The state of the system : a reality check on Canada's schools / Paul W. Bennett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bennett, Paul W., 1949- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education--Canada--Evaluation.

Education.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (321 pages)

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2020]

Summary:

Over the last fifty years, Canada's public schools have been absorbed into a modern education system that functions much like Max Weber's infamous iron cage. Crying out for democratic school-level reform, the system is now a centralized, bureaucratic fortress that, every year, becomes softer on standards for students, less accessible to parents, further out of touch with communities, and surprisingly unresponsive to classroom teachers. Exploring the nature of the Canadian education order in all its dimensions, The State of the System explains how public schools came to be so bureaucratic, confronts the critical issues facing kindergarten to grade 12 public schools in all ten provinces, and addresses the need for systemic reform. Going beyond a diagnosis of the stresses, strains, and ills present in the system, Paul Bennett proposes a bold plan to re-engineer schools on a more human scale as the first step in truly reforming public education. In place of school consolidation and managerialism, one-size-fits-all uniformity, limited school choice, and the "success-for-all" curriculum, Bennett advocates for a new set of priorities: decentralize school governance, deprogram education ministries and school districts, listen to parents and teachers, and revitalize local education democracy. Tackling the thorny issues besetting contemporary school systems in Canada, The State of the System issues a clarion call for more responsive, engaged, and accountable public schools.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Figures and Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

A School System under Stress

Shaping of the System

Testing Time

Consolidate and Control

Education on Wheels

Public Choice in the System

The “One-Size-Fits-All” Model

The “Success for All” Curriculum

Student Assessment Experiments

The Big Disconnect

The School Closure Wars

School Boards in Crisis

Epilogue: Re-engineering Education- Flip the System and Build from the Schools Up

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780228002277

0228002273

9780228002260

0228002265

OCLC:

1151852630