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Darling-Hammond releases The Flat World and Education

The Flat World and Education
The Flat World and Education

Darling-Hammond releases The Flat World and Education

Professor Linda Darling-Hammond examines the successes of effective school systems in the U.S. and abroad.

The Flat World and Education by Linda Darling-Hammond now available

Today, in the U.S., only 1 in 10 low-income kindergarteners goes on to graduate from college and, at a time when education matters more than ever, the U.S. high school graduation rate (currently 70 percent) has dropped from first in the world to the bottom half of rankings for comparable nations. While such sobering facts inform a new book by Stanford University education professor and SCOPE Co-Director and SRN Founding Director Linda Darling-Hammond, it is the successes of effective school systems in the U.S. and abroad that she focuses on to develop a clear and coherent set of policies that can be used to create high-quality and equitable schools.

In this eagerly awaited book, The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future, Darling-Hammond looks at the roots of our modern education system and how the skills required for our 21st century global economy can not be learned in traditional education systems, which have been in place since the early 1900s when the majority of students were expected to become factory workers. Darling-Hammond identifies an “opportunity gap” that has evolved as new kinds of learning have become necessary - a gap where low-income students, students of color, and English language learners often do not have the same access as others to qualified teachers, high-quality curriculum, and well-resourced classrooms.

After setting the stage on current conditions in the U.S., Darling-Hammond offers a coherent approach for effective reform, focusing on creating successful systems, inducting and supporting quality teachers, designing effective schools, establishing strong professional practice, and providing equitable and sufficient resources.

A former classroom teacher, and currently an esteemed professor, renowned researcher, and highly respected policy advisor, Darling-Hammond draws on her broad experience to inform her book. In reviewing the book, New York University professor Pedro Noguera notes, “Her arguments are sound, rooted in evidence, and unencumbered by the kinds of ideological partisanship that characterizes too much of current debates on education. After reading this book, one will understand why it was that candidate Obama, when seeking advice from the sharpest minds in education, turned to Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond.”

Former North Carolina Governor James Hunt notes, “Excellent schools are the key to America's economic future, and superb teaching is the key to great schools. This book makes clear as a bell how to organize schools for successful teaching and what state and national policies are required to support it.”

Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, a chief education advisor to President Obama, Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and Founding Director of the School Redesign Network at Stanford.

The Flat World and Education is available through Teachers College Press or through Amazon.com. ISBN: 978-0-8077-4962-3 (paperback, 21.95) or ISBN: 978-0-8077-4963-0 (hardcover, $54.00)...Learn more


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