The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? [Paperback]

Jeanne S. Chall PhD (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572307684 | ISBN-13: 978-1572307681 | Publication Date: March 26, 2002 | Edition: 1

This volume addresses one of the central issues in education: how best to instruct our students. From the late Jeanne S. Chall, Professor of Education at Harvard University and a leading figure in American education, the book reviews and evaluates the many educational reforms and innovations that have been proposed and employed over the past century. Systematically analyzing a vast body of qualitative and quantitative research, Chall compares achievement rates that result from traditional, teacher-centered approaches with those resulting from progressive, student-centered methods. Her findings are striking and clear: that teacher-centered approaches result in higher achievement overall, with particular benefits for children of lower socioeconomic status and those with learning difficulties. Offering cogent recommendations for practice, the book makes a strong case for basing future education reforms and innovations on a solid empirical foundation. In a new foreword to the paperback edition, Marilyn Jager Adams reflects on Chall's deep-rooted commitment to and enduring legacy in educating America's children.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For school psychologists, this book provides: (a) a useful overview of the history of key ideas which continue to affect what we do in schools today, and (b) and overview of the empirical research on the comparative effectiveness of student-centered and teacher-centered approaches to education. For teachers who are less exposed to the current empirical literature in education, this book is perhaps an even more valuable resource. The teacher training curriculum in most schools of education do not teach how to conduct, evaluate, or employ research findings to improve classroom instruction....Chall provides a clear presentation of the relevant research that relates to improving achievement and the historical context in which certain beliefs, independent of supporting research, gained ascendancy over empirically supported practices....Chall has made a strong case for the effectiveness of teacher centered approaches to educational practice as compared to student centered approaches....For school psychologists, teachers, administrators, and parents this book can provide a clear answer to the question, 'What works in the classroom?'. The next step is to do it."--School Psychology Quarterly

"Offering cogent recommendations for practice, the book makes a strong case for basing future education reforms and innovations on a solid empirical foundation....The value of a more formal, teacher-centered education is thoroughly demonstrated, with particular attention given to the benefits derived by children of lower socioeconomic status and those with learning difficulties....The book points us towards solutions based on knowledge and past experience, rather than fads and expediency." --ZDM - Zentralblatt Für Didaktik Der Mathematik

"A notable education book of 2000....If a school district could choose one person over the past generation to offer advice on educational strategies, the smart money would be on the late Jeanne Chall....this book is a must for people who work in--and run--schools."--American School Board Journal

"Chall wants teachers to tap the entire spectrum of education ideas--to draw on a wide range of classroom practices regardless of their ideological points of origin. In the end, this call for open-mindedness may be her most important legacy."--Teacher Magazine

"How best to instruct students is the central theme of the late Jeanne S. Chall's last book....The ten chapters focus on all aspects of the issue including thorough discussions of traditional, teacher-centered education versus progressive, student-centered education trends in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies, and conclusions and recommendations. An appendix shows the key differences between the two strategies in a clear, concise manner. Highly recommended at all levels." --Choice

"In this remarkable volume...Jeanne Chall made a tremendous contribution to American education, a contribution that could revolutionize the way we approach teaching and learning....Any school board really concerned about how to improve student learning should consider buying this book in volume...to make certain it reaches all who direct instruction....It is a highly readable book, numbering under 200 pages, but each page is chock-full of information, provocative questions, and ideas that should stir the heart of anyone from a policy wonk to a classroom teacher in P.S. 100 trying to do his or her best to teach children. Chall's mastery of the past century and more of research on the issue of what works is truly remarkable....Public education is under almost constant attack from one quarter or another. The 2000 presidential campaign promises to elevate the issue to epic proportions. Rather than resort to a score of new programs, a thousand new ideas, perhaps we should simply require that every candidate, local, state or national, read this treasure of a book before they engage in debate. Then we might actually focus our energy and resources where it belongs--on improving teaching and learning."--American School Board Journal

"It would create a revolution in American education if every teacher, parent, and school board member were to read this book. What a wonderful, informative, readable, commonsense discussion of what works in classrooms and what usually doesn't work." --Diane Ravitch, author of The Troubled Crusade; Research Professor, New York University; Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Research and Improvement

"The capstone work of a great scholar, this book synthesizes all the relevant research to show that student-centered teaching does not live up to its education-school billing. Rather, it is teacher-centered education which leads to greater excellence and fairness. For the sake of our children, we must not wait decades, as we did with reading, before heeding the truths uncovered by the matchless scholarship of Jeanne Chall." --E.D. Hirsch, Jr, Ph.D., University Professor of Education and Humanities, University of Virginia

