In The Children Left Behind, Daniel Duke takes readers on a remarkable journey through 15 years of America's unprecedented struggle to improve its lowest-performing schools. With a contextual and nuanced examination of such efforts at the federal, state, and local district levels, Duke identifies what worked and what did not work to change conditions on the ground for underserved students. This is a must-read book-indeed a wise and inspiring gem-for policy-makers, educators, and the public committed to taking the next steps toward achieving educational excellence, with equity, for all children.
Rhona S. Weinstein, professor, University of California, Berkeley For the past three decades America has been engaged in an all-out assault to improve schooling for low-income children, mostly in urban schools. By all accounts those efforts have had little to no effect. In The Children Left Behind, Dan Duke provides one of the first, and in my view best, comprehensive assessments of the policies and programs that have been part of the school turnaround agenda. His analysis, informed by a deep understanding of context, history, and assumptions, reveals many of the mistakes made, the reasons for the modest but important successes, and points the way for a path forward
Robert C. Pianta, Dean, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the complex challenges involved in addressing federal requirements for meeting the needs of students in low performing schools. It examines both what states and school districts have done to respond to federal mandates as well as the consequences of such actions thus far. No book presents a more comprehensive treatment of the school improvement literature than this one.
Michelle Young, Executive Director, University Council for Educational Administration, Professor, University of Virginia Dan Duke has masterfully blended the historical context of federal reform with specific examples of local, state and national interventions to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic. This format has yielded a book that is broad in scope yet detailed in providing illustrations of the intricacies of reform movements.
Jami Royal Berry, Educational Leadership Program Coordinator, Georgia State University Duke has been in the thick of educational reform for more than a decade and that experience informs every chapter of this thoughtful book. His examination of national, state and local initiatives to help our most vulnerable children suggests that are no simple answers, but his detailed appraisal of what has worked and what has not will inform both practice and policy in the coming years.
Karen Seashore Louis, Regents Professor, University of Minnesota