Few people have been more involved in shaping postwar U.S. education reforms--or dissented from some of them more effectively--than Chester Finn. Assistant secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, and an aide to politicians as different as Richard Nixon and Daniel Moynihan, Finn has also been a high school teacher, an education professor, a prolific and best-selling writer, a think-tank analyst, a nonprofit foundation president, and both a Democrat and Republican. This remarkably varied career has given him an extraordinary insider's view of every significant school-reform movement of the past four decades, from racial integration to No Child Left Behind. In Troublemaker, Finn has written a vivid history of postwar education reform that is also the personal story of one of the foremost players — and mavericks — in American education. Finn tells how his experiences have shaped his changing views of the three major strands of postwar school reform: standards-driven, choice-driven, and profession-driven. Of the three, Finn now believes that a combination of choice and standards has the greatest potential, but he favors this approach more on pragmatic than ideological grounds, arguing that parents should be given more options at the same time that schools are allowed more flexibility and held to higher performance norms. He also explains why education reforms of all kinds are so difficult to implement, and he draws valuable lessons from their frequent failure. Clear-eyed yet optimistic, Finn ultimately gives grounds for hope that the best of today’s bold initiatives — from charter schools to technology to makeovers of school-system governance — are finally beginning to make a difference. -- Publisher

lgli/R:\Project-Muse\md5_rep\F86FEB5627D665DE98D1428AD5E83016.pdf

zlib/no-category/Chester E. Finn Jr./Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform since Sputnik_28125875.pdf

Finn, Chester E., Jr., Chester E. Finn

Project MUSE (https://muse.jhu.edu/)

Chester E Jr Finn; Chester E Finn

Princeton University, Department of Art & Archaeology

Princeton Electronic

United States, United States of America

Princeton, N.J, 2008

February 25, 2008

1, FR, 2008

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producers:
Muse-DL/1.0.0

Cover 1
Title Page, Copyright, Dedication 2
Contents 8
Introduction 10
Part I: | Early Days 14
1 Schoolkid in the Fifties 20
2 Into the Sixties 27
3 Becoming an Educator 39
Part II: | The Seventies 46
4 White House Days 54
5 Out of Washington 69
6 The Politics of Aiding Private Schools 79
7 A Federal Department of Education? 90
8 Becoming a Republican 100
Part III: | The Eighties 108
9 Quality Gains Traction 114
10 Educators Awaken 121
11 Professing in Tennessee 131
12 Inside the Beast 138
13 The Quest for Better Information 147
14 Goals, Standards, and Markets 162
Part IV: | The Nineties 178
15 Bipartisan Reform in Action¬タヤand Inaction 182
16 Charters and Vouchers 194
17 International Alarums, Contentious Responses 200
18 Whittling and Think-tanking 207
19 Clinton, Goals, and Testing 217
20 Priests, Professionals, and Politicians 224
21 Choices and Summits 229
22 Back to Dayton 237
Part V: | Today and Tomorrow 244
23 Leaving No Child Behind 250
24 Shaky Tripods 259
25 The Burden of Choice 274
26 Technology and Governance 286
27 Teachers, Time, and Money 296
28 Still Learning 309
Epilogue | Two Little Girls 320
Glossary 326
Notes 332
Index 360
Publisher:Princeton University Press,Published:2008,ISBN:9781400828210,Related ISBN:9780691129907,Language:English,OCLC:432428515
Few people have been more involved in shaping postwar U.S. education reforms--or dissented from some of them more effectively--than Chester Finn. Assistant secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, and an aide to politicians as different as Richard Nixon and Daniel Moynihan, Finn has also been a high school teacher, an education professor, a prolific and best-selling writer, a think-tank analyst, a nonprofit foundation president, and both a Democrat and Republican. This remarkably varied career has given him an extraordinary insider's view of every significant school-reform movement of the past four decades, from racial integration to No Child Left Behind. In Troublemaker, Finn has written a vivid history of postwar education reform that is also the personal story of one of the foremost players--and mavericks--in American education. Finn tells how his experiences have shaped his changing views of the three major strands of postwar school reform: standards-driven, choice-driven, and profession-driven. Of the three, Finn now believes that a combination of choice and standards has the greatest potential, but he favors this approach more on pragmatic than ideological grounds, arguing that parents should be given more options at the same time that schools are allowed more flexibility and held to higher performance norms. He also explains why education reforms of all kinds are so difficult to implement, and he draws valuable lessons from their frequent failure. Clear-eyed yet optimistic, Finn ultimately gives grounds for hope that the best of today's bold initiatives--from charter schools to technology to makeovers of school-system governance--are finally beginning to make a difference.

<p><p>An informative, feisty new book about education. You'll love it or hate it; Finn is never dull.--Theodore R. Sizer, former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education<p></i>Troublemaker</i> is a lively and personal insider's guide to the last half-century of education reform, and no one but Checker Finn could have written it. He has indeed mastered the art of speaking candidly, unsettling conventional wisdom, and finding constant delight in the joys of intellectual independence.--Diane Ravitch<p>Nobody knows more about education policy and school reform than Chester Finn and nobody has participated in--or shaped--more of it. His unique blend of memoir and history makes this book a must for anyone with a serious interest in American education.--William J. Bennett<p>Checker Finn is irreverent, smart, and a scrupulous inspector of American education. His immensely readable tour of its last forty years offers a refreshing perspective for anyone who cares about children and schools.--Lamar Alexander, U.S. senator and former U.S. secretary of education<p>This book is a treasure for present citizens and future historians. Chester Finn has been a hugely energetic participant in recent American education and one of its acutest observers. No one knows more about the subject than he. No one writes with a keener wit or more pungent style. The title, </i>Troublemaker</i>, is apt. With puckish good humor (and like Shakespeare's Puck), he makes trouble--for those who put their own comfortable habits ahead of what is good for children and the country.--E. D. Hirsch, Jr.<p>Satisfying and hope-inspiring, </i>Troublemaker</i> makes sense of the last several decades of school reform as the product not of impersonal forces but of people with ideas and motivations.--Paul T. Hill, University of Washington<p></p> <h3>Neil McCluskey - School Reform News</h3> <p>A very readable rundown of the past four decades of education policymaking by a man who was there.</p>

"Few people have been more involved in shaping postwar U.S. education reforms - or dissented from some of them more effectively - than Chester Finn. Assistant secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, and an aide to politicians as different as Richard Nixon and Daniel Moynihan, Finn has also been a high school teacher, an education professor, a prolific and best-selling writer, a think-tank analyst, a nonprofit foundation president, and both a Democrat and Republican. This remarkably varied career has given him an extraordinary insider's view of every significant school-reform movement of the past four decades, from racial integration to No Child Left Behind. In Troublemaker, Finn has written a vivid history of postwar education reform that is also the personal story of one of the foremost players - and mavericks - in American education." "Finn tells how his experiences have shaped his changing views of the three major strands of postwar school reform: standards-driven, choice-driven, and profession-driven. Of the three, Finn now believes that a combination of choice and standards has the greatest potential, but he favors this approach more on pragmatic than ideological grounds, arguing that parents should be given more options at the same time that schools are allowed more flexibility and held to higher performance norms. He also explains why education reforms of all kinds are so difficult to implement, and he draws valuable lessons from their frequent failure."--Jacket

2022-03-08