Head Start. Bilingual education. Small class size. Social promotion. School funding. Virtually every school system in America has had to face these issues over the past thirty years. Advocates and dissenters have declared confidently that "the research" is on their side. But is it? In the first book to bring together the recent history of educational policy and politics with the research evidence, Timothy Hacsi presents the illuminating, often-forgotten stories of these five controversial topics. He sifts through the complicated evaluation research literature and compares the policies that have been adopted to the best evidence about what actually works. He lucidly explains what the major studies show, what they don't, and how they have been misunderstood and misrepresented. Hacsi shows how rarely educational policies are based on solid research evidence, and how programs that sound plausible simply do not satisfy the complex needs of real children.
Author(s): Timothy A. Hacsi
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 272
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 8
Introduction......Page 12
What Difference Does Head Start Make?......Page 32
Is Bilingual Education a Good Idea?......Page 73
Does Class Size Matter?......Page 114
Is Social Promotion a Problem?......Page 155
Does More Money Make Schools Better?......Page 186
Conclusion......Page 215
Notes......Page 228
Suggested Readings......Page 264
Index......Page 268