This post is about an issue I've wrestled with for years, namely why reforming schools in the U.S. is so difficult. I eventually wrote a book on the subject, Someone Has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling, which was published in 2010. But you may not need to read it if you look … Continue reading The Chronic Failure of Curriculum Reform
Category: Credentialing
Schooling the Meritocracy: How Schools Came to Democratize Merit, Formalize Achievement, and Naturalize Privilege
This a new piece I recently wrote, based on a paper I presented last fall at the ISCHE conference in Berlin. It's part of a larger project that focuses on the construction of the American meritocracy, which is to say the new American aristocracy of credentials. Schooling the Meritocracy: How Schools Came to Democratize Merit, … Continue reading Schooling the Meritocracy: How Schools Came to Democratize Merit, Formalize Achievement, and Naturalize Privilege
Michael Lewis: Don’t Eat Fortune’s Cookie
In the last year or so, I've been reading and writing about the American meritocracy, and I'm going to be posting some of these pieces here from time to time. But today I want to post a wonderful statement on the subject by Michael Lewis, which I somehow had missed when it first came out. It's … Continue reading Michael Lewis: Don’t Eat Fortune’s Cookie
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 