How The Other Half Learns, Robert Pondiscio
How The Other Half Learns, Robert Pondiscio
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How The Other Half Learns
Equality, excellence, and the battle over school choice

Author: Robert Pondiscio

Narrator: Robert Pondiscio

Unabridged: 11 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 09/10/2019


Synopsis

An inside look at America's most controversial charter schools, and the moral and political questions around public education and school choice.

The promise of public education is excellence for all. But that promise has seldom been kept for low-income children of color in America. In How the Other Half Learns, teacher and education journalist Robert Pondiscio focuses on Success Academy, the network of controversial charter schools in New York City founded by Eva Moskowitz, who has created something unprecedented in American education: a way for large numbers of engaged and ambitious low-income families of color to get an education for their children that equals and even exceeds what wealthy families take for granted. Her results are astonishing, her methods unorthodox.

Decades of well-intended efforts to improve our schools and close the "achievement gap" have set equity and excellence at war with each other: If you are wealthy, with the means to pay private school tuition or move to an affluent community, you can get your child into an excellent school. But if you are poor and black or brown, you have to settle for "equity" and a lecture--about fairness. About the need to be patient. And about how school choice for you only damages public schools for everyone else. Thousands of parents have chosen Success Academy, and thousands more sit on waiting lists to get in. But Moskowitz herself admits Success Academy "is not for everyone," and this raises uncomfortable questions we'd rather not ask, let alone answer: What if the price of giving a first-rate education to children least likely to receive it means acknowledging that you can't do it for everyone? What if some problems are just too hard for schools alone to solve?

About The Author

Robert Pondiscio is senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a former inner-city public school teacher. He writes and speaks extensively on education and education reform issues and has more than twenty years of journalism experience, including senior positions at Time and BusinessWeek.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Derek

Below are the highlights. At the end I give my reason for 2/5 stars. The hard truths tackled between the pages were refreshing. But one misleading point throws almost everything out the window. First, some hard truths and direct quotes from the book: “'If you’re a teacher who doesn’t like standardize......more

Goodreads review by Laura

My favorite book of 2019. Teaching is the easiest job in the world to do badly. The pressure is on from the first day Time-ins: visit an old teacher, play hall ball, ... (brilliant) Adult expectation and consistency is a big deal. A game changer. A “no-nonsense nurturer” model Held to high expectations.......more

Goodreads review by Ben

This is the kind of ground-level analysis that serious, open-minded observers of American education need. The aptly named NYC charter network Success Academy has grown into a flashpoint in the debate over school choice -- rightly touted by charter supporters for its high demand among mostly low-inco......more

Goodreads review by Susan

I loved this book. I thought ot did a brilliant job explaining the pro-case for charter schools, even if it also is an illustration of some of the biggest reasons why folks oppose them. Ultimately, I have mixed feelings on charters, and this book helped me put into words why- by happenstance of inco......more


Quotes

“Robert Pondiscio is one of our nation’s most astute observers of K-12 education. In this engaging, wise, and enormously well reported book, he trains his penetrating eye on Success Academy, the highest performing charter network in America. Having spent a year at one of the schools, he methodically unpacks the ‘magic’ that makes Success so successful, while not shying away from legitimate criticism. The result is both compelling and illuminating.”—Joel Klein, former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education; author of Lessons of Hope: How to Fix Our Schools 

"Engrossing, challenging, and wise, this book will change how you think about schooling and poverty."—Daniel T. Willingham, professor of psychology, University of Virginia; author of Why Don't Students Like School?

“Do not miss this fusion of a masterful writer and one of the most interesting leaders in education today. Pondiscio observes, respects, and illuminates the real work that teachers, students and parents do every day.”—David Coleman, CEO of the College Board

“A moving and dramatic story and a minute-by-minute account of how a school actually lives. In a field dominated by dry-as-bones analyses, this is an up close look at education as lived by real, flesh and blood students, with names, written by a dedicated teacher. It is arresting, informative, and compelling. A school succeeds or fails by its ethos, and reading this book qualifies as an extended visit into the inner workings of that ethos in schools that are succeeding against the odds.”—William J. Bennett, former Secretary of Education; author of The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories