Political Leadership and Educational Failure

Book excerpt: In this work, Seymour Sarason takes a penetrating look at the ways in which our political leaders, no matter how well intentioned, so often frustrate school improvement - and what must change if they are to instead advance it. Sarason calls on political leaders to ask the important questions: Why has the expenditure of billions of dollars had such disappointing consequences? Why do apparently successful educational innovations not spread to other schools in the same district, and often not even to other classrooms in the same school? Why is it that as students go from elementary to middle to high school they become increasingly bored and indifferent? What do we know about the adequacy of the programs that prepare educators? Asking these and other vital questions, Sarason contends, is the first step politicians must take toward solving the problems in our educational system.