Free delivery on all orders above RM80 to Malaysia
Get 10% off all year round! Join Thryft Club

Your cart

Your cart is empty

Check out these collections!

Bestselling Fiction
Bestselling Nonfiction
Bestselling Books for Children
Vintage and Rare Books
Vinyl Records
Women's Clothing
Men's Clothing

Stay in touch and win free books

Keep up with our latest sales and events, and receive
recommendations direct to your inbox. We'll only send the good stuff, promise!

By completing this form, you are signing up to receive our emails and can unsubscribe at any time

Someone Has to Fail : The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling

Compare to estimated retail price: RM185.00 MYR  

The item you've got your eye on is secondhand. You probably already know that, but just in case!

The estimated retail price shown next to any listed item represents the first-hand prices we've seen elsewhere, or the estimated original retail price of a comparable item of the same quality, construction and material offered elsewhere in new condition.

Someone Has to Fail : The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling - Thryft
Someone Has to Fail : The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling - Thryft

Educational dysfunction explained: Someone Has to Fail

This book is a must-read for educators and policy-makers alike. Labaree delves into the historical roots of the American education system, unearthing the reasons for its many dysfunctions and contradictions. The book provides a comprehensive overview of how the system is organized, how it works, and why it's so hard to change. It is especially useful for understanding why schools fail to live up to the promises made by politicians and educators.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

Someone Has to Fail : The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling

Compare to estimated retail price: RM185.00 MYR  

The item you've got your eye on is secondhand. You probably already know that, but just in case!

The estimated retail price shown next to any listed item represents the first-hand prices we've seen elsewhere, or the estimated original retail price of a comparable item of the same quality, construction and material offered elsewhere in new condition.

Condition guide

Book Condition Guide

Books in Like New Condition

This book may contain very minor cosmetic defects, but it is in pristine condition. There should be no yellowing, no foxing, no water damage, and no annotations of any kind on the cover and the pages. For paperbacks, there should not be any crease marks on the spine. This book is good as new — lucky you!

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Very Good Condition

This book has been used, but it is still in a clean condition. There should be no foxing or annotations of any kind on the inner pages, but a sparse amount may be present on the cover, title pages, or outside edges of the book. There should be no water damage of any kind. For paperbacks, there may be light crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Good Condition

We do our best to ensure the quality of our books, but there is no escaping the wear and tear that comes with time. Slight foxing and some annotations may be present on the pages and the cover. There should be no water damage of any kind. For paperbacks, there may be several crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Well Read Condition

This is a well-read book, which means that the previous owner probably really enjoyed it! The cover and pages may include moderate foxing and annotations, but the text is not obscured and still readable. Moderate cosmetic defects and minor water damage may be present on the edges of the book. For paperbacks, there may be multiple crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

 

Find out more about our process here.

Save 10% On This Item as a Thryft Club Member

Join Thryft Club for S$30/year and enjoy 10% off everything, plus S$10 off your first order. Join now →

ISBN: 9780674063860
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Date of Publication: 2012-04-02
Format: Paperback
Goodreads rating: 3.89
(rated by 185 readers)

Description

What do we really want from schools? Only everything, in all its contradictions. Most of all, we want access and opportunity for all children-but all possible advantages for our own. So argues historian David Labaree in this provocative look at the way "this archetype of dysfunction works so well at what we want it to do even as it evades what we explicitly ask it to do."

Ever since the common school movement of the nineteenth century, mass schooling has been seen as an essential solution to great social problems. Yet as wave after wave of reform movements have shown, schools are extremely difficult to change. Labaree shows how the very organization of the locally controlled, administratively limited school system makes reform difficult.

At the same time, he argues, the choices of educational consumers have always overwhelmed top-down efforts at school reform. Individual families seek to use schools for their own purposes-to pursue social opportunity, if they need it, and to preserve social advantage, if they have it. In principle, we want the best for all children. In practice, we want the best for our own.

Provocative, unflinching, wry, Someone Has to Fail looks at the way that unintended consequences of consumer choices have created an extraordinarily resilient educational system, perpetually expanding, perpetually unequal, constantly being reformed, and never changing much.


Author: David F. Labaree
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 312
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication Date: 02 May 2012
 

Educational dysfunction explained: Someone Has to Fail

This book is a must-read for educators and policy-makers alike. Labaree delves into the historical roots of the American education system, unearthing the reasons for its many dysfunctions and contradictions. The book provides a comprehensive overview of how the system is organized, how it works, and why it's so hard to change. It is especially useful for understanding why schools fail to live up to the promises made by politicians and educators.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.