Those Who Dared: Five Visionaries Who Changed American Education

For decades, practically every major initiative in American education (from top-down standards to the testing movement) has moved decision-making farther away from the school. Fighting against this trend throughout their careers, Deborah Meier, John Goodlad, James Comer, Ted Sizer, and Henry Levin have worked to give our schools back the ability to educate students in the broadest and richest traditions of activity, inquiry, and problem solving. Now these visionary educators have joined together to share personal stories of the challenges and triumphs they faced and their ideas of what education can and must be for every student. Serving as an inspirational call to action for those seeking to be more involved in the urgent and continuing efforts to restore America’s public schools, this book:

• Brings together the experiences and insights of greatly influential and progressive educational leaders of the past half-century…and they are still working today!
• Ranges from highly personal to imminently practical to passionately political, with each writer offering a unique perspective on what it takes to sustain major school change.
• Recounts the many instances when the authors thought beyond the conventional boundaries of educational practice to find innovative solutions in a number of critical areas, including developing more effective curriculum and assessment, expanding the benefits of gifted education to every child, strengthening school/community partnerships, and addressing the specific needs of small schools and learning communities.