Crash Course

by Chris Whittle

The founder of Edison Schools and Channel One describes the sobering challenges that are preventing a large percentage of today's young people from acquiring a quality public education, in an account that makes recommendations on how to institute effective improvements. 35,000 first printing.

Genres: Education, Professional Development

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 2005

Reviews

[Chuck Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off with a great analogy - there are aspects of industry and society that we all agree have to work virtually 100% of the time. Things like airline safety. Reliability of automobiles. 911 emergency services.

However, we KNOW there are failing schools, where 50% or more of students are scoring below "proficiency" on state tests, but it becomes an acceptable truth. Explained away or simply ignored.

The solution Whittle proposes is a vigorous partnership between local districts and private enterprises with the kind of leadership in development and scale that only the federal government can provide (like the DoD and NASA).

I read the whole book because the proposal was interesting. I got everything out of it that I needed from the 1st several chapters to reset MY mindset that I CANNOT accept kids failure in any subject anywhere in my sphere of influence.