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  • Published: 4 August 2015
  • ISBN: 9780345803627
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

The Teacher Wars

A History of America's Most Embattled Profession




A brilliant young scholar's history of 175 years of teaching in America shows that teachers have always borne the brunt of shifting, often impossible expectations.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A groundbreaking history of 175 years of American education that brings the lessons of the past to bear on the dilemmas we face today—and brilliantly illuminates the path forward for public schools.

“[A] lively account." —New York Times Book Review

In The Teacher Wars, a rich, lively, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for nearly two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that recent popular ideas to improve schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to teach—are all approaches that have been tried in the past without producing widespread change.

  • Published: 4 August 2015
  • ISBN: 9780345803627
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

Praise for The Teacher Wars

  • "Ms. Goldstein's book is meticulously fair and disarmingly balanced, serving up historical commentary instead of a searing philippic." --The New York Times

  • "Goldstein presents detailed case studies from different periods that should give pause to any contemporary reformer who claims to know exactly how to fix public schools in America. Her careful historical analysis reveals certain lessons useful to anyone shaping policy, from principals to legislators...thorough and nuanced." --San Francisco Chronicle


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