In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization

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Summary: Must read for all teachers, parents, and voting citizens!
Review: As a veteran Boston public school teacher, I found Deborah Meier's new book refreshing and especially timely given the grave threats thoughtful schools and schoolteachers face in this era of testing. The absurd importance we give to testing puts intense pressure on teachers and schools to standardize the curriculum. But Meier, with her decades of innovative school-building experience, accompanied by considerable research, gives us what the media and politicians refuse--a peak into the making of tests and their history in schools. Meier also takes us into small schools that have a much higher standard of achievement. They're personalized schools organized around how we know kids learn, and they allow teachers to have a larger role in schools and kids' academic lives---in making decisions and frequently rethinking their practice, in its details, in community, in public. This is a challenging and fascinating book. Afraid I might miss a nugget of wisdom, I couldn't wait to read the book again!

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Summary: Common sense, common sense, common sense
Review: As an educator (high school guidance counselor), union activist and progressive skeptic, I strongly urge folks far and wide to read Meier's book "In Schools We Trust." Not only is she easy to read but she makes sense out of difficult material.

Meier uses examples from her own experiences and links them to the weighty issues we face in public education. She uses humor as well as lofty research to back up her claims. In an early passage she challenges us to bring adults and children closer together ( a theme she returns to at the end), so that children can learn what it means to be an adult. In doing so she has us ponder our own adult culture. For instance, why don't we let children copy? since that's exactly what we urge adults to do (i.e. through best practices) and what would that mean if we did allow it?

All in all a good read, a refreshing look at schooling.

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Summary: Meier Does it Again
Review: Deborah Meier does it agian with her new book on the importance of buidling trudting realitonships among all the parties in schools. A must read for those interested in truly democratic public education. She discusses the iomperative for studenss, especially teenagers, of having important adults who care about them and know them well in theri lives, and how a school can be organziaed around that pricnipal.

A major theme of the book is how trust built on relatinships is a much better and stronger form of accountability than the standardization that is currently in vogue -- which actually buiilds distrust. Techer-Student, teacher parent, teacher-teacher are among those discussed.

She then spends some time illustrating the weaknesses and dangers of relying on standardized tests. Lastly she lays out her broader vision of what could be.

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Summary: Meier Does it Again
Review: Deborah Meier issues a personal challenge to the reader to deepen our work and our commitment to the role public schools play in our democratic society. Her voice is clear and powerful.

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Summary: The personal challenge
Review: Deborah Meier issues a personal challenge to the reader to deepen our work and our commitment to the role public schools play in our democratic society. Her voice is clear and powerful.

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Summary: enlightening and enjoyable
Review: I chose this book as a class assignment. Our directive was to give a presentation on an Educational theorist, and Deborah Meier's name was on the list. Little did I know the choice of Mrs. Meier's book would be such an enlightening and enjoyable introduction to her as well as her thoughts about the most effective strategies for education in today's society. Meier's writes with incredible insight and clarity about the things that are most important to her in education: small classes, building relationships, active parent and community participation in the school life of children, and offering all children options in the type of public school education they receive. She uses examples of her work at Central Park East and Mission Hill schools to illustrate her ideas and successes. These examples were especially helpful to me as a novice in the area of elementary and secondary education. Never one to mince works, and using well placed humor, she offers her opinions on standardized testing and the dangers they present to students and education. Meier's offers an alternative to standardization - standards and also outlines a broader vision for education in the future. All of my children have completed elementary and secondary school. However, as a soon to be grandmother, this book will be one of those that I recommend to my daughter and son-in-law as they begins their new journey into parenthood.

Rating:
Summary: enlightening and enjoyable
Review: I chose this book as a class assignment. Our directive was to give a presentation on an Educational theorist, and Deborah Meier's name was on the list. Little did I know the choice of Mrs. Meier's book would be such an enlightening and enjoyable introduction to her as well as her thoughts about the most effective strategies for education in today's society. Meier's writes with incredible insight and clarity about the things that are most important to her in education: small classes, building relationships, active parent and community participation in the school life of children, and offering all children options in the type of public school education they receive. She uses examples of her work at Central Park East and Mission Hill schools to illustrate her ideas and successes. These examples were especially helpful to me as a novice in the area of elementary and secondary education. Never one to mince works, and using well placed humor, she offers her opinions on standardized testing and the dangers they present to students and education. Meier's offers an alternative to standardization - standards and also outlines a broader vision for education in the future. All of my children have completed elementary and secondary school. However, as a soon to be grandmother, this book will be one of those that I recommend to my daughter and son-in-law as they begins their new journey into parenthood.

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Summary: Praise for "IN SCHOOLS WE TRUST"
Review: Progressive educator, Deborah Meier, a legendary school founder and reformer addresses the issue of mistrust in her book "IN SCHOOLS WE TRUST". Policy makers and communities across America feel that public schools are failing to meet our student's academic needs. The educational policy makers promote the notion that standarized tests are an effective tool to measure academic achievement in the nation's youth. Meier challenges this theory making the comparison between schools that rely upon standardized tests versus small, self-governed schools. Meier focuses on her theory that schools flourish when classes are smaller,intimate and when parents take an active role in their child's educational experience. Both parents and teachers can better assess learning in this educational setting as opposed to one that merely trains students to improve their test taking techniques. This plea for educational reform asks that parents and educators re-evaluate the complete learning process in our schools with the use of standardized tests.

Deborah Meier simply addresses the downfalls of standardized testing and its effects on student learning.

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Summary: A must read for anyone interested in children's learning
Review: Written in plain, but no less elegant and eloquent language, In Schools We Trust should be read by anyone interested in children and schools, and especially, in the conditions needed to foster the kind of learning we value. It contains the kind of wisdom, based on decades of experience, that we have come to expect from author Deborah Meier. The first chapter alone is worth the price of the book, and more!