The War Against Excellence : The Rising Tide of Mediocrity in America's Middle Schools

Rating:
Summary: Courageous, Informed, and Timely
Review: Cheri Yecke's explanation of the rise of mediocrity in American education is intelligent, informed, and important. The mess of American education is a kind of Gorgian knot; even well-meaning reformers often don't know where to concentrate their efforts. Yecke's explanation of the philosophical weakness of middle school identifies one of the most important strands in that intimidating knot. She will undoubtedly be criticized for her efforts: the resistance to meaningful school reform is seldom fought over "what's best for the kids"--it is most frequently a fierce battle to preserve power, turf and careers. She has made a strategic and corageous foray into occupied land on behalf of the captives: our students.

Rating:
Summary: Middle school has become a play ground for social radicals
Review: Other books have reviewed the decline of education in American with a broad general view. Cheri Pierson Yecke focuses on the middle school movement over the last 30 plus years, and how many facets of the middle school movement have hurt specifically the talented and gifted children, but also children in general. She does a great job in reviewing various pieces of the middle school change. She has hundreds of footnotes; many of them are as interesting as the main text of the book.

The author starts off with a historical perspective of education and then covers how recently there has been a push to change to a K-5, middle school, and high school structured approach. The motivation of many behind the middle school movement has been a desire to "fix" society. Historically education has meant learning how to read, write, and how to do math. Many in the middle school movement wanted to do social engineering. Instead of trying to teach each student as much as the child could learn, the middle school radicals have pushed for equal outcomes. This is in direct contrast to what advocates for the talented and gifted want.

Over time many of the middle school radicals have become hostile to the needs and interests of the talented and gifted. Cheri Pierson Yecke acknowledges that this was one of the main motivations for her going back to school and get a PhD, to try and understand why the needs of her own children were not being meet.

Chapter three was on how the middle school curriculum has been dumbed down, so everyone can pass the same course. Next was a chapter on "Ability Grouping" and how the middle school movement has fought "Ability Grouping" as being elitist.

The next chapter was about "Cooperative learning" which has small groups of children working together. This may be a good idea once in awhile, but the middle school movement does a lot of it. Cooperative learning advocates defend it by saying it is good for the gifted, but by and large the gifted students find it a waste of time. The gifted students often end up doing a lot of the work, and the rest of the group gets a free ride, or the gifted student doesn't contribute, and the group suffers. In effect the gifted students is being forced to be a teacher's assistant. This is explored even more in the chapter on "Peer tutoring." For me a very key part of the problem is the gifted students, at a young age, are being forced to teach those who don't want to learn. Mature adults may be able to find reasonable solutions, but most young children often find this an impossible situation to deal with.

Chapter seven does some analysis of the beliefs and driving convictions of those pushing the middle school movement. Based on what they say publicly Cherie Pierson Yecke finds that many of them want equal outcomes. Rather than having a level playing field where everyone has an equal chance to succeed, the middle school radicals want coercive egalitarianism, they want to force everyone to be the same. Chapter eight points out that often to implement their goals they will hide or misdirect parents and the public in general about what is happening in the middle school.

Chapter nine discusses the ethical considerations of the middle school movement. The author quotes a number of people who study ethics, who say that people should have voluntary informed consent. The radical activists are using children to achieve the ends the radical activists want. I felt the author was too gentle here. If I go to a dentist for a filling and he gives me a root cannel, he has been unethical, and I'll sue. If I go to a lawyer for a will, and he takes my money without producing what I want, he clearly is being unethical. But when parents and the public, who pay taxes, voice their desires about what they want in an education, many in the middle school movement will ignore the direction of the public and go off and do what the middle school radicals want.

The last chapter addresses what does all of this mean for the twenty first century. If middle schools keep dumbing down our children, then we as a nation will not be able to compete.

I greatly enjoyed this book. It is well thought out, addresses a serious problem in our society, and is well documented. If you have young gifted and talented children, and if you want them to get a strong academic education, then this would be a very good book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Middle school has become a play ground for social radicals
Review: Other books have reviewed the decline of education in American with a broad general view. Cheri Pierson Yecke focuses on the middle school movement over the last 30 plus years, and how many facets of the middle school movement have hurt specifically the talented and gifted children, but also children in general. She does a great job in reviewing various pieces of the middle school change. She has hundreds of footnotes; many of them are as interesting as the main text of the book.

