William E. Smith has taught at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels and was Teacher of the Year for East Tennessee. He has also been an assistant principal, a district administrator, a principal in a rural K-5 elementary school, a teacher educator, and a university laboratory school director.

Smith vividly demonstrates with a combination of research and personal anecdotes from thirty years in education that NCLB is having profound consequences on the entire educational system in the United States that will affect—and should concern—every citizen. This book is an in-depth conversation with an experienced, intelligent, passionate, observant, and dedicated teacher who is worried about the future of education in America. Part memoir of thirty years teaching, part analysis of the educational system, and part call to arms, Restoring Honor to Public Schools should interest, intrigue, and inform a wide variety of Americans, from parents and teachers to politicians and journalists—or anyone interested in the education of our children.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionPart 2 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Reality, the Image, and the Discrediting of America's Public SchoolsChapter 3 Learning to Honor Education: A Lesson from AkinaChapter 4 The Good News about America's SchoolsChapter 5 How Politicians and Journalists Shape Public Perceptions of SchoolsChapter 6 The Consequences of Misrepresenting Public School QualityPart 7 Illusions, Misguided Notions, and Questionable Intentions: How Educational Policymaking Has Gone WrongChapter 8 High Stakes Accountability Measures and Illusions of QualityChapter 9 A Tale of Two Teachers: The Passionate Professional and the Dispirited FunctionaryChapter 10 The No Child Left Behind Act: Illusion and RealityChapter 11 The Truth about the Children Left BehindChapter 12 The NAEP and International Assessments: Education's Catch-22Chapter 13 The Political Process of Educational Reform: How Parents, Educators, and Children Get Left BehindChapter 14 Why Nostalgia Is a Poor Basis for Educational PolicyChapter 15 The Shortcomings of Common Sense as a Basis for Educational PolicyPart 16 Honoring Teachers and the Process of Educational Change: Making a Commitment to Sound PrinciplesChapter 17 Honoring Teachers and TeachingChapter 18 Elevating Our Nation's Public Discourse about EducationChapter 19 Afterword

William E. Smith has taught at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels and was Teacher of the Year for East Tennessee. He has also been an assistant principal, a district administrator, a principal in a rural K-5 elementary school, a teacher educator, and a university laboratory school director.

Smith vividly demonstrates with a combination of research and personal anecdotes from thirty years in education that NCLB is having profound consequences on the entire educational system in the United States that will affect—and should concern—every citizen. This book is an in-depth conversation with an experienced, intelligent, passionate, observant, and dedicated teacher who is worried about the future of education in America. Part memoir of thirty years teaching, part analysis of the educational system, and part call to arms, Restoring Honor to Public Schools should interest, intrigue, and inform a wide variety of Americans, from parents and teachers to politicians and journalists—or anyone interested in the education of our children.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionPart 2 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Reality, the Image, and the Discrediting of America's Public SchoolsChapter 3 Learning to Honor Education: A Lesson from AkinaChapter 4 The Good News about America's SchoolsChapter 5 How Politicians and Journalists Shape Public Perceptions of SchoolsChapter 6 The Consequences of Misrepresenting Public School QualityPart 7 Illusions, Misguided Notions, and Questionable Intentions: How Educational Policymaking Has Gone WrongChapter 8 High Stakes Accountability Measures and Illusions of QualityChapter 9 A Tale of Two Teachers: The Passionate Professional and the Dispirited FunctionaryChapter 10 The No Child Left Behind Act: Illusion and RealityChapter 11 The Truth about the Children Left BehindChapter 12 The NAEP and International Assessments: Education's Catch-22Chapter 13 The Political Process of Educational Reform: How Parents, Educators, and Children Get Left BehindChapter 14 Why Nostalgia Is a Poor Basis for Educational PolicyChapter 15 The Shortcomings of Common Sense as a Basis for Educational PolicyPart 16 Honoring Teachers and the Process of Educational Change: Making a Commitment to Sound PrinciplesChapter 17 Honoring Teachers and TeachingChapter 18 Elevating Our Nation's Public Discourse about EducationChapter 19 Afterword