Examines 16 ways in which public education can be improved - from teacher education to the training of administrators to eliminating tenure to setting up merit pay to improved teaching skills to new curriculum improvements to parent involvement to a new organization of K - 12 education.
About the Author: In "16 Ways to Fix (or we'll never fix) Public Education", Professor Harlan S. Hansen tackles many of the problems currently facing public education. He left a six-year business career in to follow his main love-teaching-and credits his business experience with providing him broader insights into the problems of education and his search for resolutions. Hansen offers solutions that look at the profession from an insider's point of view. According to him, many of the overhauls currently proposed for public education are crafted by critics and policymakers who have spent little time inside of schools. Hansen presents his insight with a light-hearted approach while remaining serious about the problems that lay ahead for public education. He has teaching experience at the middle, elementary, and preschool/kindergarten levels. His professional experience has been focused on the education of young children and on dealing with classroom management and discipline. He is currently a Professor Emeritus in the College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. While others speak about education reform, Hansen lives it. He realizes the betterment of public education lies with the proper melding of teacher educators, administrators, teachers, support staff and parents, who must all be allies in reform. He has worked regularly in schools and classrooms helping practitioners find new ways to improve student learning. Over a six year period he volunteered his expertise to one school a year where he could experience the full range of schools' needs while providing solutions from his own experience. In sharing his work with undergraduate and graduate students he has received three Outstanding Teaching awards. "16 Ways to Fix (or we'll never fix) Public Education" is a book for everyone interested in education. It provides solutions that come from first-hand experiences in addressing educational improvement. About the Author: Professor Harlan S. Hansen has been a public educator for fifty years. He earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin. Though retired, he remains active in teaching teachers during summer session at the university and in working with schools on various problems. Along with his wife Ruth, he recently co-authored a book on helping four-year-olds acquire basic and literacy skills. He plans to publish his work on classroom management and discipline in the elementary school early next year.