The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future (Multicultural Education) [Paperback]

Linda Darling-Hammond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2010 | Series: Multicultural Education

The Flat World and Education offers an eye-opening wake-up call concerning America's future and vividly illustrates what the United States needs to do to build a system of high-achieving and equitable schools that ensures every child the right to learn.



''We are so fortunate that Linda Darling-Hammond has provided this road map for educational excellence for all children in today's flat world. She thoughtfully emphasizes the basic strengths that we need in these changing times and then outlines what our schools must do to respond to 21st-century learning needs. Linda is one of the education researchers whom I most respect. 'All children' must mean all children and this book shows us how to do it.''

-Richard W. Riley, Former U. S. Secretary of Education



''When Linda Darling-Hammond speaks, America's teachers listen! I listened and learned from her as we together led the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and created the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. Excellent schools are the key to America's economic future, and superb teaching is the key to great schools. This book makes clear as a bell how to organize schools for successful teaching and what state and national policies are required to support it.''

-James B. Hunt, Former Governor of North Carolina and President of the Hunt Institute



''Her arguments are sound, rooted in evidence, and unencumbered by the kinds of ideological partisanship that characterizes too much of current educational debates. After reading this book, one will understand why it was that Barack Obama, when seeking advice from the sharpest minds in education, turned to Dr. Linda Darling Hammond.''

-Pedro A. Noguera, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, New York University



''Once again Darling-Hammond brings clarity to complexity, thoughtful analysis to politically charged issues, and sound policy recommendations to the hysteria of what to do to save America s public schools. In this volume the macro meets the micro on terms that lets all democratically-minded citizens breathe a sigh of relief.''

-Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin Madison



''Anyone who desires a quantum leap in the educational achievements of American students-as opposed to the 'quick fix'-must address the issues raised in this carefully argued and well documented work.''

-Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education



''Linda Darling-Hammond has written the definitive description of the problems that drag down the quality and equity of our educational system. Writing with passion, solid scholarship, and compassion, she presents a vision of the changes that are necessary to build a better education system and a brighter future for all our children and our nation.''

-Diane Ravitch, New York University



''Linda Darling-Hammond's latest is a profoundly important book. She provides both a powerful rationale and a clear, detailed roadmap for how public education must be transformed to meet the challenges of teaching, learning, and assessment in the 21st century. It is a must-read read for educators, policymakers, and others concerned about the future of our country in a 'flat' world.''

-Tony Wagner, co-director, Harvard Change Leadership Group

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Examining in detail issues like equality of spending, testing in K-12 education, and teacher preparation, Stanford education professor Darling-Hammond (The Right to Learn) makes a clear, organized argument that, "like manufacturing industries that have struggled and gone under in recent decades, modern schools were designed at the turn of the last century," and are in desperate need of transformation. Using a straightforward style to examine complex issues, Darling-Hammond reveals the successful educational strategies around the world that are toppling the old educational guard, including a high degree of personalization that allows stronger, closer relationships among students, faculty, staff, and parents. Darling-Hammond doesn't shy away from difficult questions at the heart of seemingly-intractable academic issues; for example, "How is it that scores have been driven upward on the state tests required by No Child Left Behind, yet they have dropped on... international measures?" Scholarly and factual, well-researched and packed with astounding examples of the current climate of American education, this text should prove highly informative for educators, educational administrators, and involved parents throughout the U.S.

Review

Contains a valuable lode of practical and research-based advice about how to improve our schools. --Washington Post

There are few who are as strong as Darling-Hammond in using and analyzing statistical data and scholarship...and in fighting for educational equity; when she talks about leaving no child behind, she truly means it. This book is a must for graduate education students, educators, [and] policy makers...Essential. --CHOICE Magazine

Darling-Hammond identifies the policies and the practices that could turn the tide from educational mediocrity to educational excellence for all if we only had the will. --The School Administrator

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Teachers College Press (January 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807749621
• ISBN-13: 978-0807749623
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Funding
  • #16 in Books > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Reform & Policy
  • #59 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy

More About the Author

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University. Her books include The Right to Learn, Professional Development Schools, Learning to Teach for Social Justice, and Authentic Assessment in Action.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 94 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What we Americans can do for our education system(s) February 15, 2010

By Stephen Armstrong

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This is Linda Darling-Hammond's magnum opus, and it is a magnum opus--complex, thorough, well-written, complete, and thoughtful. Her thesis is that until we in the U.S. do the following, our country will produce hollowed-out children who cannot compete in the global economy: (1) Make a serious, long-term commitment to educational equity by funding all districts equally; (2) Use "thinking curricula" that require students to work together on projects of intellectual import, rather than on meaningless "seatwork"; (3) Professionalize the teaching profession by increasing its status, pay, training, professional development, and requirements for entry, especially in the sciences, mathematics, foreign languages, and so forth; (4) Use a 15- to 20-year timeline for improvement; (5) Stop the yo-yo curriculum innovations that swing U.S. curricula all over the block in unproductive "innovational" oscillations; (6) Stop punitive de-funding or punitive control of "failing schools" through Annual Yearly Progress reports, which have the unintended consequence of over-valuing the results of standardized testing.

