Have you ever asked yourself, "Why do we do this?" when faced with the day-to-day realities of school, such as report cards, standardized tests, or textbooks? Chances are, if you are like most Americans, you haven't. William Spady has, however, and in Beyond Counterfeit Reforms he questions the dead-end assumptions of American education. He asserts a set of five "research realities" that should be the foundation of any truly learner-centered system: Human Potential, Human Learning, Domains of Living, Future Conditions, and Life Performance. Not only does Spady thoroughly articulate the bad news about the deep organizational flaws in our schools, but he develops the model of a Total Learning Community—a profoundly compelling description of a possible education and society which makes current reform methods look superficial and misguided in comparison.
