Speaking of fourth grade : what listening to kids tells us about school in America
(Unknown)

Includes bibliographical references.

Fourth grade is ground zero in the fierce debates about education reform in America. It's when kids (well, some of them) make the shift from learning to read to reading to learn, and tomes have been written about the fourth-grade year by educators, administrators, philosophers, and pundits. Now, in a fascinating and groundbreaking book, Inda Schaenen adds the voices of actual fourth-grade kids to the conversation. Schaenen, a journalist turned educator, spent a year traveling across the state of Missouri, the geographical and spiritual center of the country, visiting fourth-grade classrooms of every description: public, private, urban, rural, religious, charter. Getting Smart looks at how our different approaches to education stack up against one another and chronicles what kids at the heart of our great, democratic education experiment have to say about What Makes a Good Teacher and What Makes a Good Student, as well as what they think about the Accelerated Reader programs that dominate public school classrooms, high-stakes testing, and the very purpose of school in the first place. A brilliant and original work at the intersection of oral history, sociology, and journalism, Getting Smart offers unique insight into the personal consequences of national education policy. The voices of the children in Getting Smart will stay with readers--parents, teachers, and others--for many years to come. --,Provided by publisher.