Edward B Fiske > Publications

		THE NEW YORK TIMES TOMORROW is the 25th anniversary of “A Nation at Risk,” a remarkable document that became a milestone in the history of American education — albeit in ways that its creators neither planned, anticipated or even wanted. In August 1981, Education Secretary T. H. Bell created a National Commission on Excellence in Education to examine, in the report’s words, “the widespread public perception that something is seriously remiss in our educational system.” Secretary Bell’s expectation, he later said, was that the report would paint a rosy picture of American education and correct all those widespread negative perceptions. [Continue reading...]


		FISKE GUIDE TO COLLEGES For over 20 years, this leading guide to more than 300 colleges and universities has been an indispensable source of information for college-bound students and their parents. Hip and straightforward, the Fiske Guide to Colleges reliably describes the academic climates and the social and extra-curricular scenes at the "best and most interesting" schools in the United States and Canada. Fiske's unique insight into what's not to be missed and what's to be avoided at each university reveals the academic strengths, the role of athletics, and the social highlights at each school. Compiled from surveys of thousands of students and administrators, the Fiske Guide to Colleges is thoroughly updated annually. The resulting resource is the best guide to colleges and universities available; USA Today has called it the "most readable and informative" of all the college guides.


		FISKE NEW SAT INSIDER'S GUIDE The Fiske New SAT Insider's Guide is the first book to take a critical look at the whole process of preparing for the test, from the inflated claims of the Test Prep Giants to the questionable statements of the College Board. You'll learn: -- The truth about raising your score-and why students from coast to coast say not to waste money on an expensive prep course -- The ins and outs of the new Writing Section-and why it could be your key to a higher score -- Why the new Math section really isn't about math-and how you can teach yourself to beat it -- The inside story of the new SAT-and why you shouldn't believe everything the test makers say about it. (With Bruce G. Hammond)


		FISKE GUIDE TO GETTING INTO THE RIGHT COLLEGE No one knows more about college admissions than Edward B. Fiske, the former education editor of the New York Times, whose annual Fiske Guide to Colleges has sheperded a whole generation of students off to college. The Fiske Guide to Getting Into the Right College is a vital complement to the annual guide, taking students and parents step-by-step through the college admissions process. (With Bruce G. Hammond)


		ELUSIVE EQUITY: EDUCATION REFORM IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA Elusive Equity chronicles South Africa's efforts to fashion a racially equitable state education system from the ashes of apartheid. The policymakers who came to power with Nelson Mandela in 1994 inheried an education system designed to further the racist goals of apartheid. Their massive challenge was to transform that system, which lavished human and financial resources on schools serving white students, while systematically starving those serving African, coloured and Indian learners, into one that would offer quality education to all persons, regardless of their race. Edward Fiske and Helen Ladd describe and evaluate the strategies that South Africa pursued in its quest for racial equity. They draw on previously unpublished data, interviews with key officials, and visits to dozens of schools to describe the changes made in school finance, tacher assignment policies, governance, curriculum, higher education, and other areas. They conclude that the country has made remarkable progress toward equity in the sense of equal treatment of persons of all races. For several reasons, however, the country has been far less successful in promoting equal educational opportunity or educational adequacy. Thus equity has been elusive. The book is unique in combining richly textured descriptions of how South Africa's education reforms have affected schools at the grass-roots level with careful analysis of enrollment, governance and budget data at the school, provincial and national levels. The result is a compelling and comprehensive study of South Africa's first decade of education reform in the post-apartheid period. Read an excerpt here.


		WHEN SCHOOLS COMPETE: A CAUTIONARY TALE In 1995 New Zealand embarked on what is arguably the most thorough and dramatic transformation of a compulsory state education system ever undertaken by an industrialized country. Under a plan known as Tomorrow's Schools, this island nation of 3.8 million people - the population of a typical American state - abolished its nearly 2,700 primary and secondary schools over to locally elected boards of trustees. Virtually overnight, one of the world's most tightly controlled public education systems became one of the most decentralized. Two years later, with a new government in power, New Zealand introduced full parental choice of schools and set up a situation in which schools competed with each other for students. Debate rages in the United States about whether similar market-based reforms would improve the performance of the country's troubled public school system. Unfortunately, judgments about the potential benefits of these ideas - central to proposals for charter schools and vouchers - have been hampered by the lack of concrete evidence about how they work out in practice. The decade-long experience of New Zealand, whose school system functions much like the American system, provides policy makers with a wide range of insights and lessons to consider as they gauge the merits of bold education reform. When Schools Compete, written with Helen F. Ladd, is the first book to provide detailed data-based analysis of a comprehensive experiment with market-driven reform in a country similar to the United States. Combining the perceptive observations of a prominent education journalist and the analytical skills of a distinguished academic policy analyst, this book will help supporters and critics of market-based education reforms to better anticipate the potential long-term consequences of such reforms and to build in appropriate policy safeguards. (Read an excerpt at Amazon.com)


		SMART SCHOOLS, SMART KIDS Smart Schools, Smart Kids takes readers into dozens of pioneering schools across the country to describe successful programs and how they work, the problems they have encountered, and the results they have achieved. Innovative reformers are transforming every aspect of the "nineteenth-century factory-model school" into a new kind of public school capable of educating kids for twenty-first century challenges. Smart Schools, Smart Kids shows how. It is a book that is sure to be warmly welcomed by parents, teachers, administrators, and public officials alike who want to improve education for their own and for all of America's children. This nation can no longer afford to wait for change: Smart Schools, Smart Kids will make a real difference now.


		STATES PREPARE FOR GLOBAL AGE This report provides an overview of the critical importance of international knowledge and skills to US competitiveness, including extensive analysis of selected state initiatives to improve international education in K-12 schools. The report includes state-by-state economic and education performance data and action steps to inform state and community planning. (Available at InternationalEd.org)


		EDUCATING LEADERS FOR A GLOBAL SOCIETY Educating Leaders for a Global Society details the challenges facing America’s education system in preparing young people to compete and succeed in a globalized economy. The report provides examples of investments other countries are making in education to stay competitive as well as examples of successful international education programs in the United States. (Available at InternationalEd.org)


		THE INVISIBLE HAND AS SCHOOLMASTER (Available at The American Prospect)

		Continued