Poisoned Apple: The Bell-Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure [Hardcover]

Betty Wallace (Author), William Graves (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The practice of sorting students by the statistical device known as the "bell curve" is attacked here by two education specialists who identify a host of problems associated with the "Bell-Curve Syndrome's growing list of symptoms." Wallace was formerly superintendent of the Vance County School District in North Carolina, where her efforts to establish a more fluid and individualized system were thwarted. With education reporter Graves, she calls for change, citing school districts that are abandoning tracking, eliminating grade levels and attempting alternatives without lowering standards. Vehement about the "demeaning forces" of bell-curve ratings, Wallace describes her successes in implementing a non-traditional system of instruction: it emphasized teaching children according to their individual abilities and pleased both students and their teachers, but it threatened the power of a politically cautious school board. Case studies are included in this inspiring report on school reform.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

For decades, the bell curve has ruled the U.S. educational system through the assumption that a majority of children are average and thus gearing group instruction toward the average level. This bell curve, the authors claim, does not recognize that human achievement is more a function of will and effort than intelligence. While many books on the bell curve are "dry"?most notably Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray's The Bell Curve (Free Pr., 1994), which the authors refute?Poisoned Apple presents an enthralling expose of the bell curve system and one educator's decision to extinguish its use in the Vance County, North Carolina school district. (Wallace is the former superintendent of the Vance County School District; Graves is an education reporter.) Interspersed throughout the narrative are basic discussions of philosophies regarding the use of the bell curve vs. alternative policies of flexibility. Even though the events in Vance County are not storybook perfect, the spark that was ignited there still glows. This is essential reading on an often controversial subject.?A.R. Huggins, Univ. of Memphis Libs.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 334 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (February 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312118767
• ISBN-13: 978-0312118761
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,810,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Betty Cloer Wallace lives in Western North Carolina with her favorite hound dog Elvis.

A former school district superintendent and principal in North Carolina and Alaska, Wallace is a native tree farmer, writer, painter, and former instructor (writing and literature) at a community college that serves Western North Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Her English-Scottish ancestors emigrated to the Great Smoky Mountains in the 1700s.

Wallace's TUCKASEEGEE CHRONICLES entries ranked in the top 1% and 5% for three years in the international Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contests. Books 1-9 are now available in Amazon's Kindle Store, and more books in the long series of short novels (a multigenerational saga) will be available in 2012. The books are chronological and should be read in order.

Wallace's definitive analysis of the bell curve syndrome in public schools--'POISONED APPLE: The Bell-Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure' published by St. Martin's Press, 1995--is still used in colleges and universities nationwide, as well as by homeschool advocates, and is available in Amazon Books and from most used-book sellers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that is required reading for trustees&educators, March 1, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Whitefish, Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poisoned Apple: The Bell-Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure (Hardcover)

In Japan there is a relatively simple educational philosophy; through hard work all students can succeed in challenging subject matter
Ms. Wallace and Mr. graves present a compelling point that many American schools have established an assessment system that compares students to the average in district or in state test-taker based on the results of a bell shaped curve
The authors compare this to the teaching of high standards and benchmarks or the now politically incorrect term, outcomes, (OBE)
In order to successfully reach such goals children must progress at a pace independent of age, (grade).

Although the school district that I am affiliated with, (school trustee), is relatively successful in comparison to the North Carolina district that Superintendent Wallace attempts to reform, there are far to many students who are both held back as they await their class to advance or find themselves in high school despite suspect grades
Too often trustees don't know the questions to ask in order to solve problems
"Poisoned Apple" is written by "friends" of education and despite the title, the book leaves me with a feeling of hope
I found it in my county public library, (Kalispell, Montana), and I am extremely disheartened to discover that it is out of print, (I will call the publisher).

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for all civic leaders, January 13, 2002

By 

James A. Tucker (Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Poisoned Apple: The Bell-Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure (Hardcover)

As a university professor, I have been teaching leadership and learning for the past eight years. Throughout that time, Wallace's book has been required reading in our programs at every level of graduate study. It represents a microcosm of the broader community within which schools must exist. In a well-written case study, Wallace has presented a number of the problems faced by public schools and potential solutions that were explored under her leadership in Vance Co, North Carolina. Both success and failure are presented for everyone to read. She has exposed her actions, for better and for worse, for her readers to evaluate. This is a comprehensive description of what happens in a challenging community when school reform is attempted. This book should be required reading for every school administrator, school-board member, and professor of education, not to mention anyone else interested in improving the quality of schools. The book simply must be reprinted or published in a revised form with a follow-up report of what has happened in Vance Co., NC, in subsequent years.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why homeschooling is the new norm in America, March 2, 2008

By 

Loren Baldwin "The Admiral" (Middletown, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poisoned Apple: The Bell-Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure (Hardcover)

The insidious pervasiveness of Bell Curve practices is truly the central cause of ongoing decline of public schooling in America--forcing bell curve comparisons among same-age children through grade placement and standardized testing rather than simply measuring each child's growth along a continuum of progress regardless of age. It is no wonder that thousands of parents are turning to homeschooling and private education of their children, and we can expect this trend to continue.

Wallace and Graves clearly hit the nail on the head, but it is already too late to combat such heavily entrenched bell curve practices. The demise of American schools is too far gone. The lucrative testing and textbook industries will continue to protect their profit margins, and politicians will continue to point to standardized testing as the way to compare schools and states. And, in the best interest of their children, caring parents will continue to seek better ways to educate their children rather than subject them to the tyranny of same-age bell curve comparisons in public schools. Sadly and irretrievably, this horse left the barn a long time ago.