Failure Up Close: What Happens, Why It Happens, and What We Can Learn from It - Softcover

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. -- Lisa Graham Keegan, chief executive officer, Arizona Chamber Foundation; former superintendent, Public Instruction for the State of Arizona Greene and McShane in a smartly-written book invite an educated class of reformers, policymakers, and philanthropists to walk with them to the back of the school line to inhale the aroma of failure. Without relying on conjecture or hyperbole, two of America's best intellectuals and their colleagues methodically unpack a motley assortment of public polices, programs, and partisan plans to explain how and why success is never guaranteed in school reform. We can learn a lot of lessons from past failures. Reading this book puts us one step closer to the front of the line. -- Gerard Robinson, resident fellow, the American Enterprise Institute; former Virginia Secretary of Education and former Commissioner of Education for the State of Florida Jay Greene and Mike McShane have compiled a powerful assortment of essays addressing the vicissitudes of the education reform era that have led to major changes in policy but arguably marginal impact in practice and outcome. By problematizing the question of failure, Greene and McShane lead us to a new paradigm of change that embraces the complexity of taking well-intended policy from the design stage through implementation all the way to impact. While no politician, policy maker or educator ever wants to fail kids, Greene and McShane show that NCLB, vouchers, VAM, SIG, teacher preparation, technology and philanthropic investments suffer from a disconnect between intention and impact. Wherever you sit on the highly volatile education reform continuum, this book is a must-read for those who actually want to embrace the complexity of public education transformation in order to improve conditions and outcomes for our nation's kids. -- Joshua P. Starr Ed.D, CEO of PDK International, former Superintendent of the Montgomery County Public Schools

This book engages a select group of scholars from across the ideological spectrum to examine particular education reform efforts of recent years that have not succeeded and offer lessons for school and system improvement that can be learned from them.