Darling-Hammond gives both positive and negative examples of educational innovation. On the positive side in the globe: Singapore, South Korea, and Finland. In the U.S. Connecticut, North Carolina. These are extremely well-written case studies of how to improve education well. On the negative side: The U.S. as a whole, and California in particular, which gutted the #1 public school system in the world over the last 30 years.

In regard to educational equity, Darling-Hammond is particularly passionate, especially since the poor districts are also the immigrant districts are also the most-needy districts and the least well-funded districts. Such disparities in Massachsetts, for example (not mentioned in her book): Newton, MA, just built a $170 million high school; Chelsea, MA, twenty miles away, is bankrupt. Guess where the poor immigrant groups live.

I finished the book by wanting to ask Darling-Hammond questions. For instance, if we created a national action plan to improve education in the U.S., how long would she want it to run, and how much would it cost? What would she do about the multi-tiered political offices that control local education (federal, state, and local)? What would be her #1 curriculum priorities? Would she dispose of useless courses? How would she handle the problems of parent rage and disrespect of teachers? What would be the impact of her reforms on special education and bilingual education, which have poor track records for re-integration or fast integration of students into the overall curriculum?

On my part, I have suspicions about both special education and bilingual education that lasts for six or seven years. Also, Darling-Hammond does not mention that U.S. students study about 50% as much as students in well-functioning countries such as India and China. This lets our students off the hook of improving themselves (see the movie, 2 Million Minutes, which is the amount of time students in the U.S., China, and India spend in high school).

Nevertheless, her overarching conclusion is valid: until and unless we build an equitable, well-funded, comprehensive, across-the-board reformed educational system, U.S. children will never be able to compete in the world economy. That's the nice way of saying our children will come out dumb.

The measure of a good book: one wants to continue the dialogue. Nicely done, Dr. Darling- Hammond!

98 of 118 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Foggy Weather July 5, 2010

By R. M. Smith

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My review? In a word: disappointing. I had hoped that Dr. Darling-Hammond would have dispelled the fog surrounding the current national debate on education reform. Instead she only perpetuates many of the same old false assumptions and romantic beliefs dominating policy analysis today - only this time re-packaging them in progressive vestments rather than in the typical "free market" three-piece suit.

Here are a few observations. She spends the first part of the book trying to make the usual case about the dire state of student achievement in the United States. Like so many other recent reformers, she indicts public education relying largely on results from international assessments such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), but fails to provide the necessary interpretive cautions concerning the sampling and other methodological weaknesses of these assessments. The fact that many students in our country receive an outstanding public education is glossed over completely thus justifying the need for universal reform through a complete condemnation of the status quo.

LDH avoids any discussion of cognitive ability and its connection to student achievement, further promoting the romantic fiction that all students can achieve the same performance standards within the same time frame. This omission ignores a critical reality which must be fully explored in the education reform debate - but is never even broached.

The middle section of the book focuses on trying to learn lessons from other countries with reputedly higher student achievement. None of the relevant cautions about such comparisons are cited, while sweeping, unfounded generalizations carry the day. The approach reminds me of much educational research where authors freely discuss cause and effect based on even the slightest positive or negative correlations.

The last third of the book discusses what should be done to fix public education. While there are some worthy targets for improvement, too many familiar hobby horses show up to confuse the discussion. For instance, LDH promotes small (secondary) schools enthusiastically, citing Diane Ravitch as a source. Of course, DR in her most recent book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, effectively shreds the argument for small schools.

LDH's lengthy discussion of teacher quality has merit but takes many wrong turns and eventually ends up promoting a set of expensive ideas that will make little difference. And as long as I am mentioning resources, I might as well make sure that you understand that there is no discussion of how her admittedly expensive reform proposals might be funded. Even if her recommendations were spot on, the cost would be prohibitive, at least given the public taxation system in the United States as it is today.

Her best contribution is in the discussion of opportunity to learn and the need to ensure that all students get access to a good basic education - though we differ somewhat on what constitutes a basic education, the engine of opportunity. Yes, there are inequities that need attention. And yes, there are teacher quality issues that need attention. And yes, students need to be appropriately challenged academically. And yes, students need to spend more time in school. But unfortunately this book does not offer much to inform our understanding of these issues or advance a realistic course of action.

The fog still hangs heavy over the debate.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Flat World and Education November 6, 2011

By Ann Wise

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Very good resource material with a lot of in depth analysis and quality research background information. The author does a good presentation with good references. This material will be good for future overall reference.