Making the Grade: The Economic Evolution of American School Districts
Contents:
The result has been a standardized, interchangeable system of education not overly demanding for either students or teachers, one that involved parents and local voters in its governance and finance. Innovative in its focus on bottom-up processes generated by individual behaviors rather than top-down decisions by bureaucrats, Making the Grade provides a new perspective on education reform that emphasizes how public schools form the basis for the localized social capital in American towns and cities.
Fischel has an unusually engaging prose style, and I am confident that the book will be widely read and discussed by economists and political scientists with an interest in education policy. The lessons for latter day educational reformers are nothing short of profound. He has taken a set of commonly accepted views about schools and turned them upside down—shattering our simplistic explanations for age-grading in schools, for the September to May school calendar, and for voter disapproval of voucher referenda.
His clear and logical development of the interests of citizens and their impact on the geography and organization of schools is compelling. This fascinating book demonstrates the power of some simple economic ideas for organizing our interpretation of the world around us.
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- Making the Grade: The Economic Evolution of American School Districts.
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His is a story of how school districts emerged from the concerns of local communities and adapted as those communities evolved. For those who are becoming weary of No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, and other top-down measures to improve our public schools, this book is a reminder of what we may be losing.
The large number of school districts spontaneously arose from common schools that served small numbers of rural families. Open Preview See a Problem? From a semi-libertarian economist who consistently advocates privatization and decentralized local government services, this is an interesting case, and I hope he follows up on it. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Making the Grade explores some of the characteristics of American education that I have, elsewhere, deemed the? For those who are becoming weary of No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, and other top-down measures to improve our public schools, this book is a reminder of what we may be losing. These mundane governmental units are a key to the initial success of the U.
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem?
The Economic Evolution of American School Districts
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Making the Grade: The Economic Evolution of American School Districts
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Making the Grade , please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Sep 07, Frank Stein rated it it was amazing. As usual, Fischel examines previously neglected areas of American political history and comes back with surprising and relevant insights.
See a Problem?
In this book his subject is the shape and form of American school districts. The large number of school districts spontaneously arose from common schools that served small numbers of rural families. The reduction in the number of districts, from around , in the s to the 16, or so that exist today, came about almost entirely from the elimination of the single-room school and not from the consolidation of districts in the suburbs or in the larger cities. Consolidation was a natural consequence of smaller families, larger farms, better roads, the internal combustion engine, and the spread of the high school.
Making the Grade
Most consolidation efforts that did not emerge directly from the people were thwarted. But why is decentralization good for mass education and why was it critical to the initial educational advance of the United States? The reason concerns majority rule. If an entire nation had to vote whether or not to have schools, particularly high schools, the median voter might decide against it. But if the nation were divided into small units of relatively homogeneous voters, a significant subgroup would probably have a median voter that would agree to fund the schools, even relatively expensive ones.
In this way, small, fiscally-independent districts were instrumental in advancing education for the masses in the early period. Making the Grade should be read by any historian or student of education who wants to learn about the evolution and functions of the school district.
Making the Grade: The Economic Evolution of American School Districts by William A. Fischel
These mundane governmental units are a key to the initial success of the U. The book is also entertaining. Read it to learn why teaching became a female occupation, why summer vacations, standardized calendars, and age grading are ubiquitous, why property taxes pay for schools, why vouchers have gained adherents more in cities than in rural areas, and why teachers in many developing nations today, but not U. My only criticisms are that the book would have benefited from better organization and a discussion that clearly linked the small fiscally-independent school district to its beneficial outcomes.
Overall, I have high praise for Making the Grade.
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