Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement

Rating:
Summary: Why did you leave teaching since you have the answers?
Review: Great book. I did not see addresssed the WHY ARE KIDS SCORING LOW in schools of low sociaeconomic students. How do you account for this besides blaming teachers for using "regrograde and ineffective methods of teaching in urban and rural areas?" I thought that was very weak. Also, what you suggest looks doable but why don't schools from high socioeconocimic areas have the same testing problems as those you sight in your book? WHY don't these kids learn? Why don't we look for some of these answers? It feel punative for teachers of schools that score poorly. It's not the kids. It's the lack of life esperiences that hold them back. This is totally test driven. I doubt that these kids who will have better test scores from Result will be better educated. It's just a political move, at best.

Rating:
Summary: Why did you leave teaching since you have the answers?
Review: Great book. I did not see addresssed the WHY ARE KIDS SCORING LOW in schools of low sociaeconomic students. How do you account for this besides blaming teachers for using "regrograde and ineffective methods of teaching in urban and rural areas?" I thought that was very weak. Also, what you suggest looks doable but why don't schools from high socioeconocimic areas have the same testing problems as those you sight in your book? WHY don't these kids learn? Why don't we look for some of these answers? It feel punative for teachers of schools that score poorly. It's not the kids. It's the lack of life esperiences that hold them back. This is totally test driven. I doubt that these kids who will have better test scores from Result will be better educated. It's just a political move, at best.

Rating:
Summary: A very straightforward book
Review: This book takes issue with how the teaching business is the only business where it's practitioners, teachers, expect and are expected to work in isolation. Mr. Schmoker does not take issue with teachers, nor does he blame them for this problem. Rather, he blames the institution of teaching for the problem.

The book outlines how to take a school and bring improvement to it through regular teacher collaboration. There are many, many facets to this, and I cannot get into them here. But I do recommend this book to teachers who are interested in dramatically improving their entire school.