Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Need to Do [Paperback]

Laurence Steinberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1997

Drawing on a nationwide survey encompassing all ethnic and socioeconomic groups, Beyond the Classroom identifies the real nature of the education crisis in America. "No one answer is going to reverse the dumbing down of American schools and American kids. But here, at last, is a fresh perspective". -Chicago Tribune.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

America's inner-city schools are not the only ones in trouble, according to social scientist Steinberg, an authority on adolescent development. In 1985, he and his colleagues began "the most extensive study ever conducted" on forces in youngsters' lives that affect interest and performance in school in order to understand why students' commitment to school was apparently so tenuous. The results of their nationwide study, presented here in jargon-free, accessible language, indicate a widespread peer culture that demeans adolescents who are seriously engaged in their schooling and indifference on the part of parents to their children's academic achievement. Taking issue with school reform, Steinberg offers a different perspective where remedy will be found not in schools but in students' lives outside of school and in changed social and parental attitudes. Steinberg directs the Division of Developmental Psychology at Temple. Brown and Dornbush are social scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford, respectively.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In its refutation of the idea of educational reform, this book is quite different from many others that propose ways to improve our schools and classrooms. The key findings are based on a nationwide survey of more than 20,000 students in junior high schools and high schools. Rather than criticize teaching methods and theory, Steinberg (developmental psychology, Temple Univ.) focuses on life outside of school: students' homes, peer groups, parents' attitudes, and community environments. These important factors, the author argues, have a great impact on student achievement. Steinberg's analytical studies of declining SAT scores, comparisons of ethnicity and adolescent achievement, and examination of the family's role in education provide valuable information for every concerned parent, teacher, journalist, and school administrator. The book is written for a general audience. Recommended for all types of libraries.?Samuel T. Huang, Northern Illinois Univ. Libs., Dekalb
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684835754
• ISBN-13: 978-0684835754
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #779,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for Those Interested in Reform, April 29, 2001

By 

Stacy L. Sinclair, Doctoral Student (Marina del Rey, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Need to Do (Paperback)

Steinberg's book is a splash of cold water making readers face the real state of student achievement in America by focusing on what is influencing our high school students. Through this 10 year longitudinal study, interviewing more than 20,000 students and their parents, and comparing these findings with other prominent studies, Steinberg uncovers the root causes for low student achievement in America as compared to students in other countries and therefore why school reform initiatives have failed.

With an emphasis on student engagement in learning, the study looks at factors such as parenting strategies, the influence of peers and extracurricular activities. Steinberg looks primarily at issues beyond the school walls as the data shows these influences (large scale) are greater indicators of student success or failure than teacher's classroom practice or organization of the school system. Each factor is analyzed through the lens of socio-economic status, ethnicity, peer relationships and length of time since immigration to this country. As a result, the reader is forced to question the American culture; the attitudes, beliefs and values we perpetuate.

The good news is working hard in school is a strong predictor of academic achievement. Friends and group identity at school make a difference as do parenting techniques. The issues that we need to face are the rampant disengagement of parents in their children's lives, a peer culture that demeans academic success and scorns students who work hard and the negative impact on excessive extracurricular activity on student's achievement.

Steinberg makes 10 recommendations to begin refocusing the country's efforts. Each requires our society to take a good hard look at how we `do business'. To increase academic success for all students will require compromises and change on the part of students, parents, schools, businesses, government and mass media.

In a sobering thought, Steinberg asserts that "no curricular overhaul, no instructional innovation, no change in school organization, no toughening of standards, no rethinking of teacher training or compensation will succeed if students do not come to school interested in, and committed to, learning. In order to understand how this commitment develops, why it has waned over the past three decades, and, more importantly, how we can reengage students in the business of learning, we need to look, not at what goes on inside the classroom, but at students' lives outside the school's walls. Until we do just this, school reform will continue to be a disappointment, and our students' achievement will fail to improve."

I finished the book out of breath. We're in a race to save our children. Will our country pull together in time?

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Research that Supports Reality, October 18, 2000

By 

Jonathan Corey (Portsmouth, RI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Need to Do (Paperback)

Steinberg's book "Beyond the Classroom" uses extensive research to determine what every teacher knows really goes on in schools. The VAST majority of schools do their very best to prepare students for whatever the student's future holds, but many students and their families don't value the education enough to really work at it. That is why American performance lags behind that of other industrial nations. I teach high school and I see the "slacker" culture that pervades. Although Steinberg would not go that far, I know that the Media portrays underachievers, and goof offs as cool people, and academics as nerds. Many students simply don't make the effort to learn because they take it for granted and they put things like jobs, sports, and social life ahead of study. Our problems with public education do not begin in the schools, the consumer culture of America teachees children how to think and the results are manifest in the schools. His research supports what I see every day in the classroom. I don't buy what conservative policticians say, because they are not on the front lines like I am. They never include teachers in Ed Reform because they see us as part of the problem. We can help make schools better, but only when parents and children care about it enough. Steinberg hits the nail on the head.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reformed Has Failed and Wha, January 13, 2002

By 

J. Mark Jackson (Pepperdine University Doctoral Student) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Need to Do (Paperback)

In summarizing over a decade of academic research into high school student achievement, Laurence Steinberg, in Beyond the Classroom-Why School Reformed has Failed and What Parents Need to Do, poses an alternative hypothesis. He argues that poor student achievement and low student commitment are determined outside the school and therefore, attempts to solve the problem of American education through school reform are ineffective. Steinberg offers that a lack of engagement on the part of students has pervaded American teenagers across all socio-economic layers and is the root cause of school failure.

The author effectively develops his argument by defining and comparing engaged and disengaged students. He then cites research into ethnicity, parenting, extra-curricula activities, and peer grouping as the contributors and distracters to academic engagement. His analysis of the significance of peer group influences provides validation of what many parents would argue as common sense findings. Throughout the text Steinberg masterfully presents traditional arguments from both sides of the political spectrum and answers them with findings supported by research data.

Beyond the Classroom closes with ten recommendations for parents, educators, and government officials. Unfortunately, Steinberg's recommendations suggest that improvement in student performance requires societal structural changes that at best assume active acceptance and participation of a majority of citizens engaged in social reform. However, to believe that a society disengaged from it's educational system - a system responsible in large part for proliferating the attributes of citizenship - can develop the will to make such systematic change is unrealistic.

Perhaps Steinberg's most significant contribution in offering Beyond the Classroom is in dispelling the concept that school reform in the existing school system can in fact solve the problem of low academic performance. This purpose alone makes this book a worthwhile read for those engaged in the welfare of our children.