Product Description
Gerald Bracey knows there are three kinds of lies in education policy: lies, damned lies, and the statistics that reactionary reformers tout as evidence in favor of dismantling our public schools. In this second and substantially updated edition of the hard-hitting Setting the Record Straight, Bracey, whom Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews called “one of this country’s most authoritative defenders of the work of public school teachers,” goes toe-to-toe … More >>
Setting the Record Straight: Responses to Misconceptions About Public Education in the U.S.
Tags: About, education, education policy, education reporter, Jay Mathews, misconceptions, Public, public education, public school teachers, Record, reformers, Responses, Setting, Statistics, Straight, U.S., washington post, washington post education
#1 by Potbanger on February 3, 2010 - 9:04 am
This guy has been a patsy of the NEA and the NASA for years. He makes a living out of trying to argue that public schools in America are just great. When faced with any criticism, he attributes everything to poverty.
Gerald Bracey has no solutions for fixing problems with education, except he thinks it needs more money. This guy has been known to say Algebra is useless, and that discovery methods of learning are best. He eschews phonics, and defends whole language.
On a side note, he runs a listserv discussion on Yahoo Groups, called “eddra”. Try posting something, anything, that questions him, and he will not post it to the group. That’s right, he has to personally approve of every message that get posted, and many don’t make it. Try it if you don’t believe me.
Anybody who won’t let their beliefs be subject to scrutiny is not to be looked at with any credibility, if you ask me.
Read this book only if you are looking to have someone sophisticate for you what is going on in public schools and you need warm fuzzies to feel better. Reasonable people know better.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Ronn Fieldhouse on February 3, 2010 - 9:09 am
This book addresses many of the current misconceptions about education. I have enjoyed reading it very much. It is a bit liberal however. I do not think a conservative will enjoy it.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Lysisis on February 3, 2010 - 11:54 am
There’s little question where Bracey stands with this book. Still it has good information educators need.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by John Farley on February 3, 2010 - 12:46 pm
The media are crawling with supposed experts in education, most of them at right-wing think tanks, who claim that public education in the US has declined in recent decades, and is terrible compared with other countries. Gerald Bracey shows that there has been no serious recent decline in public education in the US, and that the US is about average by comparison with other advanced countries. This puts him at odds with conservatives.
And not just conservatives: liberals have mostly joined conservatives in crying crisis, although for different reasons. Liberals want to increase funding for public education, and think that the best way to raise funding is to cry that there is a major crisis.
Anyone who has been taken in by media myths about US public education MUST read Gerald Bracey’s books.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Walt Gardner on February 3, 2010 - 1:40 pm
Gerald W. Bracey is one of few authors today who isn’t afraid to confront the exquisitely orchestrated and deeply financed campaign to eradicate public education in this country. “Setting the Record Straight” is his latest contribution exposing the hidden agenda that is at the root of the accountability movement.
Bracey identifies 17 misconceptions about public education. Each chapter begins with a capsule Q-A format. The question consists of a typical charge leveled at public schools, which he then answers in a sentence or two at most. The rest of the chapter develops his response with documented evidence — not ideology. His ability to shun jargon makes what he says all the more convincing.
“Setting the Record Straight” serves as an invaluable corrective to the case being built by those who stand to profit directly or indirectly by the elimination of public schools. It takes its place with the best books on the subject. Not all readers will be pleased with his remarks, but they will have to respect him.
Walt Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He writes frequently on education.
Rating: 5 / 5