Excellent
What Rizga learned is worth sharing
Her advice should have been taken by Booker, Christie, Anderson, Zuckerberg, and the other Newark reformers.”Diane Ravitch, The New York Review of Books
"Rizga delves deep into what is not often shown or known: what's working. She pulls back the curtain on test scores, painting a vivid picture of what a low-scoring, highly successful school looks like and why test scores shouldn't matter as much as they do."San Francisco Chronicle
“Mother Jones education reporter Rizga delivers a firsthand report on a 'failing' school system
this skills-based model represents a shift in thinking that could very well establish a shift in results.”Kirkus Reviews
“Recommended for parents, teachers, and administrators concerned with the problems in our educational system and looking for fresh ideas on how to fix it. Rizga is convinced that Mission High has found answers others can learn from, and she makes a compelling argument.”Library Journal
"This book is a godsend. For years we at 826 Valencia have known how great Mission High isits students, its teachers, its myriad innovationsand we've told everyone we could. Now Kristina Rizga has put it all together in a highly readable and moving portrait of a school that succeeds despite being often misconstrued or mislabeled or even dismissed. There is joy in the hallways of Mission High and daily academic triumph at Mission High, and this book explains how this extraordinary school gets it done. This book is a crucial primer for anyone wanting to go beyond the simplistic labels and metrics and really understand an urban high school and its highly individual, resilient, eager and brilliant students and educators." Dave Eggers, co-founder, 826 National and ScholarMatch
"An intimate look at how an alternative, progressive approach to education works...Accessible and thoroughly researched, Rizga's book covers a brief history of America's education reform and the path to high-stakes testing, and weaves in profiles of Mission's students and faculty. These profiles form the heart of the book, showing students who find community and success (even if not measurable by a multiple-choice test), teachers who provide encouragement, personalized instruction and more meaningful assessments, and a principal who refuses to 'teach to the test.'"BookPage
"A thoughtful, well-researched account of her time [at Mission High], using it as a case study to explore the problems with education reform in the U.S. ...In clear and cogent prose, Rizga makes a compelling case for allowing schools to direct their own learning. Mission High is both a breath of fresh air and an inspirational, practical model for struggling education communities around the country."Shelf Awareness, Starred Review
“Kristina Rizga writes for those of us weary of trendy ed reform dispensed from on high. Instead, she listens hard to the students and teachers who must deal with their daily consequences. Andwith rigor, common sense, and empathyshe tells of the teachers and students confronting shifting tides of reform and profoundly stacked odds, and succeeding. The Mission High that Rizga describes is a beacon, and her deeply textured, heartbreakingly humane book also shines a beautifully clarifying light.” Jeff Chang, author of Who We Be: The Colorization of America and Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
"In Mission High, Kristina Rizga embeds at a San Francisco public school to show the high standards, professionalismand even lovethat belie the easy label of "failing school." A much-needed corrective to an education debate that often fails to ask how students and teachers experience reform on the ground." Dana Goldstein, author of The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession
“A clear-eyed, evidence-based, and wonderfully fresh understanding of what education ‘reform' truly means.” Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the The Nation
06/15/2015
Rizga, a reporter for Mother Jones, spent four years observing and reporting on the state of the American educational system from Mission High School in San Francisco. On the basis of its poor standardized test scores, Mission High was labeled a low-performing school, but Rizga found a school that was dramatically successful. The student body comprises 950 students from more than 40 countries, 75 percent of whom are low income and only 38 percent for whom English is their first language. By focusing on the stories of Mission High teachers, students, and the principal there, the author personalizes what might otherwise have been a very dry text. She joins Anya Kamenetz (The Test) and other voices protesting our current obsession with standardized testing and arguing instead for focusing on teaching suited to the unique needs of each school. VERDICT Recommended for parents, teachers, and administrators concerned with the problems in our educational system and looking for fresh ideas on how to fix it. Rizga is convinced that Mission High has found answers others can learn from, and she makes a compelling argument.—Elizabeth Safford, Nevins Memorial Lib., Methuen, MA
2015-05-16
Embedded with teachers on the front lines of education, Mother Jones education reporter Rizga delivers a firsthand report on a "failing" school system. Whether your stance is that the American school system needs more accountability through standardized testing or you see such data-driven restrictions as harmful to actual education, the reality is somewhere in between. Rizga accepted an assignment to go behind the scenes at Mission High School in San Francisco—though it's more appropriate to say that she fought to go behind the scenes. Schools are notorious for stonewalling reporters, in part because there are minors to protect and in part because the full story never really gets told. This was decidedly not the case for Rizga, who was allowed in for eight months and ended up staying for four years. The author's extended stretch enabled her to not only get an in-depth look at the effects of emphasizing the importance of individual student test scores, but to also essentially "follow" a group of students as they made their way through their high school years. This, Rizga asserts, enabled her to get a sense of what works and what doesn't over a period of time that defied easy answers, the elusive "silver bullets" of education reform. This assertion holds up under scrutiny. Rizga introduces us to students from a range of backgrounds, dealing with common (and less common) stressors and finding their ways through the system. Mission High's educators struggle to balance the Common Core requirements with a forward-thinking approach that evaluates students on how they apply the skills being taught—much like adults are evaluated in the workplace. For a country that uses standardized testing more than any other in the world, this skills-based model represents a shift in thinking that could very well establish a shift in results.