The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, And The Attack On America's Public Schools [Paperback]

David C. Berliner (Author), Bruce J. Biddle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 1996

The Manufactured Crisis debunks the myths that test scores in America’s schools are falling, that illiteracy is rising, and that better funding has no benefit. It shares the good news about public education. Disputing conventional wisdom, this book ignited debate in Newsweek, The New York Times, and the entire teaching profession. Winner of the American Educational Research Association book award, The Manufactured Crisis is the best source of facts and analysis for people who care about what’s really happening in our schools.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Outrage over perceived scapegoating of educators by legislators and other voluble critics of American public schools fuels the authors' efforts to expose what they consider the real problems. While deploring the campaign of criticism they view as "manufactured," based on misleading data and leading to questionable reforms, they marshal impressive evidence to counter such assertions as that SAT scores have declined and other, similar charges. The real problems of our schools, they suggest, are societal and economic; they point out, for example, that "family incomes and financial support for schools are much more poorly distributed in our country than in other industrialized nations. This means that... large numbers of students who are truly disadvantaged attend public schools whose support is far below that permitted in other Western democracies." Berliner, professor of education at the University of Arizona, and Biddle, director for social research at the University of Missouri, identify a wealth of possible strategies for improving schools. A probing, well-argued rebuttal of detractors of public education. Illustrations.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Two well-known educational researchers, Berliner (psychology and education, Univ. of Arizona) and Biddle (social behavior, Univ. of Missouri) have written an exhaustive and strongly argued thesis in defense of American public schools. It is their position that American citizens are not unhappy about their schools and have no reason to be. Analyzing SAT scores and various reports, they conclude that achievement levels have remained stable over the last 20 years. The authors charge the Reagan and Bush administrations with launching a massive, critical attack against public education. Siding with Jonathan Kozol (Savage Inequalities, LJ 9/15/91), they allow that some schools are miserably funded and thus substandard. The authors present their case with numerous visuals and angrily demonstrate how this information has been misrepresented, misquoted, and misunderstood by the gullible media and the general public. This is an important book, even if it proves more provocative than convincing. For well-balanced educational collections.?Arla Lindgren, St. John's Univ., Jamaica, N.Y.
Copyright 1995 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: 432 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 2 edition (August 26, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201441969
• ISBN-13: 978-0201441963
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Searching for Concensus, June 6, 2003

By 

Junlei Li (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, And The Attack On America's Public Schools (Paperback)

Whether you are reading reviews HERE or the Stedman's review and subsequent heated debate in the reviewed journal (check ERIC database), you couldn't help but get the feeling that THERE IS ENOUGH EVIDENCE and ENOUGH ANALYSES to justify EITHER sides of the argument, depending on your political and educational convictions. I am a cognitive psychologist and does research in schools. I felt that, short of checking up on every source and reading every cited papers by myself, I won't be able to draw a clear conclusion. However, maybe the differing points are not the only important part here. If we listen to what people do not argue, there lies the agreements between authors and reviewers.

1) Leave the issue of whether our overall aggregate achievement is declining or not, we can agree that schools in poor areas are funded poorly, and their students are achieving poorly by most standards.

2) Leave the political argument aside, we can agree that it is NOT FAIR to entirely blame (or credit) teachers or schools for underserved students' achievements. Our political system and culture must take a compassionate stand along with the accountability perspective in order to help these students.

3) Teachers can make differences in achievements if properly supported, but not overly burdened, tested, pressured, and mandated.

Let's put down the liberal or conservative or neo conservative hats for a bit. I think most Americans with good hearts agree that we should do what we can to help even the poorest child achieve. Common sense says that slapping more tests on that poor child isn't going to do it. Common sense says that slapping the child's teacher in the face for the child's failure isn't going to do it. Common sense also says just handing bundles of cash to the teacher or school isn't going to do it either. A problem inherent in the system must be addressed systemically, on all fronts.

The authors did favor one particular point of view and did selectively represent the evidence. But they are justified, given how one-sided the debate had been from our government to television to homes to even education circles. The defense tends to rise to the level of the offense, and we can mostly agree that the offense has been vicious and just as biased, if not more.

All in all, this book is WORTH reading. The debate between Stedman and authors are worth reading too. If you read both, I think that you would walk away less opinionated in either direction, and more compassionate towards the poor and low-achieving children of our country.

16 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A different look at education "problems" in America, December 5, 2002

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F. Mercer "bibliophile" (Phoenix, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, And The Attack On America's Public Schools (Paperback)

Berliner and Biddle are obviously coming from the opposite end of the spectrum than the writers of A NATION AT RISK. While it is refreshing to read a critique of American education that doesn't blame everything on the teachers, one must read this book as critically as Berliner and Biddle read the Bush administration report. Certainly, as an education grad. student, I found the idea that our government, by publishing A NATION AT RISK, falsified statistics, and, basically, made a flawed educational system seem disasterous. However, I feel it necessary to consider B & B's agenda--very liberal, and as another reviewer pointed out in discussing exchange rates and the per student expenditure of foreign countries, the pair may be as guilty of "shady statistics" as they accuse the authors of A NATION AT RISK. In all, I find this book provides a nice balance to all those education doomsayers, but must be taken with the same grain of salt.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nibbled to Death by Ducks?, January 12, 2010

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Bob Calder - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, And The Attack On America's Public Schools (Paperback)

Several reviewers make criticisms of the book, but to tell you the truth, they are just nibbling around the edges. None of them is able to make inroads against the premise. Moving the U.S. from the bottom of the middle to the top of the middle is not very meaningful. We are solidly in the middle of performance by most measures.

Too many graphs? Only if you think people shouldn't understand the content!

The book's arguments could have been attacked differently, I suppose. On the other hand, if people were kicking you in the shins and calling you names, I would give you a pass on being grumpy. "Climategate" baloney comes to mind.

When the dust settles on think tank sociology, there will be some horribly disfigured reputations at places like the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and Competitive Enterprise Institute.

In the meantime, we need to quit believing certain people and quit mistaking FUD for reality. As old as it is, this book helps you distinguish the major players. It also helps you learn to think critically about the dialog surrounding education.

Just last week, Klein said he was going to close 13 public high schools in New York. Some of the schools are not making great progress, but the population of special needs students has burgeoned because they are NOT put in the charter schools the chancellor is so proud of. This book puts it in perspective. The special needs population has double the overhead of normal population, so these schools are suffering about a 30% hit to their budgets.

If they are doing 5% worse than the mayor's precious charter schools, he should die of embarrassment.