thatcher view, which places parental interests over and above any larger societal interests. There is no convincing research, he states, that shows identifiable improvements resulting from a national curriculum and testing. Says Feintuck, In Britain, the implications of the introduction of market forces are already becoming clear. Notions of equity and active citizenship have not been enhanced, or indeed have been diminished; choice is largely tokenistic, but where it can be exercised effectively, is likely to be utilized only by those already relatively advantaged in the distribution of resources, serving to entrench hierarchy within the state school system.
Are there lessons here for the U.S. debate about choice? Yes, and those lessons can be enhanced if one also reads another book, The Good Society by Robert N. Bellah (Random House, 1992). The obsessive pursuit of private ends and the conception of humans as self-interest maximizers, warns Bellah, is destructive not only of our sense of community but of the economy as well.
Published by Taylor and Francis, 1900 Frost Rd., Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007-1598. Price: $27.
—Reviewed by Terry Gilbert, Idaho Education Association, Boise, Idaho.
Situations
Situations: A Casebook of Virtual Realities for the English Teacher by Betty Jane Wagner and Mark Larson. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc., 1994.
Situations provides teacher trainers and student teachers a focus to class discussions, as well as individual reading and reflecting. The subtitle—“A Casebook of Virtual Realities for the English Teacher”—tells exactly what this book is—with some extra goodies thrown in.
For instance, the appendices provide detailed information about the celebrated California Language Arts assessments, including sample rubrics, which new teachers can use or adapt to their classes. Of particular interest is a one-page “matrix of purposes, processes, and genres.” This coherent illustration tells new and experienced teachers more about what they should be doing than most books do—and does it with elegant simplicity.
While Situations offers any reader opportunity to reflect on specific “teaching moments,” the book is especially useful for those who need to provide a focus to discussions in a Language Arts class, for student teachers, or for new teachers who will soon encounter the scenarios detailed here. Wagner and Larson have written a book long overdue, a book whose ideas I have already called upon several times since receiving it for review.
Published by Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc., 361 Hanover St., Portsmouth, NH 03801-3912. Price: $22.50.
—Reviewed by Jim Burke, Burlingame High School, Burlingame, California.
The Teacher's Way
The Teacher's Way by Anne D. Forester and Margaret Reinhard. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Peguis Publishers, 1994.
Where are we going? What are we going to do? What will we see when we get there? Are we there yet? Questions asked by the young child on a family vacation, or the questions of a teacher embarking on curricular changes?
The Teacher's Way provides the primary teacher with a guidebook on implementing integrated learning activities in the multi-age classroom. The authors, a researcher and a practitioner, ask the reader to marvel at the amount of learning—without formal structure, rote memorization, and endless dittos—that a child has accomplished before ever setting foot in the schoolroom.
Building on those learning maps, teachers are encouraged to “kid watch” in order to gather information for future themes, to monitor progress, and to foster independence. The teacher becomes the researcher and, at the same time, a learner.
With techniques and activities actually tested in Reinhard's K–2 classroom, the authors map out every avenue—from the start-of-the-year tea to the end-of-the-year debriefing. Anecdotes, student work, and assessment forms are scattered throughout the book to illustrate to readers what the whole journey will look like.
Celebrating successes, encouraging student growth, increasing student interest, decreasing discipline problems, and fostering friendly parent relations are the road signs along The Teacher's Way.
After all, isn't getting there half the fun?
Published by Peguis Publishers, 100-318 McDermot Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3A OA2. Price: $17.95.
—Reviewed by Karyn Hecker, Dayton Catholic Elementary School, Dayton, Ohio.
