A Search for Common Ground: Conversations About the Toughest Questions in K–12 Education

by Frederick M. Hess, Pedro A. Noguera

At a time of bitter national polarization, there is a critical need for leaders who can help us better communicate with one another. In A Search for Common Ground , Rick Hess and Pedro Noguera, who have often fallen on opposing sides of the ideological aisle over the past couple of decades, candidly talk through their differences on some of the toughest issues in K–12 education today―from school choice to testing to diversity to privatization. They offer a sharp, honest debate that digs deep into their disagreements, enabling them to find a surprising amount of common ground along the way. Written as a series of back-and-forth exchanges, this engaging book illustrates a model of responsible, civil debate between those with substantial, principled differences. It is also a powerful meditation on where 21st-century school improvement can and should go next. Book

Genres: Education, School

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2021

Reviews

[✨Alix✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

School book🤷🏻‍♀️ I like that it was a series of intelligent letters back and forth, they were always reasonable discussions

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

DISCLAIMER: I am a college student so I don't have the benefit of wisdom and experience. I understand that this is a weakness in comprehending the book. However, I also believe that I represent young adults going into the teaching field.

I had to read this for a college class. The book is two men coming together by writing letters about issues in the school system. It's an absurd book because it has no point to it. They say they aim to find "common ground", but instead of reaching ways to actually implement real solutions, they just use decorative language to criticize the current school system. The book is also not well organized. Each author goes into tangents about a certain subject, and by the end of the chapter the reader is confused. They discuss completely different concepts when they are talking about the same topic. I am studying to become an elementary school teacher and all this book did was stress me out about all the ways the school system is failing and how I'm going to have to deal with them.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to the book simply as an uninformed parent of a Kindergartner trying to make sense of school choice, our public school district, and the rancor surrounding education. I did the audiobook on Hoopla via my local library.

The book is an incredible achievement. I was genuinely moved by the passionate conviction and poignant anecdotes of both authors. I also felt a genuine internal struggle over several topics.

One nitpick I had was there seemed to be a few topics where I wished they had expanded upon their points slightly if only to help educate people new to the topics at hand. For example, Rick brought up teacher licensure a few times but I never felt like it was adequately fleshed out by either author. I see they have expanded into a podcast, and I look forward to checking that out.

Ultimately, this book aspires to be about more than education policy. Indeed, it succeeds as a model for good-faith political dialogue. Personally, I believe that unless people of deep conviction start to engage with their peers in this kind of “long form” political process, our country will continue to tear itself apart. People from all stripes - academia, think tanks, professional class, working class, students - need to mute the media and start having a real conversation. Myself included. And our efforts must seek to find common ground FOR the common good. Consensus built simply around ways to maximize self-interest or achieve goals for a particular class/demographic are incomplete or even counter-productive.

[Zachery Deleski-Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I respect the purpose of this book, and I agree that both authors did a good job of staying away from ideologies when discussing. On topics such as school finance where there are differences state by state, I found myself criticizing both author's points of view due to overgeneralization or misunderstanding (based on my interpretation). I felt sometimes that Hess was too quick to minimize issues with charter schools by stating that public schools had issues as well. Once again, this might be due to some of my biases. However, many years later, we have seen the financial impact charters have played on public education even more today. Overall, the accomplished their purpose with their book. They did find several common ground aspects, and I feel like I can understand some more of the thought processes behind people I may disagree with on the opposite end, even if I believe some of beliefs are misguided (such as with for profit charters or voucher systems).

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a passionate former educator and now charitable giver, I am so interested in how we move forward in education because a lot of what we are doing now isn’t working. We ask too much of teachers and then blame them when they can’t solve all our nation’s social ills. We lower standards rather than figure out how to bring all students up to the higher standards. In short, we shortchange teachers and students - and our society. I’m glad that my local philanthropy chose this book to help us understand some of these issues better and see both sides. I definitely learned some things from this respectful exchange, and the authors do a great job of summing up their points and showing us that the two sides have more in common than they think they do.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this one *as a course textbook. Haha seriously though, quick light read compared to so many dense educational texts. I appreciate that! These are two intelligent, well-informed educators debating various issues in the world of education. I easily identify as a liberal, but surprisingly found myself siding with the conservative on more than one occasion. It was such a ready reminder that issues aren’t so clear cut down party lines as our modern culture would have us believe. I also learned new perspectives in almost every chapter and that’s just good. I do wish there was more solution-based conclusions in each chapter, but if it was that easy, we wouldn’t be in this mess now, would we?

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the day and age of the soundbite, this book presents a refreshing change--lengthy, thought-out discussions on many of the issues of public education. Each issue is discussed and as the title suggests, they find common ground on the issues. My only lament is that while they discuss the issues, the reader is still left with the "what can stakeholders do now?"

This is a great primer for folks new to the Ed scene--new parents, new politicians, new school officials. And it's a great reminder of the impediments for change. Hopefully whole communities can read the book and once they see the common ground they find ways to improve the situation for millions of students nationwide.

[Meghan Bruns · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the format of this book interesting, but their back and forth seemed to deviate from their original discussions. Each chapter takes on a tough conversation about education but ended up discussing other issues. I was expecting polarized ends of the scales to be discussing and possibly find common ground, however, the two were more in the middle on these topics, which made it easy for them to find common ground. The decisiveness of these tough conversations comes from the polarization in far left or far right, not these two writers who seemed very much “in the middle” from the start. I would have liked to have seen more common ground among more vast opinions.

[Michael Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short read. Loved the format. Conversational, thoughtful dialogue from the left and the right on the education issues of the day while avoiding "what about this and what about that!"

Both authors really listened to each other. They could agree to disagree, standing by their core values while learning from each other and finding "common ground."

Rick Hess writes monthly opinion pieces for Education Week. Would love to see Pedro and Rick continue to model their conversation there. America needs more of this!!!!

[Tavia Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought the conversations were mostly interesting and the authors did a good job of keeping it engaging. i think the letter format worked well. i also liked that they didn’t “beat a dead horse” and argue every point into the ground but rather recognized moments where they could just say their peace and move on. not perfect and i adamantly disagreed with some of what was put forth (by rick lol) but overall an interesting perspective and good to see how the other side thinks at times. i liked the concept of it as a whole too!

[Rod Naquin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughtful, epistolary, situated within COVID. I enjoy this because it operates kinda like a high level survey of educational challenges; and I admire the impetus to search for common ground. I’m inspired by luminaries who give a hearing to those people they disagree with. More of this plz

[Maria O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can tell the authors are really working hard to find that common ground on some of the topics. It was refreshing to see educated individuals from opposite sides actually talking about the issues instead of harping on rhetoric and strawman arguments.

[Tuare Cabrales · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an interesting book that modeled how people can have a civil discussion even if they're on different sides of an issue. I loved how they were able to find a lot of ways in which they agree.

[Tanya Fredrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent model of engaging in robust conversation by seeking to understand

[Annie Oosterwyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt that they were both on “best behavior” and there was a lot of agreeing to disagree. Would have liked to see more work to consensus.

[Fred Campos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all school board trustees for sure.

[Danielle Mennear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very educational

[Tiffany Wittmus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and insightful. Was useful for writing a synthesis paper for my masters degree.

[Austin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simply awful. Everything wrong with modern elitist political thinking in the bland and uninspiring letters of two pundits.

[Elizabeth Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re at all interested in how our school system works, this book is awesome! It’s a dialogue between a conservative and liberal academic scholar about the most divisive education issues in public schools.