Exam Schools: Inside America's Most Selective Public High Schools

(Hardback)

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What is the best education for exceptionally able and high-achieving youngsters Can the United States strengthen its future intellectual leadership, economic vitality, and scientific prowess without sacrificing equal opportunity This title discusses how these schools work - and their critical role in nurturing the country's brightest students.

Reviews

"As we try to make sure that no child gets left behind, are we keeping others from getting ahead Or, as Chester Finn and Jessica Hockett put it in Exam Schools: 'As the country strives to ... close its wide achievement gaps [and] repair its bad schools ... is it also challenging its high achieving and highly motivated students' This isn't an easy question to answer... The information they do collect is helpful."--Naomi Schaefer Riley, Wall Street Journal "As we strive to offer better educations to all students, Exam Schools takes the important first steps toward illuminating an option that may eventually have resonance for our public school system as a whole."--Rachael Brown, New Republic "A cogent exploration of the struggle to balance equity and excellence in America's most academically selective public high schools... A fact-driven, clear text that will be of interest to educators as well as parents of students at selective public high schools."--Kirkus Reviews "Could, and should ... academically selective public high schools play a more expansive role in educating the nation's high-potential, high-achieving students[] These are some of the questions that longtime education pundit Checker Finn, joined by educational consultant Jessica Hockett, set out to answer in their book."--Erik Robelen, Education Week "[E]ye-opening ..."--Jay Mathews, Washington Post "The subject is one of serious interest to colleges and universities because many of their best-prepared and motivated applicants come from these schools. These are schools and students college admissions officers and professors will want to know about."--Peter Cohee, National Association of Scholars "[T]his book raised important new questions and illuminated largely unknown facts... Finn and Hockett have done something rare in public policy debates: They've raised new issues."--Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post "If you are interested in giving your child or children a superior education, this book is a must-read."--Nano Khilnani, Biz India

Author Bio

Chester E. Finn, Jr. is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A former assistant U.S. secretary of education, he is the author of many books, including "Charter Schools in Action" and "Troublemaker" (both Princeton). Jessica A. Hockett is an education consultant specializing in differentiated instruction, curriculum design, and lesson study. She earned her doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Virginia.