From Teacher Magazine

The history of school reform in the United States might best be summarized as "much change, little progress." Despite the standards and testing prevalent today, schools haven't improved appreciably since the landmark 1983 report A Nation at Risk warned, in effect, that American students perform like a bunch of slackers when compared with the rest of the developed world.

In this book, Gary Gordon, vice president and practice leader of [Gallup's] education division, attempts to explain why. He thinks we've been focusing on the wrong things. If we want to improve schools, we should forget about perfect curricula, or testing more, or toughening accountability sanctions. We should be paying closer attention to "the talent and the engagement levels of the people within an individual school."

This, of course, contradicts the one-size-fits-all approach of the No Child Left Behind Act. "A high-quality education isn't something that can be mandated by law," Gordon pointedly writes. He adds that NCLB actually undercuts academic achievement because schools now emphasize "getting all students to average, not to excellence."

Drawing on a management model from the private sector that puts people ahead of processes, Gordon claims that nothing has a greater impact on students, for better or worse, than the quality of their teachers. The "people invited to teach in our schools," he says, "are the X-factor that invariably makes the difference in student learning." It's therefore essential that instead of simply filling teaching vacancies, school administrators "hold out for talent."

Most don't. There's a belief-one that NCLB has done a lot to foster-that teachers are interchangeable parts in a standards-driven machine. What bull. You can know the curriculum inside out and the prescribed means for delivering it, but until you know kids-and, more important, care about them-you really don't know anything about teaching.

-- Reviewed by Howard Good

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From Midwest Book Review: California Bookwatch

America's public schools often rely too heavily on the same old formula for passing success without rising to the challenge of making changes to the system. Building Engaged Schools offers a program for so doing, outlining the many challenges public schools face and covering the different values inherent in 'soft' education activities often ignored in favor of standards and testing processes. Chapters come from a leader of Gallup's Education Division and focuses on how to tap into a child's inner drive and needs to build a classroom program that lifts them from alienation into engagement. Teachers and students alike will benefit from this process.

-- Volume 1, Number 10. December 2006

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From Booklist

Drawing on 20 years as principal, teacher, and district administrator and the perspective offered by his current position with Gallup's education division, Gordon offers a critical examination of what is wrong with public education and how it might be fixed. He eschews grand government mandates in favor of efforts in individual schools to use the people and resources at hand and leverage underutilized talents. What is preventing schools from progressing, according to Gordon, are outdated assumptions, such as the ideas that testing will ensure accountability and higher standards; focusing on areas of weakness will lead to improvement; and selecting staff on the basis of knowledge and providing the perfect curriculum will ensure success. Based on research and Gallup studies, the remainder of the book offers examples of engaged schools and analyzes the elements that make them so--faculty, teachers, students, and parents, even the community. Gordon offers a refreshing look at what ails schools and argues that the road to improvement does not include a one-size-fits-all approach to education.

-- Reviewed by Vanessa Bush
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From Amazon.com Customer Reviews

Gallup's work in the area of strengths is well known and widely used in both the world of business and in many colleges. See, e.g., Now, Discover Your Strengths. This book makes a compelling case for reconciling the competing agendas of No Child Left Behind and the school, student, and teacher-centered approaches by rallying around engagement, for both students and teachers. As usual with Gallup's products, this one is backed up with the surveys and research Gallup has conducted over the years. Neither "engagement" nor "strengths" are left as "soft", unmeasurable terms. Those who want real, measurable improvement in schools and those who want schools to be a great place for teachers and students will find much to like, and perhaps a way to talk to each other in this book. In fact, the three elements that polls in 1995 and 2004 identified as things the public thinks are very important, but not likely to be happening in schools, could be the basis of a great vision statement:

* Students challenged to develop themselves to their full potential
* Motivated students
* Emphasizing the strengths of each student

(pp. 62-67).

If you're interested in education policy, you need to be conversant with the information and policy recommendations in this book.

-- Reviewed by David N. Shearon (Nashville, TN)

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