Getting to Excellent: How to Create Better Schools

Rating:
Summary: A Book for Everyone Interested in Improving Schools
Review: What really constitutes an excellent school? In the midst of all of the controversy and criticism, this is the essential question for parents as well as teachers, administrators, and all community members. Judith Langer writes of her findings from her study of schools in New York, Florida, Texas, and California. In each chapter, Langer discusses differences between those schools she found to be excellent and those that were merely typical.

Langer provides checklists at the end of each chapter so that readers can compare local schools against the excellent ones described. She also provides suggestions for what teachers, administrators, parents, and other community members can do to use her findings to improve their schools. The last chapter addresses some frequently asked questions.

I can see this book being effectively used for discussion by study groups meeting to address school improvement (e.g., teacher and administrator meetings, PTA or PTO discussions). The design does not require that the book be read from cover to cover. Individuals and groups might choose to focus on one chapter at a time.