Educational courage

"Ten years after the passage of No Child Left Behind, high-stakes testing, national standards, and turn-around policies remain highly controversial. In the same period, we have seen the rise of mayoral control of schools, charter schools, and other initiatives that are viciously opposed by the American Federation of Teachers. But even among well informed people, these issues can seem abstract. Educational Courage presents the human side of the consequences of these policies by bringing readers the voices of the teachers, students, parents, and school officials who are directly affected by changes in public education. The book begins by outlining the increasingly pervasive assaults on democratic public education and focuses on peoples' negative experiences as public schools have become more "market-driven," taking the heart out of teaching. In the face of widespread discouragement, people are hungry for alternatives. The second and third sections of the book illustrate what students, teachers, and parents have done to reists these policies -- from writing op-eds to refusing to "teach to the test," to a community organizing to change testing policies that discriminate against English