Education's Flashpoints Upside Down or Set-Up to Fail [Hardcover]

The new measurement of today's educational system is focused on student outcomes. This book by Dueck, longtime educator, school administrator, and assistant deputy minister in Alberta, Canada, incorporates his decades of personal experience as well as current empirical research to conclusively enlighten policy makers, professors, school administrators, educational scholars and researchers, and graduate students of school administration on the number of ways the educational system is adversely impacted and prevented from meeting students' needs. The book successfully describes many flashpoints that are current in the world of education where students' best interests are hampered by teachers' self-interests. The author argues that unions and politicians are the key contributors to the problem. Topics discussed include the accountability movement, teacher tenure, prolonged summer vacations, class size, teacher pay, and many more. Each chapter ends with a review and conclusion of key points, and the book ends with 11 recommendations and initiatives for systemwide improvement to the educational system. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; general readers.Duecks latest book is as hard hitting as his first. It is an unusual book, combining empirical research with years of personal experience. It challenges conventional wisdom about education in a no-holds-barred pursuit of a vision for schools that serve studentsall students. Those serious about comprehensive reform will find the book at once disturbing and motivational. It is bound to shock and upset, but in the end it is an optimistic book filled with creative solutions and sound advice for teachers, trustees, parents, and politicians.Be ready to have your views and emotions concerning education race from clarity and understanding to fierce disagreement, as Dr. Jim Dueck courageously takes on all the sensitive issues in education. He unabashedly spares no one from his critique and shines a ló<