EDUCATION MYTHS
What Special-Interest Groups Want YOU to BELIEVE About our SCHOOLS– AND WHY IT ISN'T SO

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC., 2005
By Jay P.Greene
Foreword by James Q. Wilson

How can we fix our floundering public schools? The conventional wisdom says that schools need a lot more money, that poor and immigrant children can't do as well as most other American kids, that high-stakes tests just produce "teaching to the test," and that vouchers do little to help students while undermining our democracy. But what if the conventional wisdom is wrong?

In this book, Jay P. Greene examines eighteen widely held beliefs about American education, and finds that they just aren't true. In addition to myths about class size and teacher pay, he debunks common views about special education ("special ed. programs burden public schools"); certification "certified or more experienced teachers are more effective"); graduation ("nearly all students graduate from high school"); draining ("choice harms public schools"); segregation ("private schools are more racially segregated"); and a host of other hotly debated issues.

Greene's reasoned and accessible approach refutes each myth with relevant and reliable facts and figures, including a broad review of the research. He believes our schools can be fixed, and concludes the book with important recommendations that, once implemented, will help our schools achieve measurable and affordable success. This landmark book provides a vital frame of reference for education reformers—and a wake-up call for undemanding taxpayers.

JAY P. GREENE is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and endowed chair and head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. Greene conducts research and writes about education policy, including topics such as school choice, high school graduation rates, accountability, and special education.

His research was cited four times in the Supreme Court's opinions in the landmark Zelman v. Simmons-Harris case on school vouchers. His articles have appeared in policy journals, such as The Public Interest, City Journal, and Education Next, in academic journals, such as The Georgetown Public Policy Review, Education and Urban Society, and The British Journal of Political Science, as well as in major newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Greene has been a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Houston. He received his B.A. in history from Tufts University in 1988 and his Ph.D. from the Government Department at Harvard University in 1995. He lives with his wife and three children in Fayetteville, AR.