The author starts off with a historical perspective of education and then covers how recently there has been a push to change to a K-5, middle school, and high school structured approach. The motivation of many behind the middle school movement has been a desire to "fix" society. Historically education has meant learning how to read, write, and how to do math. Many in the middle school movement wanted to do social engineering. Instead of trying to teach each student as much as the child could learn, the middle school radicals have pushed for equal outcomes. This is in direct contrast to what advocates for the talented and gifted want.

Over time many of the middle school radicals have become hostile to the needs and interests of the talented and gifted. Cheri Pierson Yecke acknowledges that this was one of the main motivations for her going back to school and get a PhD, to try and understand why the needs of her own children were not being meet.

Chapter three was on how the middle school curriculum has been dumbed down, so everyone can pass the same course. Next was a chapter on "Ability Grouping" and how the middle school movement has fought "Ability Grouping" as being elitist.

The next chapter was about "Cooperative learning" which has small groups of children working together. This may be a good idea once in awhile, but the middle school movement does a lot of it. Cooperative learning advocates defend it by saying it is good for the gifted, but by and large the gifted students find it a waste of time. The gifted students often end up doing a lot of the work, and the rest of the group gets a free ride, or the gifted student doesn't contribute, and the group suffers. In effect the gifted students is being forced to be a teacher's assistant. This is explored even more in the chapter on "Peer tutoring." For me a very key part of the problem is the gifted students, at a young age, are being forced to teach those who don't want to learn. Mature adults may be able to find reasonable solutions, but most young children often find this an impossible situation to deal with.

Chapter seven does some analysis of the beliefs and driving convictions of those pushing the middle school movement. Based on what they say publicly Cherie Pierson Yecke finds that many of them want equal outcomes. Rather than having a level playing field where everyone has an equal chance to succeed, the middle school radicals want coercive egalitarianism, they want to force everyone to be the same. Chapter eight points out that often to implement their goals they will hide or misdirect parents and the public in general about what is happening in the middle school.

Chapter nine discusses the ethical considerations of the middle school movement. The author quotes a number of people who study ethics, who say that people should have voluntary informed consent. The radical activists are using children to achieve the ends the radical activists want. I felt the author was too gentle here. If I go to a dentist for a filling and he gives me a root cannel, he has been unethical, and I'll sue. If I go to a lawyer for a will, and he takes my money without producing what I want, he clearly is being unethical. But when parents and the public, who pay taxes, voice their desires about what they want in an education, many in the middle school movement will ignore the direction of the public and go off and do what the middle school radicals want.

The last chapter addresses what does all of this mean for the twenty first century. If middle schools keep dumbing down our children, then we as a nation will not be able to compete.

I greatly enjoyed this book. It is well thought out, addresses a serious problem in our society, and is well documented. If you have young gifted and talented children, and if you want them to get a strong academic education, then this would be a very good book to read.

