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In the Name of Excellence is the first in-depth report card on the nation's vast drive during the past decade to reform its troubled public schools. Written by Thomas Toch, one of America's leading educational journalists, it offers an informative, revealing, and provocative commentary on a topic essential to the nation's economic and social well-being: the crisis in our schools.
Drawing on a rich store of research that includes visits to nearly sixty public schools nationwide and hundreds of interviews conducted from the classroom to the White House, Toch has produced a book of impressive breadth, offering readers the full story of today's school reform movement, from its early political battles in the states to the current debate over restructuring the schools. He measures the movement's progress in clear and compelling prose, explaining which reforms have worked and why, on balance, the so-called educational excellence movement has failed to achieve its primary goal: teaching tough academic subjects to a far broader range of the nation's high school students.
Toch provides a host of important insights into the reform movement. He reveals, for instance, that there is strong opposition within the ranks of public educators to the movement's academic aims, that the damage inflicted on the nation's students by standardized testing is far greater than has been generally reported, and that new graduation requirements have failed millions of students. Toch also provides a detailed account--the first since the onset of the reform movement--of the role played by the powerful National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, while shedding new light on controversial topics such as school choice and why students drop out of school.
Finally, and of crucial importance to all who are committed to improving our schools, the book proposes a further agenda for the nation's school reformers. Public education today stands at a crucial crossroads. In the Name of Excellence explains why, and reveals the prospects for the nation's schools in the years ahead. It is essential reading for parents, educators, and policymakers alike.

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Library Journal Review

Toch, a reporter with U.S. News & World Report , correctly asserts that the oft-proposed public education reforms (improved texts, greater public accountability, tougher academic curriculum, stronger teachers, revamped teaching and testing, etc.) are interdependent and each must be implemented in order for the desired ``excellence'' to result. But without strong teachers, he feels a tougher curriculum means little. In this book, which he divides into three parts, Toch details the history of the reform movement, gives reasons why the movement is not making great forward progress, and chronicles the consequences of the apathy and alienation rife in U.S. schools. Toch argues for a marketplace of schools by choice in public education, required community service projects, peer tutoring, and magnet schools to increase the commitment of teachers and students to the educational process. Yes, his is another school reform book, but one that proposes the reassertion of humanity into the schools. Recommended.-- Scott Johnson, Meridian Com munity Coll. Lib., Miss. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

The crusade for excellence in public education during the past decade is shown in this comprehensive study to be basically two-pronged, advocating schooling for all through high school and raising academic standards. Yet, as Toch, a reporter for U. S. News and World Report , gleans from visits to more than 60 schools nationwide and from his review of research papers, ``educational excellence remains a scarce commodity in the public schools.'' Many factors tend to constrain the reform movement, among them demographic developments, student/teacher alienation and unionism. Toch contends, however, in this thoughtful, provocative analysis, that with reassessment and expansion, the reform movement can meet the expectations it has rightfully raised in a democratic society. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Toch, education correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, chronicles, in precise detail, the many major and minor players and the myriad economic, social, and political battles that beset the "excellence" school reform movement in the 1980s. He covers such wide-ranging topics as the national reform agenda, state-level reforms, renewed calls for "back-to-basics," the role of national and state teacher organizations in reform efforts, the mixed blessings of standardized testing, and new agendas that stress small school and magnet approaches as practicable solutions. In his insistence on reviving "tough academic standards" and in his sweeping indictment of the National Education Association, Toch reveals himself as an "essentialist" critic of US education in the mold of such "excellence" reformers as Diane Ravitch, Chester Finn, Thomas Kean, and Lamar Alexander. Such ideological blinders tend to vitiate the persuasive power of Toch's reportorial argument, but his book is rich in specificity and comprehensiveness. Recommended for college and university collections at all levels. -J. L. DeVitis, SUNY at Binghamton

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About the Author:
Thomas Toch is the Education correspondent for U.S. News and World Report.