Tony Wagner - The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need—and What We Can Do About It

Praise for

The Global Achievement Gap

The Global Achievement Gap is thoughtful and inspirational. It describes how, in these changing times, schools too must change if the U.S. is to remain a strong economic and intellectual leader in the world, and it offers creative solutions and examples of success. This book will capture your head, your heart, and, I hope, your future actions. This is a very important book for anyone who cares about preparing young people for success in a rapidly changing global society. Every school board member, administrator, teacher, and parent in the nation should read this book.

ANNE L. BRYANT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION

The Global Achievement Gap is a must read for all policymakers as Congress continues its debate on how best to reform the No Child Left Behind law with a measure of flexibility, and where the thin line between performing and failing must be more about competing in this global world than simply about passing a standardized test. Its time to stop harping on whats wrong with our schools and instead provide them with the toolsas author Tony Wagner eloquently lays outthat they need to produce competitive, connective, technologically proficient, hopeful young men and women ready to take on the challenges of a global economy and succeed.

U.S. SENATOR DANIEL K. INOUYE

Tony Wagner takes us deep inside the black box of school curriculum in a way few authors have done. What do we mean by rigor? By 21st century skills? Wagner shows us concretely what thinking skills really are, how current approaches to raising standards cannot get us there, and what will. Everyone concerned with American education should read this book.

LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND, CHARLES E. DUCOMMUN PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Tony Wagner has managed to penetrate the jargon and over-simplified responses to the pervasive underachievement that exists among our students. He has charted an important new direction and given us a way to get there. This book deserves to be powerfully influential.

MEL LEVINE, AUTHOR OF A MIND AT A TIME

Tony Wagner argues persuasively that old ways of teaching are completely unsuited to new ways of working. The Global Achievement Gap should be grabbed by business leaders to guide a much-needed conversation with educators.

ROSABETH MOSS KANTER, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR AND AUTHOR OF AMERICA THE PRINCIPLED AND CONFIDENCE

In Change Leadership, Tony Wagner challenged my assumptions about the new skills instructional leaders must acquire to improve the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms. In his latest book, he continues to challenge my assumptions about the survival skills our students must acquire if they are to be prepared for creating solutions and resolving issues in the global society of the 21st century. This book is a must read for the change agents in public education. Wagner presents a compelling case for rapid and urgent change in the present American education system.

BETTY BURKS, DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT, SAN ANTONIO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

The Global Achievement Gap is a lucidand scarybook. It chronicles how policies that intend to improve our schools are actually shutting down their abilities to help students learn how to think. Parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers urgently need to understand what Wagner is telling us.

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN, PROFESSOR, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL, AND AUTHOR OF DISRUPTING CLASS

In The Global Achievement Gap, Tony Wagner offers a thoughtful analysis of where we are in American public education (behind the times), and what we need to do to adapt to the future that is upon us. Drawing upon years of accumulated wisdom as a teacher, principal, trainer, and well-traveled observer of schools, Wagner builds a persuasive case for change in the way we approach schooling, grounded in the question: what does it mean to be an educated person in the 21st century?

DR. RICHARD C. ATKINSON, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

School as we know it all too often does not engage students, teachers or leaders in the learning process and as a result we have a generation of students learning to do school rather than learning the skills they really need to succeed. Tony Wagner makes a strong case for rethinking our entire approach to education and his argument is persuasive.

LARRY STUPSKI, CHAIRMAN, STUPSKI FOUNDATION

This insightful book calls for a much needed dialogue between educators, business leaders and policymakers on the future of American education. By using many real-life examples, the book is a very readable starting point for that discussion.

CHARLES FADEL, GLOBAL LEAD FOR EDUCATION, CISCO

Kudos to Tony Wagner.... Many people have been cursing the darkness of our education system, but by breaking down the many dilemmas that students, teachers, and parents face as well as examining different approaches that have been successful, Wagner lights a candle for those who want to help but dont know where to start. Whether we can transition through these exciting and perilous times will depend upon the culture we leave our young people. Tony Wagner has provided a map.

JOHN ABELE, FOUNDING CHAIRMAN, BOSTON SCIENTIFIC, AND BOARD CHAIR, FIRST

This important book is a wake-up call for America. For over fifty years, our schools have stayed the same, while the world has changed dramatically. Students memorize academic content, and study for standardized tests, but they never learn how to think, solve problems, or be creative. Wagners stories about the few remarkable schools that are transforming classroom instruction and pointing the way to the future are compelling. Every parent, teacher, politician, and executive should read this book.

KEITH SAWYER, AUTHOR OF GROUP GENIUS

The Global Achievement Gap offers a simple, readable, intelligent, and compelling analysis of the needs of our schools and the ways to address them.

DR. ARTHUR E. LEVINE, PRESIDENT, THE WOODROW WILSON NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP FOUNDATION

Its always an occasion for delight when Tony Wagner writes a new book. Hes done it again by provoking us to think about the reasons behind the current furor over school achievement.

DEBORAH MEIER, AUTHOR OF THE POWER OF THEIR IDEAS

Tony Wagner addresses the most pressing strategic issue facing the United States in the 21st centurycan Americans adapt their culture and improve their education system to rise to the challenge of global economic competition on a unprecedented scale?

BOB COMPTON, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, TWO MILLION MINUTES: A GLOBAL EXAMINATION

Copyright 2008 by Tony Wagner

Afterword 2010 by Tony Wagner

Five Years Later 2014 by Tony Wagner