Failure Up Close

For many reasons, failure in education reform is rarely admitted. Even though it is incredibly hard work to try and improve the enormous and diverse American education system, because there are political consequences of admitting that a particular effort did not live up to its promises and pressure from philanthropic funders to show success, unsuccessful efforts are often swept under the rug or papered over with public relations efforts that avoid wrestling with the tough realities of educational improvement. This doesn’t help anyone. As any educator will tell you, failure is an essential part of learning. Insofar as education reform needs to be a learning movement itself, it has to be able to admit where it has failed and learn from it. Failure Up-Close engages a select group of scholars from across the ideological spectrum to examine particular education reform efforts of recent years that have not succeeded and offer lessons for school and system improvement that can be learned from them. Rather than view failure as negative, this volume looks at failure as an opportunity to learn and grow. In fact, the editors endeavored to find authors that would analyze reforms for which they had some fundamental sympathy. The goal is not to bash particular efforts or castigate their supporters but rather to help those supporters understand how to do what they do better, and ultimately, do better for children.

When Jay Greene and Mike McShane asked some great minds in education policy to put their pens to our failures, they created a great success. It is said that we all love the sound of somebody else being wrong, but this book is about all of us. I loved the lack of snark or accusation; this is honest critique of ideas the authors hoped would succeed. Anybody who has contributed to the failures in this book as I have will find it hard not to cringe, but will be grateful for the lessons., Greene and McShane in a smartly-written book invite an educated class of reformers, policymakers, and philanthropists to walk with them to the back of the school line to inhale the aroma of failure. Without relying on conjecture or hyperbole, two of America’s best intellectuals and their colleagues methodically unpack a motley assortment of public polices, programs, and partisan plans to explain how and why success is never guaranteed in school reform. We can learn a lot of lessons from past failures. Reading this book puts us one step closer to the front of the line., Jay Greene and Mike McShane have compiled a powerful assortment of essays addressing the vicissitudes of the education reform era that have led to major changes in policy but arguably marginal impact in practice and outcome. By problematizing the question of failure, Greene and McShane lead us to a new paradigm of change that embraces the complexity of taking well-intended policy from the design stage through implementation all the way to impact. While no politician, policy maker or educator ever wants to fail kids, Greene and McShane show that NCLB, vouchers, VAM, SIG, teacher preparation, technology and philanthropic investments suffer from a disconnect between intention and impact. Wherever you sit on the highly volatile education reform continuum, this book is a must-read for those who actually want to embrace the complexity of public education transformation in order to improve conditions and outcomes for our nation’s kids.

Jay P. Greene is Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. Greene’s current areas of research interest include school choice, culturally enriching field trips, and the effect of schools on non-cognitive and civic values. His research has appeared in academic journals such as Education Finance and Policy and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and in newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Washington Post. He is the author of Education Myths and Why America Needs School Choice.Michael Q. McShane is Director of National Research at EdChoice and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the editor of New and Better Schools, the author of Education and Opportunity, and coeditor of Educational Entrepreneurship Today, Teacher Quality 2.0, and Common Core Meets Education Reform. McShane’s commentary has been published in the Huffington Post, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and he has been featured in Teachers College Commentary, and Education Next.