Abstract
This chapter argues that education is a mess. A mess is a system of problems that are so highly interconnected such that no problem exists or can be studied independently of all the other problems that constitute the mess and the entire mess itself. The chapter also lays out the debate with regard to what to do about TEM, The Education Mess. On the one side are those who favor charter schools. They believe that the public schools have failed and therefore need to be radically redesigned, if not jettisoned altogether. On the other side are those who support public schools and seek to improve them, not abandon them. The chapter argues that both sides need one another more than they realize. Both are needed if we are to have any hope of coping with TEM.
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Notes
Tully, Matthew, Searching for Hope: Life at a Failing School in the Heart of America, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2012, p. 18.
For some of the many proponents of this world-view, see Merseth, Katherine, Inside Urban Charter Schools, Harvard Education Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2009
Thernstrom, Abigal and Stephan, No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2003.
For some of the many proponents of this world-view, see Ravitch, Diane, The Life and Death of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, Basic Books, New York, 2010
Rothstein, Richard, Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right, EPI, Washington, DC, 2008.
Dobbie, Will and Fryer, Roland, “Are High Quality Schools Enough to Close the Achievement Gap? Evidence from a Social Experiment in Harlem,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Mass., 2009
Tough, Paul, Whatever It Takes, Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America, Mariner, New York, 2009.
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© 2013 Ian I. Mitroff, Lindan B. Hill, and Can M. Alpaslan
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Mitroff, I.I., Hill, L.B., Alpaslan, C.M. (2013). Introduction—TEM, The Education Mess. In: Rethinking the Education Mess: A Systems Approach to Education Reform. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137386045_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137386045_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48110-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38604-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Education CollectionEducation (R0)