Choosing Excellence in Public Schools

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

By (author) David W. Hornbeck, Katherine Conner Foreword by Richard W. Riley

Not available to order

Publication date:

15 June 2009

Length of book:

300 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

ISBN-13: 9781607091561

Choosing Excellence in Public Schools explains the origins of the low expectations we have of children, including, notably, children of color, those for whom English is a second language, poor children and children with disabilities. The book dispels the basis for low expectations. It makes clear the economic, demographic, civic, personal and moral imperative to educate all children to high standards and the consequences of not doing so. Hornbeck and Conner set forth a comprehensive, radical agenda based on proven practices and practical experience that will result in education success for virtually all children where faithfully implemented. This book breaks new ground. It establishes that the missing ingredient in school reform is the absence of values-driven, focused, well-financed, professionally staffed, technologically sophisticated grassroots expression of the public will insisting that the political, media, business, judicial and organized labor institutions that make the choices that result in our children's learning conditions make different, and effective choices. We get the education for our own children and grandchildren and those of others that we tolerate or demand.
Choosing Excellence is useful as a contribution to the literature of school reform over the last two decades, but its power lies in the central message that improving schools in our large cities is not only an urgent practical necessity but also a moral imperative rooted in political will….Hornbeck writes authoritatively about promising instructional strategies, including early childhood education, small schools, and ways to make better use of instructional time through afterschool programs and other measures….Hornbeck's core message is universally applicable.