A Chronicle of Echoes: Who's Who in the Implosion of American Public Education (NA) Paperback – April 1, 2014

Grab a highlighter! You're going to need it... If you enjoy Ravitch, you'll enjoy Schneider! I'm actually surprised this book hasn't already been trashed by some of the so-called "reformers" out there; perhaps it is still under their radar. The chapters are very well-written, and they may be read in order or not. However, for some chapters (i.e. 13-15) it would make sense to read them in order. The chapters have very enticing names, as one can see from the table of contents.The chapters seem to average about 18 pages, and the writing is balanced with both intense and conversational tones. Dr. Schneider's writing may take some time to get used to for some since this isn't necessarily "casual" reading; the astute reader will want to digest (perhaps even savor!) the writing, while also looking at the endnotes for each chapter. "A Chronicle of Echoes" literally calls the so-called "reformers" (by name) on their nonsense. The book's introduction is short, but I just had to start with chapter 4 ("Michelle Rhee: Sociopathy Finds a Home in Ed Reform"). The chapter on Erik Hanushek was also good with regard to his positions on school funding, class size, VAM, etc. Yet I wish the chapter would have discussed more about Hanushek's promotion of teachers having effects on students' future earnings (e.g., Chetty et al.) as well; at the very least, the epistemological assumptions underpinning such research seem flawed. (Btw, given the postivist nature of such research, shouldn't it also follow that if teachers' adult incomes are lower, it's because they had "ineffective" teachers themselves? Never mind people aspiring to actually become teachers...) If this aspect of Hanushek was included and I missed it, I'll have to try catching it when I re-read the book.The author cites many sources and uses a lot of italicized block quotations from these sources, while adding emphases to various parts. Although the "emphasis added" is clearly delineated, it can be a little distracting at times when the emphasis (in bold) is sometimes added to almost an entire italicized block quotation. (Basically, if everything is "emphasized," perhaps nothing is emphasized; it's kind of like over-highlighting). Nonetheless, the content of the book is absolutely extraordinary, and I believe this book has a place alongside classic publications such as Callahan's "Education and the Cult of Efficiency." (However, Callahan's classic was written as a historical account, whereas Schneider has written about contemporary public education and includes its recent historical precedents.)"A Chronicle of Echoes" is worthy of academic citation. For this reason, I wish it had an index. My understanding is that Dr. Schneider was concerned about the length of the book already being around 500 pages, but an index would be very useful. Also, I have discovered more than a few typos in the book, despite the overall content being of high quality.This is the third publication from this publisher (Information Age) that I've purchased; the others include Mestre's "Transfer of Learning From a Modern Multidisciplinary Perspective," as well as Horn and Wilburn's "The Mismeasure of Education." While the books are good, there's something about the font that the publisher uses that I don't like. But I'm not sure what it is exactly; maybe the font is a little too small, maybe the lines of text are too close together, or maybe it's the shape of the font itself (?).Overall, this is a good book for a variety of audiences, including (but not limited to) researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and parents. I miss having an index the most. In fact I'd pay a couple dollars to buy one as a supplement to the book. Despite my (hopefully constructive) criticism of a few minor things, the book is more than worthy of five stars! I love the book, and I've recommended it to others quite often. If you could pick only one more book to read in addition to "Reign of Error," this is definitely the book to pick. I absolutely cannot wait to read Dr. Schneider's next book!

Fans of Harry Potter will recall the most valuable class at Hogwarts: "Defense Against the Dark Arts." With her new book, "A Chronicle of Echoes," Mercedes Schneider has provided those of us working to defend public education with a work that could be called "Defense Against Corporate Reform."A short year and a half ago a new blogger appeared, writing from Louisiana, with a flair for following the threads of corporate reform back to their sources. Mercedes Schneider's Deutsch29 blog brought us research of everything from the state of New Orleans schools, to the funding of the Common Core standards, has uncovered information not often disclosed voluntarily.Communities across the country are experiencing similar manifestations of well-funded "reform." School board and legislative candidates willing to close public schools and expand charters, willing to undermine due process for teachers and impose test-score driven evaluations, receive unprecedented donations from billionaires thousands of miles away. Teachers organized into newly-formed and well-funded "teacher voice" groups show up to testify at legislative hearings, in support of the elimination of due process. Reports issue at regular intervals from supposedly non-partisan "think tanks," proclaiming the public schools broken, schools of education hopeless, and calling for "disruption" via market forces.Who are these people and organizations, and where did they come from? This spring, Mercedes has released her first book, A Chronicle of Echoes, which is a sort of handbook for understanding all the players in the corporate reform "movement." She takes them on one by one, and leaves none unscathed.Mercedes Schneider is unusual in being both a classroom teacher and a skilled statistician with a PhD in applied statistics.This is not a book for the faint of heart. Joel Klein is introduced as "The man from which nothing good comes." Schneider perceives a public education system under assault by powerful, well-funded organizations and individuals. Her purpose is to equip those who wish to defend public schools with much-needed understanding of what we are up against.Schneider does not limit her research to the main pages of the New York Times. She delves into emails, income tax forms, dissertations, web pages and more to uncover details of the characters in her story. This is not a sympathetic treatment. It is an exposé - or more accurately, a collection of them.Each of the 24 chapters is a story unto itself - an analysis of the methods and histories of characters educators have come to know; New York's queen of charters Eva Moskowitz, Wendy Kopp, Eric Hanushek, Paul Vallas, Chester Finn, David Coleman, Michelle Rhee, and more. Reform organizations are also revealed - TNTP, Democrats for Education Reform, NCTQ, Stand For Children, ALEC, and the big money behind them all, the big three foundations, Gates, Walton and Broad.This book is useful in two ways. Read from cover to cover, the threads come together and the fabric of the corporate education "reform" project becomes clear. By the time you are done, you will see some patterns emerge. Not surprisingly, when profits are promoted as an engine of reform, there is evidence of self-interest. There is manipulation of data, which Schneider's eye spots time and again. There is money at work, behind the scenes and in the open.The other way the book will be used is as a reference. When you hear that Stand For Children or StudentsFirst is contributing to local candidates for office, you might turn to the chapters about these groups to learn how they have operated in the past. When Michelle Rhee next comes to your state and hosts a "town hall meeting," you can share some of the information in the chapter about her with the local media. This book is a tool, a guidebook to the sometimes mysterious but always resourceful world of corporate reform. When the first university course in "Defense Against Corporate Reform" is taught, A Chronicle of Echoes will join Diane Ravitch's Reign of Error as required reading.