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Learning in the Fast Lane traces the story of AP from its mid-twentieth-century origins as a niche benefit for privileged students to its emergence as a springboard to college for high schoolers nationwide, including hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged youth. Today, AP not only opens new intellectual horizons for smart teenagers, but also strengthens school ratings, attracts topflight teachers, and draws support from philanthropists, reformers, and policymakers. At the same time, it faces numerous challenges, including rival programs, curriculum wars, charges of elitism, the misgivings of influential universities, and the difficulty of infusing rigor into schools that lack it. In today's polarized climate, can AP maintain its lofty standards and surmount the problems that have sunk so many other bold education ventures?  Richly documented and thoroughly accessible, Learning in the Fast Lane is a must-read for anyone with a stake in the American school system.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49730665513233,"sku":"NGR9780691178721","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50195811991825,"sku":"CIN0691178720G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53122271641873,"sku":"CIN0691178720VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0691178720.jpg?v=1751073761"},{"product_id":"we-must-take-charge-book-chester-e-finn-jr-9780029102763","title":"We Must Take Charge!","description":"According to leading education analyst Chester Finn, a paradox lies at the heart of our educational trouble. While Americans commonly acknowledge that public schools in general are a disaster, polls consistently show that most parents, teachers, and administrators think their local schools and their own children are doing just fine. The implications of this self-congratulation are profound. For if people believe their own schools and children are succeeding, why should they feel compelled to change things? Yet, if we don't, we will continue to watch the destruction of a system that already lacks accountability and quality control, and is beset by a teaching profession compromised by bad ideas, fads, buck-passing, dubious theories, and stodgy practices.     Fin proposes radical changes which he insists must be championed by all Americans if this atrophy is to be reversed. First and most importantly, he calls on us to reorganize education in relation to the results we want from it. This means establishing a clearcut standard of intellectual achievement that we will oblige all of our schools to enforce and our children to meet. To define this standard, we will need to rebuild instruction around, a national curriculum of core subjects - history, science, geography, math, literature and writing. And we must demand a more detailed flow of useful information, including reliable testing, about how our children are performing in relation to this standard.     Finn calls on us to give our children as much time, as many options, and as broad an array of resources as possible. As he points out, learning can take place as easily in July as it does in march, as easily in a museum as it does in a classroom. And if parents have choices in deciding which schools and programs best fit the needs of students, they will have an added incentive in helping their children succeed. He urges us to revitalize the means of delivering education from the bottom up, by vesting as much authority as possible with educators in each individual school and holding them accountable for their performance.     For Finn, the implementation of these radical measures is essential to produce not only a knowledgeable twenty-first century work force that will keep our nation competitive, but an informed and reasoning citizenry capable of participating fully in a democracy. Challenging and candid, this book will point the way for all those insisting on the best that our schools can offer.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49778458296593,"sku":"CIN0029102766G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50998798287121,"sku":"NIN9780029102763","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52335217312017,"sku":"NLS9780029102763","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0029102766.jpg?v=1750939687"},{"product_id":"what-lies-ahead-for-america-s-children-and-their-schools-book-chester-e-finn-jr-9780817917050","title":"What Lies Ahead for America's Children and Their Schools","description":"The coming decade holds immense potential for dramatic improvement in U.S. education and in the achievement of American children and in this volume, members of the Hoover Institution's Koret Task Force on K-12 Education examine both the potential gains and the pitfalls that lie ahead, informed by where U.S. education has been, what changes have been made in recent years, and what's still required for the comprehensive overhaul that this vital enterprise so urgently needs. Looking backward is infinitely easier than predicting the future, but planning for the future is necessary if anything is to change and by analyzing the recent past and present condition of American primary and secondary school education across a host of key topics, task force members in this volume chart a bold course for the years ahead. Optimistic about the opportunities at hand, they identify essential--and feasible--reforms as well as the barriers that must be overcome if those changes are to occur. They offer high-quality scholarship and thoughtful prescriptions for productive policy alternatives.