"Small, personalized schools staffed by highly trained teachers. Longterm relationships between teachers and students. A coherent curriculum organized for conceptual understanding. These features of Cuba's educational system sound like the list of reforms that are constantly being urged in the United States. This powerful book describes the policy system that has created one of the most effective and equitable school systems in the Americas, and provides vivid observations of schools and classrooms that illustrate how it works. Everyone interested improving education should read this book." Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University
"Martin Carnoy is able to pierce the mystery of how economically impoverished Cuba academically outperforms the rest of Latin America. His results provide valuable insights to those who are preoccupied with raising student achievement in the United States." Henry M. Levin, Teachers Collège, Columbia University In this book, Martin Carnoy explores the surprising success of the Cuban educational system, where the average elementary school student learns much more than her Latin American peers. In developing the case for Cuba's supportive social context and centralized management of education, Carnoy asks important questions about educational systems in general. How responsible should government be for creating environments that encourage académic achievement? How much autonomy should teachers and schools have over their classrooms? Is there an inherent tradeoff between promoting individuel choice and a better system of schooling? Cuba's Academic Advantage challenges many prevailing views about the effectiveness of educational markets, school and teacher autonomy, decentralized decision making, and government responsibility for children's social and economic welfare. Drawing on interviews with teachers, principals, and policymakers, as well as hours of videotaped material taken in more than 30 classrooms, this book brings new evidence to bear on controversial educational issues currently under debate in many countries. MARTIN CARNOY is Professor of Education and Economics at Stanford University. He is the author of All Else Equal: Are Private and Public Schools Différent? (2002), Sustaining the New Economy: Work, Family, and Community in the Information Age (2000), and Faded Dreams: The Economics and Politics of Race in America (1994). Stanford University Press |
