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Overview
An in-depth look at "the brave new world of school finance" (Education Week) and the latest struggle for equality in public education.Final Test describes a powerful new movement that has emerged across America in recent years to bridge the wide gap still separating the achievement of African American and Latino students from their white and Asian counterparts more than half a century after Brown v. Board. In the past fifteen years, scholars, judges, and advocates for poor children have begun to develop a progressive approach to education in which public policies and funding are based on calculations of "adequacy"—what it actually takes in teachers, books, facilities, and other resources to educate each child.
While Schrag explains the legal and legislative battles for reform with great insight and clarity, he also never loses sight of the human side of the story, "describing in poignant detail the impact of funding inequities on individual students and why 'money matters' in rectifying educational inadequacies" (Advocacy Center for Children's Educational Success with Standards). As the California Journal raved, "few writers can translate complex ideas into compelling nonfiction like Peter Schrag."
Synopsis
An in-depth look at "the brave new world of school finance" (Education Week) and the latest struggle for equality in public education.
Final Test describes a powerful new movement that has emerged across America in recent years to bridge the wide gap still separating the achievement of African American and Latino students from their white and Asian counterparts more than half a century after Brown v. Board. In the past fifteen years, scholars, judges, and advocates for poor children have begun to develop a progressive approach to education in which public policies and funding are based on calculations of "adequacy"—what it actually takes in teachers, books, facilities, and other resources to educate each child.
While Schrag explains the legal and legislative battles for reform with great insight and clarity, he also never loses sight of the human side of the story, "describing in poignant detail the impact of funding inequities on individual students and why 'money matters' in rectifying educational inadequacies" (Advocacy Center for Children's Educational Success with Standards). As the California Journal raved, "few writers can translate complex ideas into compelling nonfiction like Peter Schrag."
The New York Times
For Schrag, the adequacy drive matters because it does not simply try to get disadvantaged communities more money; thinking about adequacy means figuring out what it would take to give all students a good education, giving them a fair chance of meeting new standards, and then coming up with enough money to actually do it. Schrag sees the court cases he looks at as merely the first step. — Timothy A. Hacsi