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50362746929425,"sku":"CIN0817917055G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332058677521,"sku":"CIN0817917055VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0817917055.jpg?v=1751201814"},{"product_id":"charter-schools-at-the-crossroads-book-chester-e-finn-jr-9781612509778","title":"Charter Schools at the Crossroads","description":"Charter Schools at the Crossroads offers a frank and nuanced analysis of the successes and shortcomings of the charter movement, and outlines possible directions for the future. Few observers present at the creation of the first charter schools a quarter-century ago could have predicted how rapidly this movement would spread or how thoroughly it would come to dominate the education reform agenda. And few recent debates in education have been as highly charged as those over charter schools' roles, responsibilities, and results.  Chester E. Finn, Jr., Bruno V. Manno, and Brandon L. Wright write that charters have been \"\"spectacularly uneven in many ways, succeeding wonderfully in some cases while faltering in others\"\". They counter the often-oversimplified narrative of the movement's origins, showing how multiple agendas and intentions led to a cacophony of results. The authors highlight some of the key accomplishments of charter schools in serving selected populations while acknowledging the mixed results of the sector as a whole, and identify critical challenges for strengthening the charter sector.  The candor of the authors' analysis and the forthrightness of their concerns offer both allies and opponents valuable insight into the workings of a movement whose influence is indisputable and whose future is far from clear.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50396062941457,"sku":"CIN1612509770G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1612509770.jpg?v=1763484074"},{"product_id":"we-must-take-charge-book-chester-e-finn-jr-9780029102756","title":"We Must Take Charge","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50940950806801,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50940951855377,"sku":"CIN0029102758G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0029102758.jpg?v=1751387733"},{"product_id":"learning-in-the-fast-lane-book-chester-e-finn-jr-jr-9780691216911","title":"Learning in the Fast Lane","description":"The first book to tell the story of the Advanced Placement program—the gold standard for academic rigor in U.S. high schools and beyond  The Advanced Placement program stands as the foremost source of college-level academics for millions of high school students in the United States and beyond. 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This title discusses how these schools work - and their critical role in nurturing the country's brightest students.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51798393553169,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51798393880849,"sku":"CIN0691156670G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780691156675.jpg?v=1752171403"},{"product_id":"charter-schools-in-action-book-chester-e-finn-jr-jr-9780691090085","title":"Charter Schools in Action","description":"Can charter schools save public education? This radical question has unleashed a flood of opinions from Americans struggling with the contentious challenges of education reform. There has been plenty of heat over charter schools and their implications, but, until now, not much light. This important new book supplies plenty of illumination. Charter schools--independently operated public schools of choice--have existed in the United States only since 1992, yet there are already over 1,500 of them. How are they doing? Here prominent education analysts Chester Finn, Bruno Manno, and Gregg Vanourek offer the richest data available on the successes and failures of this exciting but controversial approach to education reform. After studying one hundred schools, interviewing hundreds of participants, surveying thousands more, and analyzing the most current data, they have compiled today's most authoritative, comprehensive explanation and appraisal of the charter phenomenon. Fact-filled, clear-eyed, and hard-hitting, this is the book for anyone concerned about public education and interested in the role of charter schools in its renewal. Can charter schools boost student achievement, drive educational innovation, and develop a new model of accountability for public schools? Where did the idea of charter schools come from? What would the future hold if this phenomenon spreads? These are some of the questions that this book answers. It addresses pupil performance, enrollment patterns, school start-up problems, charges of inequity, and smoldering political battles. It features close-up looks at five real--and very different--charter schools and two school districts that have been deeply affected by the charter movement, including their setbacks and triumphs. After outlining a new model of education accountability and describing how charter schools often lead to community renewal, the authors take the reader on an imaginary tour of a charter-based school system. Charter schools are the most vibrant force in education today. 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