The Teacher Wars

I already knew almost this entire book because of the classes I took for my PhD. If you don't know the history of education, even if you're not a teacher, I would highly recommend this condensed version. It will open your eyes to a great deal about Education and Politicians/Government. I read the last two chapters on Data Driven and Empowering Teachers. This are the 2 most important chapters. It explains so much of education and public schools today. It also opened my eyes to Teach for America. I snapped some sections of the epilogue that I thought were great. All in all, I say: READ IT. Amazon writes, "In The Teacher Wars, a rich, lively, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for nearly two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that recent popular ideas to improve schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to teach—are all approaches that have been tried in the past without producing widespread change. The Teacher Wars upends the conversation about American education by bringing the lessons of history to bear on the dilemmas we confront today. By asking “How did we get here?” Dana Goldstein brilliantly illuminates the path forward."