Failure Up Close

Jay P. Greene is Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. Greene’s current areas of research interest include school choice, culturally enriching field trips, and the effect of schools on non-cognitive and civic values. His research has appeared in academic journals such as Education Finance and Policy and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and in newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Washington Post. He is the author of Education Myths and Why America Needs School Choice.Michael Q. McShane is Director of National Research at EdChoice and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the editor of New and Better Schools, the author of Education and Opportunity, and coeditor of Educational Entrepreneurship Today, Teacher Quality 2.0, and Common Core Meets Education Reform. McShane’s commentary has been published in the Huffington Post, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and he has been featured in Teachers College Commentary, and Education Next.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction—Jay P. Greene and Michael Q. McShaneChapter 1: The Limits of Expertise—Frederick M. Hess and Paige WilleyChapter 2: The “Failure” of Technologies to Transform Traditional Teaching in the Past Century—Larry CubanChapter 3: Teacher Education: Failed Reform and a Missed Opportunity—Daniel WillinghamChapter 4: Asking Too Much of Accountability: The Predictable Failure of No Child Left Behind—Martin WestChapter 5: School Improvement Grants: Failures in Design and Implementation—Ashley JochimChapter 6: Test-Based Teacher Evaluation—Matthew Di CarloChapter 7: The Failure of Private School Vouchers and Tax Credit Scholarship—Anna EgaliteChapter 8: No Excuses Charter Schools: the Good, the Bad, and the Over-Prescribed?—Matthew LadnerChapter 9: Too Big to Fail: “Big Bet” Philanthropy and Constructive Failure at the Gates Foundation—Megan E. Tompkins-StangeConclusion—Jay P. Green and Michael Q. McShaneBibliographyAbout the Authors

When Jay Greene and Mike McShane asked some great minds in education policy to put their pens to our failures, they created a great success. It is said that we all love the sound of somebody else being wrong, but this book is about all of us. I loved the lack of snark or accusation; this is honest critique of ideas the authors hoped would succeed. Anybody who has contributed to the failures in this book as I have will find it hard not to cringe, but will be grateful for the lessons.