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

~ (Author), Bruce J. Biddle (Author) "Headlines, news articles, and television news reports have recently portrayed a grim picture of children and their schools, a picture consistent enough to frighten thoughtful..." (more)
Key Phrases: lockstep curricula, extrinsic sanctions, average student achievement, White House, World War, Far Right (more...)

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 25, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201441969
• ISBN-13: 978-0201441963
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,169 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	F. Mercer "bibliophile" (Phoenix, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

17 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More Diatribe That Discourse; An Angry Tome; Avoid It, October 25, 2007

By	James D. "Scienceguy" (Joppa, Israel) - See all my reviews

This is an angry book, written by two angry authors. Very difficult to read as a serious work because it seems to have more emotion than fact. The authors present "data", but their interpretation of the plain data seems off at times, and quite twisted at other times. They attack the thoroughly documented "Nation At Risk" as though it was pulp fiction, and belittle other noteworthy studies in a similar manner. Berliner has a tremendous religious bias (blatantly anti-Christian) that is extremely unsavory, if not unscholarly, and seems to have so many "Aha!" moments that one begins to doubt anything he says. His classic "...but IF you read the data carefully, it REALLY means...." just gets old. Facts are facts. SAT scores have been in a serious decline since the 1960s. The ETS people changed the test under dubious pretenses in the 1980s, and did so again this past year. Why ? The reasons vary, but when you find yourself measuring up, get a smaller stick! Berliner's work tries to hypnotize its readers into believing what common sense observations have told us all for years: public schools are violent places; drug havens; mediocre learning institutions full of over-paid and undereducated 'teachers'. Newspaper stories we see nearly every day corroborate this. If the newspapers are guilty of anything, it is under-reporting of these problems.
One final note: I taught at an American public high school last year that was considered quite good by the community, and we had nearly 200 arrests on our campus that year !

Parents: if you had 200 arrests at your place of business last year, what conclusions would YOU have about your place of work ? Is your place of work so prone to outbreaks of violence and illegal drug use that it requires the work of several on and off-site police officers? Would you tolerate this situation yourself ? I didn't think so.

Then why do you tolerate it for your adolescent son or daughter ?

21 of 30 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 (REAL NAME)

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.