Description
Book SynopsisWallowing in Mediocrity: Or Rising Above the Dismal State of Education provides a comprehensive comparative look at educational programs in several key countries across the globe. The myriad advantages of these countries' programs are counterpoised to the many fault lines in education as practiced in the United States. To offset these problematic areas, this book takes a critical look at how the United States could rectify the many problems associated with its system of education, especially concerning inefficient and unsustainable practices at the secondary and postsecondary levels.
Examples include the lack of universally-accepted parameters for admission to most schools of higher education; the lack of exit exams from both secondary and post-secondary schools; the illogical repetition of propaedeutic courses the first two years at the university; the misdirection of community colleges, forcing them to make up for the shortfall of too many students not prepared for acceptanc
Trade Review
Goldstein summarizes and analyzes educational systems in European and other countries to offer solutions to many of the problems of the U.S. post-secondary system. His book explains how our current fragmented approaches generate students who are under-prepared and poorly trained yet become mired in debt.
-- Ronald E. Rice, professor and Arthur N. Rupe Chair in the Social Effects of Mass Communication, Department of Communication, University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
SECTION I. Wallowing in Mediocrity: The Problem with the US Education System
Chapter 1. Problems Besetting Both Secondary and Higher Education
Chapter 2. Higher Education: Inefficiency Redefined (An Overview of the Multifaceted Problems Endemic to the United States)
SECTION II. A Possible Paradigm: Detailed Description of Higher Education in Select Countries Throughout the World
Chapter 3. How Standards are Implemented in Most Advanced Successful Global Education Systems: How Advanced Countries in Europe and Asia Provide a More Meaningful Educational Platform at All Levels, But Especially Post-Secondary
Chapter 4. How All This Plays Out in Advanced Effective Programs Across the Globe
SECTION III. Best Practices: How the United States can Emulate Countries with Effective Programs
Chapter 5. Adopting and Implementing the Best Practices and Methods used in Effective Educational Programs Across the Globe
Chapter 6. A Meaningful Role for the Community College
Chapter 7. Accommodating Those Interested in Working for Industry and/or the Government
Chapter 8. Regulating through Meaningful Legislation
Chapter 9. Making College Affordable
SECTION IV. Conclusion: Positive Moments to be Realized in Creating Meaningful Degrees
Chapter 10. In Retrospect: Creating Meaningful Degrees
Bibliography
About the Author
