How Do We Get the Graduates We Want?: A View from the Firing Lines

Publisher Marketing: We have heard from scholars, policymakers, and business leaders about how to improve our schools, but those who actually work in K-12 education rarely have a chance to speak out. This volume addresses that imbalance by providing the views of teachers and administrators who have been recognized for exemplary contributions to their profession. The ideas presented in this book originated at a conference held in March 1991, where keynote addresses were presented by former Secretary of Education William Bennett and Harvard professor Arthur Levine on the topic What do we want our graduates to be like?. Following are reactions to this question from four state superintendents and from teachers. Then there are a series of chapters that focus on different approaches to preparing students for their futures: moral and ethical development; meeting the needs of diverse student populations; attracting, preparing, and retaining high-quality teachers; school structure and restructuring; assessing effective school processes; and business or university collaborations with schools. Instead of abstract or theoretical solutions, this valuable book emphasizes practical approaches with proven results.

Contributor Bio:  Unknown As a pediatrician, writer, wife, and mother, Perri Klass has demonstrated how medicine is integral to the health of families and communities, and how doctors themselves struggle to balance the conflicting needs of profession, self, and family. As medical director of Reach Out and Read, she encourages other pediatricians to foster pre-reading skills in their young patients. While earning her M. D. at Harvard, Klass contributed articles to "Mademoiselle" and "The New York Times" as well as to scientific and medical journals. She also wrote her first book, "A Not Entirely Benign Procedure "(1987), which chronicles her introduction to medicine and motherhood. In the following years she has continued to publish books, essays, award-winning short stories, a novel, and numerous articles, ranging from professional papers to popular journalism and travel pieces. Contributor Bio:  Solmon, Lewis C LEWIS C. SOLMON is president of the Milken Institute for Job and Capital Formation in Los Angeles. Contributor Bio:  Hughes, Katherine Nouri KATHERINE NOURI HUGHES is communications director of the Foundations of the Milken Families.