Political Leadership and Educational Failure

leaders: he details the questions they must ask and the understandings they must secure if our public educational system is to be salvaged.

?Howard Gardner, professor of education, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, author of The Unschooled Mind and Multiple Intelligences


Seymour Sarason has done it again! In clear, precise prose, he helps us understand how political leadership has failed our schools. He does more than grouse, however. He outlines an agAnda for political leaders who want to improve our educational system. This is must reading for policy makers, especially those who view themselves as opinion leaders.?John E. Cawthorne, assistant dean of students, Boston College of Education, former vice president for education, National Urban League

In this incisive new work, Seymour Sarason takes a hard look at our political leaders?and shows what they can do to advance some real solutions for the, as yet, intractable problem of changing and improving our schools. In nine trenchant essays, he examines the political myopia that directs our efforts on the symptoms rather than on the causes of educational malaise. Addressing some of the most critical realms of school reform including testing, race, learning, teacher preparation and the creation of charter schools, Sarason analyzes missed opportunities, and points out the ways in which our political leaders can take action and more effectively spearhead educational change.