Rating:
Summary: A review from the Trenches of Education
Review: The pursuit of excellence has been an integral part of the Western tradition, contributing much to its unique vitality. To my knowledge no one has doubted the propriety of pursuing excellence; after all who would want to recommend mediocrity? No one, that is, until quite recently. Welcome to the bizarre world of the middle school as revealed to us by Cheri Pierson Yecke in TheWar Against Excellence, The Rising Tide of Mediocrity in America?s Middle Schools. It?s the world of "brain periodization," "brain-based curricula," "identity development," "detracking," "untracking," and "transescents." It?s a world where "progressive" educators know better than parents what?s best for their children (Parents aren?t up to date on the latest findings in Ed. Psych.) and high ability students are urged to "succumb to peer pressure and strive not to achieve, or they will risk making their classmates look bad---and their actions might even go so far as to force the non-motivated students to work harder!"
Dr. Yecke?s book, the fruit of seven years of research and writing, is not only a work of impeccable scholarship, it is an expose, guaranteed to make the blood boil of everyone who is interested in genuine education and the future of our country. It is carefully organized, well written, and exceedingly well researched and documented. As Dr. Yecke says, it is a story that had to be told, and a story the basically tells itself through quotations from books, articles and papers delivered at conferences.
The saga begins as Yecke, the mother of two academically talented daughters
and a middle school teacher herself, became disillusioned (an understatement) with "self-proclaimed experts" and their "pseudo-wisdom" who turned the middle school into an "activist movement designed to force radical social changes, regardless of the values or desires of parents, students, or members of the community at large." Yecke returned to graduate school, and earned her doctorate so she could deal with the "so-called experts" as an equal. And that is what she does in this tough, hard-hitting, and much needed book.
The middle school made its debut in the late ?50s and early ?60s. The National Middle School Association (NMSA) was founded in 1973. To most citizens the appearance of middle schools meant simply a new way of organizing the classes, but for their champions it was much more---it was a movement. They saw, rightly of course, that a new structure is easier to change than an existing one. Hence they planned to use, and have been using, the middle school as a "testing ground" to change, first the whole educational system, and then society itself. As one prominent activist, Paul George, put it, the middle school has become "the focus of societal experimentation, the vehicle for movement towards increased justice and equality in the society as a whole." This involved de-emphasizing academic achievement and focusing on alleged personal and social needs of students. As two "authorities" (Johnson and Markle) argue, "By systematically applying attitude change techniques, the chances of developing desirable attitudes among middle school students can be improved." Professor George?s goals are even clearer: schools "are not about taking each child as far as he or she can go. They?re about redistributing the wealth of the future."
To justify the dumbing-down of the curriculum, the social engineers, starting in 1978, made use of a loony, mad scientist theory called "brain periodization." This first cousin of phrenology claims that "brain growth reaches a plateau around the ages of 12-14 at which time ?the brain virtually ceases to grow.?" Hence during this "learning plateau period" it was considered dangerous to introduce "new and challenging material" which could result in "negative neural networks to dissipate the energy of the [challenging] inputs." The NMSA "formally endorsed" this theory in 1981, and the theory reigned supreme for ten years. Even after it was admitted in 1993 that "there is no supporting evidence" for it, its influence lingered on and lingers on even today, sustained by ideology but not by science. Parents who complain of lack of rigor, low expectations, and student boredom are considered "difficult," and papers are delivered at conferences advising teachers how to deal with them.
Meanwhile, the most able students, left high and dry and bored by the abolition of "ethically unacceptable" gifted and talented programs are kept busy with "cooperative learning" and peer tutoring. The utopians did away with spelling bees and honor rolls hoping to breed "competition out of the next generation."
Yecke reveals many more things that are profoundly disturbing. Let me list a few: The attempt to achieve social justice by "making everyone equal" (this means equal outcomes, not just equality of opportunity). The blanket condemnation of competition some forms of which have great social and personal value. The disparagement of academic achievement. The use of cooperative learning to promote group identity at the expense of individual identity. The romantic notions of human nature and the naïve utopianism. And finally, the use of our children to advance a revolutionary social agenda. It is sad to learn that the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Foundations have played major roles in all of this nonsense.
It should be emphasized that Yecke?s book is a critique of what the educational theorists and activists, mostly professors of education, are proposing, rather than a report on what is actually going on in middle school classrooms. Fortunately, most teachers, relying on common sense, intuition, and experience, know enough to ignore the theories they were required to study while earning their certification. As E.D. Hirsch has said (and I?m sure Dr. Yecke would agree), ideas are the enemy, not people. It is the half-baked theories of professors under pressure to publish that must be exposed, discredited, and rejected.
Finally, I?m sorry that the exorbitant price of this book ($50.00) will prevent many from reading it. It is a book everyone should read.

