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Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through "No Excuses" Teaching Kindle Edition

by Jim Horn (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
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This book explores the ideological contexts for the creation and spread of “No Excuses” charter schools. In so doing, Work Hard, Be Hard focuses closely on the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter school chain as the most prominent exemplar for total compliance “No Excuses” schooling. By way of in-depth interviews, former teachers offer accounts of their “No Excuses” teaching experiences that have not been heard before and that are not likely to be forgotten soon.

Work Hard, Be Hard also examines the KIPP organization as a manifestation of modern education reform exemplified in the convergence of neoliberal politics and the aggressive activities of the business and philanthropic communities. As an important corollary to the total compliance charter phenomenon, the book explores, too, the role of Teach for America in supplying the needed manpower and values components required to deal with very high levels of teacher attrition in these schools.

Work Hard, Be Hard goes beyond accounts offered in news features, articles, and interviews that focus on “No Excuses” charters’ high test scores and expanded college opportunities for economically disadvantaged children. In short, the book offers a naturalistic antidote to the high profile gloss that mass media provides for “No Excuses” schooling.

Work Hard, Be Hard examines new developments in “No Excuses” schooling that focus on psychological interventions aimed to alter children’s neurological and behavioral schemas in order to affect socio-cultural values and behaviors. Fraught with potential for abuse and misapplication by minimally trained teachers, these cult-like practices are examined and contrasted with more humane strategies that hope to reawaken the virtues of teaching and learning within the expansive confines of the sciences and arts of a truly humane pedagogy.

This book will:
  • Function as a common reader for parent groups or individuals interested in understanding the inner workings and impacts of “no excuses” charter schools;
  • Serve as a text for education students for courses in pedagogy, social and cultural foundations of education, education policy, and politics of education;
  • Provide deeper appreciation of social, political, and economic issues and incentives associated with total compliance charter schools;
  • Help to ameliorate an absence of teacher perspectives on teaching in “No Excuses” charter schools;
  • Assist the general public in understanding the ideological and economic agendas that drive support of total compliance charter schools;
  • Help to educate policy makers and their staffs in cultural and economic facets of corporate education reform that are relevant to political decisions regarding education policy.
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  1. ISBN-13
    978-1475825794
  2. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  3. Publisher
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
  4. Publication date
    February 18, 2016
  5. Language
    English
  6. File size
    1606 KB
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Jim Horn's new book "Work Hard,Be Hard: Journeys Through 'No Excuses' Teaching" should be required reading in every school district in the nation. Horn provides a devastating portrait of how what is essentially a Sweatshop model of schooling for children of color attracted huge support from philanthropists-many of whose own companies profited from Sweatshop labor- along with elected officials in both parties. That a model that depends so heavily on intimidation and behavior modification, for teachers as well as students, has become a model, not only for charter schools, but public schools, reflects a society where the prerogatives of great wealth have overpowered humanity, common sense and our best understanding of child development. Those who romanticize this "results driven" model need to come to grips not only with Horn's portrait of what it means to teach and learn in such a school, but his analysis of the antecedents of this model in post civil war industrial education. That we as a society have invested so heavily in institutionalized educational abuse for the children of the poor is damning enough; that we now want to spread it to all public school children suggest what a grim future is in store for most of our population if current economic trends continue! Every school board, superintendent, and principal who extoll the "No Excuses" model or promotes a pedagogy that sees test results as the sole criteria of achievement and learning a should be required to read this book. We are heading down a path that is crushing joy and creativity among more and more of our young people, and driving the best teachers out of the profession. --Mark Naison, Professor of African and African American Studies, Fordham University

About the Author

Jim Horn is Professor of Educational Leadership at Cambridge College, and he has published widely on education issues related to policy, theory, research, and politics. With co-author, Denise Wilburn, he published The Mismeasure of Education in 2013.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01CWGUDTC
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (February 18, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 18, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1606 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 276 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

About the author

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Jim Horn

Jim Horn

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Jim Horn holds a PhD in Social Foundations of Education. He has published and presented widely in both popular and scholarly venues on social justice issues in education, education reform and accountability, and educational theory and learning in relation to complexity.

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
8 global ratings
No Excuses is an Excuse not to Value Students Culture
5 Stars
No Excuses is an Excuse not to Value Students Culture
Jim Horn provides a necessary view for prospective students, unsuspecting parents, education and community advocates and policy makers of the inside the deleterious "no excuses" charter school model. The author led me to research other works that confirm that these school systems operate under a conservative and cultural deficit model that is the ideological impetus for charters, particularly predominantly White-led charter schools and CMO's that advocate this approach for so-called "high-poverty", "low income", "urban" students. This book is an invaluable critique that can move serious and committed educators towards being progressive and understanding students culture as a strength not as a deficit and teachers themselves wanting to improve their instruction and connections with students not through harsh measures but with learning and implementing cultural responsive teaching.Mr. Mshinda Nyofu, M.S.Ed.D studentFielding Graduate University
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Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars No Excuses is an Excuse not to Value Students Culture
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2017
Verified Purchase
Jim Horn provides a necessary view for prospective students, unsuspecting parents, education and community advocates and policy makers of the inside the deleterious "no excuses" charter school model. The author led me to research other works that confirm that these school systems operate under a conservative and cultural deficit model that is the ideological impetus for charters, particularly predominantly White-led charter schools and CMO's that advocate this approach for so-called "high-poverty", "low income", "urban" students. This book is an invaluable critique that can move serious and committed educators towards being progressive and understanding students culture as a strength not as a deficit and teachers themselves wanting to improve their instruction and connections with students not through harsh measures but with learning and implementing cultural responsive teaching.

Mr. Mshinda Nyofu, M.S.
Ed.D student
Fielding Graduate University
Customer image
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars No Excuses is an Excuse not to Value Students Culture
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2017
Jim Horn provides a necessary view for prospective students, unsuspecting parents, education and community advocates and policy makers of the inside the deleterious "no excuses" charter school model. The author led me to research other works that confirm that these school systems operate under a conservative and cultural deficit model that is the ideological impetus for charters, particularly predominantly White-led charter schools and CMO's that advocate this approach for so-called "high-poverty", "low income", "urban" students. This book is an invaluable critique that can move serious and committed educators towards being progressive and understanding students culture as a strength not as a deficit and teachers themselves wanting to improve their instruction and connections with students not through harsh measures but with learning and implementing cultural responsive teaching.

Mr. Mshinda Nyofu, M.S.
Ed.D student
Fielding Graduate University
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2 people found this helpful
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Alex Brofsky
5.0 out of 5 stars The truth about charter schools
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2016
Verified Purchase
Horn brilliantly and empirically shows how charter "chain gangs" are part of the corporate destruction of our democracy. His dystopian Vision is harsh but absolutely correct. A must read
3 people found this helpful
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Terri Harris
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2017
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Everyone should read this book and understand what charter schools are really about.
2 people found this helpful
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Rich
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2016
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Awesome experience
2 people found this helpful
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patricia
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for exceptional insight into the world of ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2017
A must read for exceptional insight into the world of charter schools, and politics behind charter school education. This book exposes charter schools, bringing light to a subject that is in the dark.
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avid reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2017
As a former non-teaching employee I can tell you this is spot on.
2 people found this helpful
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