Duck and Cover

In the 1950s and 1960s, students practiced ducking under their desks in case of an atomic bomb attack. We know that this was silly and provided no protection and many school practices that are popular today are equally silly. This book explores a wide range of what the authors label “duck and cover” policies—ideas that may have started for good reasons but whose usefulness has declined over time, ideas that may lack sound theoretical foundations or long-term evidence, ideas that violate basic logic and reasoning or cause serious and proven damage. Ginsberg and Zhao explore how and why these policies were adopted, along with the underlying factors that push school leaders to maintain them. They also offer recommendations for reconsidering, replacing, or just removing these dubious strategies from practice. Topics include standardized testing, kindergarten readiness, college and career readiness, social and emotional learning, teaching evaluations, class size, professional development, time management, and much more. Duck and Cover will help readers think about their schools’ policies and practices in new ways, encouraging ongoing consideration and feedback about what actually works.

Book Features:

• Invites K–12 educational policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to question the effectiveness of everyday practices.
• Shows that some commonly practiced and even sacred beliefs in education are not scientifically sound or even logical.
• Points to actions that leaders can take to remove, reconsider, or revise detrimental practices—a duck-and-cover audit guide with questions readers can use to examine what they do.

Rick Ginsberg is dean of the School of Education and Human Sciences, The University of Kansas. Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education and Human Sciences at The University of Kansas.

“ Duck and Cover illustrates the potential of school reform while documenting the frailties of past efforts at change.”

—Education Review

“Another title of this book might be ‘Reconsider.’ So many school policies are implemented and then hang on due to a lack of local evaluations or lethargy, even when they are not working as intended. Reconsideration is needed. In an engaging style, these two prestigious authors name some of those policies, discuss their troublesome properties, and explain why each needs to be reconsidered. School board members, administrators, and teachers need to take the analyses offered in this book to heart.”
—David C. Berliner, Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University

“Ginsberg and Zhao have done educators and policymakers a service in exposing multiple ineffective but durable educational policies and practices and organizational patterns of behavior. They dissect the factors at play that lead to the implementation of policies and practice with scant attention to history, evidence, or potential unintended consequences. Reading this book should cause policymakers, educational leaders, and others to pause before latching onto the next sparkly idea that someone claims will cure what ails our schools—would that such an idea existed.”
—Bill McDiarmid, Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus and former dean, School of Education, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Don’t duck and cover but run and buy Rick and Yong’s book. They help us evaluate ‘silly and useless’ education policies, drawing on a boatload of research evidence, common sense, and humor. Damaging myths are dismissed, vital history lessons are told, and profound practical guidance is offered. A must-read for educators, policy leaders, and researchers alike!”
—Barnett Berry, research professor, University of South Carolina and senior research fellow, Learning Policy Institute

“Duck and Cover: Confronting and Correcting Dubious Practices in Education unveils the ways well-intended federal, state, and local leaders create policies and practices that end up doing more harm than good in K–12 education. The authors’ thorough accounting of these policies and practices, and the mindsets that drive such efforts, illustrate the challenge and opportunity we have to change course and confront our assumptions of teachers and their students. This is a must-read for educators and policymakers alike.”
—Lynn M. Gangone, president and chief executive officer, AACTE

Contents

Acknowledgments v
Introduction 1

Part I: DREAMS, FANTASIES, AND NIGHTMARES

1. Kindergarten Readiness 13
2. College and Career Readiness 20
3. Reading Proficiency by 3rd Grade 27
4. The Achievement Gap 34
5. Social and Emotional Learning 41
6. Foreign-Language Instruction 52
7. Educational Technology 60

Part II: OPERATIONAL BUGABOOS

8. Professional Development 71
9. Class Size 78
10. Time 85
11. Dress and Grooming Codes 93
12. Teacher Evaluation 99
13. Gifted and Talented and Exceptional Education 105

Part III: SYSTEMIC AND ANALYTIC CONUNDRUMS

14. State Standardized Testing 115
15. Governance by School Board 123
16. How Teachers Are Paid 131
17. Meta-Analysis 141
Conclusion 149

References 157
Index 180
About the Authors 185