Rating:
Summary: Review of THE WAR AGAINST EXCELLLENCE
Review: The pursuit of excellence has been an integral part of the Western tradition, contributing much to its unique vitality. To my knowledge no one has doubted the propriety of pursuing excellence; after all who would want to recommend mediocrity? No one, that is, until quite recently. Welcome to the bizarre world of the middle school as revealed to us by Cheri Pierson Yecke in TheWar Against Excellence, The Rising Tide of Mediocrity in America?s Middle Schools. It?s the world of "brain periodization," "brain-based curricula," "identity development," "detracking," "untracking," and "transescents." It?s a world where "progressive" educators know better than parents what?s best for their children (Parents aren?t up to date on the latest findings in Ed. Psych.) and high ability students are urged to "succumb to peer pressure and strive not to achieve, or they will risk making their classmates look bad---and their actions might even go so far as to force the non-motivated students to work harder!"
Dr. Yecke?s book, the fruit of seven years of research and writing, is not only a work of impeccable scholarship, it is an expose, guaranteed to make the blood boil of everyone who is interested in genuine education and the future of our country. It is carefully organized, well written, and exceedingly well researched and documented. As Dr. Yecke says, it is a story that had to be told, and a story the basically tells itself through quotations from books, articles and papers delivered at conferences.
The saga begins as Yecke, the mother of two academically talented daughters
and a middle school teacher herself, became disillusioned (an understatement) with "self-proclaimed experts" and their "pseudo-wisdom" who turned the middle school into an "activist movement designed to force radical social changes, regardless of the values or desires of parents, students, or members of the community at large." Yecke returned to graduate school, and earned her doctorate so she could deal with the "so-called experts" as an equal. And that is what she does in this tough, hard-hitting, and much needed book.
The middle school made its debut in the late ?50s and early ?60s. The National Middle School Association (NMSA) was founded in 1973. To most citizens the appearance of middle schools meant simply a new way of organizing the classes, but for their champions it was much more---it was a movement. They saw, rightly of course, that a new structure is easier to change than an existing one. Hence they planned to use, and have been using, the middle school as a "testing ground" to change, first the whole educational system, and then society itself. As one prominent activist, Paul George, put it, the middle school has become "the focus of societal experimentation, the vehicle for movement towards increased justice and equality in the society as a whole." This involved de-emphasizing academic achievement and focusing on alleged personal and social needs of students. As two "authorities" (Johnson and Markle) argue, "By systematically applying attitude change techniques, the chances of developing desirable attitudes among middle school students can be improved." Professor George?s goals are even clearer: schools "are not about taking each child as far as he or she can go. They?re about redistributing the wealth of the future."
To justify the dumbing-down of the curriculum, the social engineers, starting in 1978, made use of a loony, mad scientist theory called "brain periodization." This first cousin of phrenology claims that "brain growth reaches a plateau around the ages of 12-14 at which time ?the brain virtually ceases to grow.?" Hence during this "learning plateau period" it was considered dangerous to introduce "new and challenging material" which could result in "negative neural networks to dissipate the energy of the [challenging] inputs." The NMSA "formally endorsed" this theory in 1981, and the theory reigned supreme for ten years. Even after it was admitted in 1993 that "there is no supporting evidence" for it, its influence lingered on and lingers on even today, sustained by ideology but not by science. Parents who complain of lack of rigor, low expectations, and student boredom are considered "difficult," and papers are delivered at conferences advising teachers how to deal with them.
Meanwhile, the most able students, left high and dry and bored by the abolition of "ethically unacceptable" gifted and talented programs are kept busy with "cooperative learning" and peer tutoring. The utopians did away with spelling bees and honor rolls hoping to breed "competition out of the next generation."
Yecke reveals many more things that are profoundly disturbing. Let me list a few: The attempt to achieve social justice by "making everyone equal" (this means equal outcomes, not just equality of opportunity). The blanket condemnation of competition some forms of which have great social and personal value. The disparagement of academic achievement. The use of cooperative learning to promote group identity at the expense of individual identity. The romantic notions of human nature and the naïve utopianism. And finally, the use of our children to advance a revolutionary social agenda. It is sad to learn that the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Foundations have played major roles in all of this nonsense.
It should be emphasized that Yecke?s book is a critique of what the educational theorists and activists, mostly professors of education, are proposing, rather than a report on what is actually going on in middle school classrooms. Fortunately, most teachers, relying on common sense, intuition, and experience, know enough to ignore the theories they were required to study while earning their certification. As E.D. Hirsch has said (and I?m sure Dr. Yecke would agree), ideas are the enemy, not people. It is the half-baked theories of professors under pressure to publish that must be exposed, discredited, and rejected.
Finally, I?m sorry that the exorbitant price of this book ($50.00) will prevent many from reading it. It is a book everyone should read.

Rating:
Summary: Hurting Our Best and Brightest
Review: This is one scary book. Its disturbing message: our middle schools (and presumably, schools at other levels), under the influence of a well-intentioned but pernicious social engineering philosophy, have sacrificed high academic standards, and thwarted the intellectual development of our brightest, highest achieving youngsters.

The author, a mother of schoolchildren frustrated by her dealings with education experts, decided to become one herself. Yecke obtained a doctorate in education to find out why the middle schools were holding back "gifted" students like her own, instead of enabling them to advance as far as their intellects permit.

