âThis book merits every Americanâs serious considerationâ (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an exposĂ© of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kidsâ education, and threatens our nationâs future.
âEducation runs on lies. Thatâs probably not what youâd expect from a former Secretary of Education, but itâs the truth.â So opens Arne Duncanâs How Schools Work, although the title could just as easily be How American Schools Work for Some, Not for Others, and Only Now and Then for Kids.
Drawing on nearly three decades in educationâfrom his motherâs after-school program on Chicagoâs South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in Washington, DCâHow Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they canât help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the âmost extreme anti-gun member of President Obamaâs Cabinet.â Going to a childâs funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person.
How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also identifies what really does make a school work.
âAs insightful as it is inspiringâ (Washington Book Review), How Schools Work will embolden parents, teachers, voters, and even students to demand more of our public schools. If America is going to be great, then we can accept nothing less.