Exam Schools

Chester E. Finn, Jr. is a former assistant US secretary of education, currently president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford (Hoover Institution). Jessica A. Hockett is an education consultant. They have produced a well-written book designed to educate general readers about selective public high schools. These schools teach limited numbers of students selected from large, competitive application pools. They often offer specialized instruction, focusing on math and science, or the arts; many of their teachers have MFA or PhD degrees; they are geared to prepare students for college; many focus their curriculum around the Advanced Placement (AP) test system. In these ways, they match stereotypes about private schools. However, they are public schools. Students do not have to live in the district, but applicants are public-school students, and do not pay private-school fees. The authors carefully debunk a number of stereotypes about these "exam schools," through profiles of eleven selective public high schools around the country. They show, for instance, that such schools are racially diverse, their curricula vary, and they are as likely to be founded to serve student groups that have been ignored or disenfranchised as to serve a community's aristocracy. Though the book argues such schools are the best available solution to public education, the authors are also willing to define shortcomings. The clearest criticism is that while who attends is set entirely by the school's admission tests and policy, the contents of these tests and policies is rarely questioned. The book looks at similarities and differences in all the schools profiled; the similarities include an intense work ethic for principals, teachers, and students, community pride in the school, that the schools profiled are relatively new, and that using incentives helps students do well. The final section offers transparency: questions about what is the best schooling solution asked from several different perspectives, the survey questions the authors used with the sample schools, the criteria by which the schools were selected, and notes on each school profiled. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Chester E. Finn, Jr. is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A former assistant U.S. secretary of education, he is the author of many books, including "Charter Schools in Action" and "Troublemaker" (both Princeton). Jessica A. Hockett is an education consultant specializing in differentiated instruction, curriculum design, and lesson study. She earned her doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Virginia.