Her conclusion is that there has been a "radical takeover of middle schools" manifested by three policies: "heterogeneous grouping" (mandating classes of mixed ability; grouping by intellect prohibited), "cooperative learning" (breaking classes into small groups with collective responsibility for work) and "peer tutoring" (smarter students forced to teach the less bright). Yecke carefully documents the sources and evolution of the ideas behind these policies. She persuasively argues that the cumulative effect has been to retard the education of the best students, while dumbing down the curriculum overall.

Yecke is fairly optimistic that the academic standards movement will reverse the mediocrity tide. She asserts that the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind policy, which she sees as a "standards-based reform," is "remaking the educational landscape." However, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that No Child Left Behind is encouraging schools to shift resources away from gifted students in order to meet overall student proficiency requirements. Obviously, whether or not Dr. Yecke's optimism is justified remains to be seen.

It is clear, however, that something must be done to, in Yecke's words, foster a "rebirth of respect for achievement." Schools - and colleges - should be emphasizing the transmission of knowledge, the accumulated wisdom of our (and other) civilizations. They should be enabling our youth to learn as much as they can as fast as they can. When we read the words of a principal (!), who tells us that "When we come to the realization that not every child has to read, figure, write and spell . . . then we shall be on the road to improving the junior high curriculum," we know that something is decidedly wrong.

Cheri Pierson Yecke has done a great service by pulling together the middle school activists' central policy prescriptions and their supporting arguments and exposing them. Although she has focused on one sector of the K-16 structure, it is obvious that "the war against excellence" has battlefronts at more than one level of the educational system.

Rating:
Summary: A review from the Trenches of Education
Review: Those critics of Yecke's book who claim that she makes "bizarre" and "unsubstantiated claims" cause me to wonder if they have even bothered to read the text at all. Not only is this one of the most meticulously researched, annotated, and footnoted books I have ever encountered in my nineteen years in the field of education, but it is also one of the most timely in that it deals with pertinent issues, the results of which we can witness in our own society and the fruits of which we will be forced to reckon with as graduates of our dumbed-down educational system begin to take over jobs and leadership positions in our society.

To examine Yecke's credentials is to find a woman infinitely qualified to comment on the current state of our middle schools - she is an honored middle school teacher, she is a respected academic in the field of educational policy, she is a no-nonsense author and administrator of such policy, and (perhaps most importantly) she is a concerned mother of two. But despite all of these elements, she is one of the most amicable, welcoming, and forthright professionals I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Everything about this woman exudes dedication to a cause greater than her own interests and absolute integrity in execution. Some claim that she is driven by an extreme right-wing agenda because she has served under Republican governors. I must admit that this was my initial prejudice as well. However, immediately upon beginning this book, I found myself faced with issues that know no political classification but are instead universal ones that should be of concern to all Americans. I have discussed this book with colleagues of several political persuasions and the verdict has always been the same: Yecke is correct.

As an educator and an academic, I have nothing but praise for this book, which focuses not only on the problem, but also on the solution. To those who are so quick to condemn The War Against Excellence, I would ask them to read it again -or perhaps for the first time - with an open mind and no political agenda. I have no doubt that they will uncover not only an undeniable pattern of erosion in our public schools, but also the practical and proactive steps for salvaging our educational system and creating a nation of young adults who will have earned a true sense of self-worth through legitimate means of accomplishment, and not some sorry substitute for it masquerading as "self-esteem" but rather consisting of the quiet complacency of apathy.

Rating:
Summary: My review ignored?
Review: Yecke ignored all educational research to come to her bizzare conclusions about teaching, learning, and school in America. This book is about political and social agendas and has nothing to do with what is best practice in education or what is best for our students.

Rating:
Summary: Some Truth
Review: Yecke is more right than anyone knows, or wants to admit, take it from someone who was on the inside. There is a concerted effort, nationwide, to dumb-down American children by turning education into indoctrination. It's a tacit understanding, spoken only in code, amidst the educators of the educators and the petty feifdoms we call our "Boards of Education". And her research methodologies could have been flawless and they'd have still gone after her with tooth & claw. Like I always say, as you look into matters such as these, "follow the money" -- you'd be horrified by how eager certain groups in this country are to sell your children, and their education, down the river in the name of their personal agendas and political movements. After 40+ years of following their agenda and methodology in running of our public schools, I think it's time we changed and took them back.