Cutting Through the Hype

Cutting Through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform is a revised, expanded, and updated version of the classic work by Jane L. David and Larry Cuban. It offers balanced analyses of twenty-three widespread school reform strategies, form teacher performance pay to turnaround schools and data-driven instruction. Avoiding the heated rhetoric and exaggerated claims that accompany many education reforms, each chapter explains clearly and concisely what each reform intends to do, what happens in reality, and what it takes to make it work. Written by two savvy and experience educator-researchers, Cutting Through the Hype is a book for expert and nonexpert readers alike--policymakers, researchers, school leaders, teachers, and concerned citizens and parents--indeed, for all who are committed to schools and have a stake in their success. "David and Cuban bring a wealth of background knowledge to their task that allows them to bring clarity to some of the most important policy choices confronting us, without compromising the complexity of those choices. This work is practical, provocative, and eminently readable." -- Charles M. Payne, Frank P. Hixon Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago "David and Cuban write in a balanced tone about a wide array of politically charged education reforms. With each reform they explore its origins, the problem the reform set out to solve, and the research on its efficacy. Their book cuts concisely and clearly to these critical aspects of each reform, making it an excellent primer for anyone new to these ideas and a perfect review for anyone who has been in the field and wants a reasoned and historical perspective." -- Heather Kirkpatrick, vice president of education, Aspire Public Schools "Two veteran educators bring fierce idealism and trenchant analysis to the examination of every imaginable issue in American education--from merit pay to phonics, from closing the achievement gap to computers in the classroom. This lively and thoughtful book will provide grist for many good debates among educators and those who care about our schools." -- Kim Marshall, former Boston Public School principal, Editor of the Marshall Memo Jane L. David is director of the Bay Area Research Group, Palo Alto, California. Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University and author of many books, including Against the Odds: Insights from One District's Small School Reform (Harvard Education Press, 2010).