"In her last book, Jeanne Chall brings her vast experience with the field of education and her rigorous scholarship to bear on what has become the hottest topic of the day. Expanding her focus from literacy to the full range of curriculum, Chall concludes that the preponderance of evidence supports a strong teacher-centered approach to education over methods that transfer primary responsibility for learning to students. This book may well define the educational debates of the next decade. It provides both a needed historical perspective on educational fads and facts, and an incisive analysis of the forces affecting educational change. As such, The Academic Achievement Challenge ought to be required reading for anyone entering the profession of education today." --Andrew Biemiller, PhD, Professor and Coordinator of MA Teacher Education Program, Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto

"Beyond being a classic study of what works in the classroom and why, Jeanne Chall's final book provides us with an enduring lesson in how to base recommendations for practice on analysis of research."--Mary Beth Curtis, PhD, Center for Special Education, Lesley University

From the Back Cover

"The capstone work of a great scholar, this book synthesizes all the relevant research to show that student-centered teaching does not live up to its education-school billing. Rather, it is teacher-centered education which leads to greater excellence and fairness. For the sake of our children, we must not wait decades, as we did with reading, before heeding the truths uncovered by the matchless scholarship of Jeanne Chall." E.D. Hirsch, Jr, Ph.D., University Professor of Education and Humanities, University of Virginia --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (March 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572307684
• ISBN-13: 978-1572307681
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #396,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jeanne Chall's final word on the education debates., March 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? (Hardcover)

This is an important book because Chall endeavors to provide a historical and social context for understanding the debates about how best to teach the majority of children in schools. Chall invites educators, publishers, parents, and policy makers to look beyond the politics and trends in education, and to focus on the research evidence on what methods get results. She also calls for teacher training programs to empower teachers with the knowledge to examine and question the research they base their practice on. She advocates for using the past constructively to inform choices made in the future. She often said that doctors would never dream of prescribing a brand new treatment without researching past cures and treatments... and yet educators, she said, seemed to reinvent the same ideas over and over without considerating research evidence already gathered. It made her hopping mad.

What is interesting to about this book is the story of it's evolution. Originally Chall drafted a very candid and straight forward manuscript based on the questions and opinions she had developed over 50 years as an educator. The book was going to be quite different from her well known scholarly publications. But then she kept rediscovering bits of newspaper and scraps from nagazines which she had piled away in vast personal collection of snippets -- all of which confirmed her thinking on what was going on in education. She became so excited about each interesting piece of evidence that including them became irresistable for her. But with each new snippet she then felt a need to address alternative viewpoints in order to try and offer a well rounded approach. Having been attacked in the past for her poignant views, I think she found it difficult (or maybe just stupid) to set herself for obvious criticisms. So what would originally have been a very personal argument based on her depth of experience in the field eventually evolved into a scholarly review of the historical evidence. This book -- completed during the last month's of her impressive life -- may not be her best work. But it is certainly her most personal. You just have to read between the lines.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 100 Years of Evidence that Real Teaching Works Best, October 15, 2002

By 

Molly Johnson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? (Hardcover)

As other reviewers have noted, Jeanne Chall was passionately opinionated but also extremely well informed from her own decades of experience and research of educational methods. The evidence she presents in this book is wide-ranging, both historically and in subject matter. And her arguments as always are both rock-solid factual and heart-tuggingly persuasive. This is an excellent book that I would encourage as an appropriate and thoughtful gift for any educator.

Parents who are concerned with getting the best education for their children should also read this book. Chall's language is less esoteric here than in her scholarly articles (although this is a scholarly book and her conclusions are consistent with those papers). She demonstrates here that educational methods and research are not too obscure for the general reader.

In fact, her review of 100 years of research and experimentation shows that the common-sense notions held by the layman are correct -- that real teaching (instruction, direction, leadership, not just "guidance") works best to educate children. Chall explains why this is so, and shows the dire consequences of ignoring the facts.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Practioners Already Know, June 26, 2007

By 

Tatia A. Holme "Teacher Lady" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? (Paperback)

This text was a relatively quick read and it confirmed what I had learned in my teacher prepatory classes; however, it is the kind of belief system that some districts have steered away from in attempts to be more in touch with the emotional needs of students (this is not to say that meeting the emotional needs of the students isn't important, however, effort *can* equal achievement! It was in excellent condition; as well.