Best Practices Are the Worst
Jay P. Greene,
Educaion Next,
Apr 04, 2012
If you think my own reviews of things I don't like are scathing, you will want to read this review of Mark Tucker's Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World’s Leading Systems, where a new standard for takedowns is set by reviewer Jay P. Greene. Greene first assails the central premise of the book, attacking the idea of 'best practice' as scientifically unsound. In this he has an excellent point. He then attacks Tucker for actually ignoring the practices identified by his authors. In the countries being studied, for example - Shanghai, Finland, Japan, Singapore, and Canada - decentralization is an important feature of the educational system. But Tucker argues that these countries all feature a centralized system. Greene then attacks Tucker's methodology: "the equivalent of 'the think system,' is obvious quackery." He wonders why the Gates Foundation would be supporting Tucker "and are pouring their savings into a band that can never play music except in a fantasy finale."
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