Stealing from the World's Best Schools: What One U.S. Teacher Learned by Visiting Countries that are Doing Education Right

by Keith Ballard, Brooke Staggs (With)

Overview

Why do students in two dozen countries, from China to Canada, continue to outperform American students in math, science and reading? And what does that reality mean for the future of our kids-and our nation? These are questions that drove Milken National Educator award-winning teacher Keith Ballard to become the first documented K-12 teacher to complete a self-funded study of schools in 17 countries that regularly beat us on international exams.

To discover what these places are doing right, he talked his way into meetings with top education officials in Estonia. He slept in his car so he could afford to visit schools in Switzerland, ate lunch in an elementary school cafeteria in Singapore and donned an apron in a home economics class in Finland. He even landed tours of classes in elusive North Korea. Over the course of a decade, he filmed hundreds of hours of video from more than 170 schools. In this thought-provoking tale, he blends firsthand accounts from inside the world's top classrooms, hard data and his own experiences as a public school teacher to explore eight distinct elements of the world's most successful education systems. Ballard advocates for sweeping change. But he also ends each chapter with practical steps every reader-whether you're a parent or a teacher, a student or a policymaker-can take right now to nudge our schools in the right direction and help our students prosper in this hypercompetitive world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798218013233
Publisher:	Camarillo Press
Publication date:	07/09/2022
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Keith Ballard has taught music to thousands of public school students over the past 27 years. To reach middle schoolers in the southern tip of San Diego County, a couple miles from the Mexican border, he introduced mariachi and steel drum programs that sparked performances on The Today Show and in front of two former U.S. presidents. Keith's efforts to infuse lessons about scales and chords with messages about self-esteem and the importance of academics helped him earn more than 25 teaching awards, including the 2003 Milken National Educator Award and 2017 Congressional Outstanding Educator Award.Keith's decade-long quest to study the world's best schools has landed him national TV appearances, a spot on the TEDx Talk stage and a YouTube channel with millions of views. Stealing from the World's Best Schools is his first book.Keith lives in a San Diego suburb with his wife and son, where he stays busy as a certified skydiver, snake wrangler and avid traveler.

Brooke Staggs is a veteran writer, editor and educator. Her work has triggered FBI investigations, landed her appearances on outlets such as ABC and FOX News, and helped her win some of the top journalism awards in the western United States. Brooke got her start teaching high school English, but left in 2006 to be a student again herself, earning a masters degree in journalism from New York University. She's written for dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country. She occasionally teaches writing at a local community college and has previously ghost written three nonfiction books. Stealing from the World's Best Schools is her first credited book.Brooke lives in Southern California with her DJ-husband, Chris, and their much-loved pets. Her freetime is filled with traveling, hiking, reading and scheming about new ways to make the world a better place.

Editorial Reviews

"I taught at-risk children in Compton public schools for four years. This book captures my experiences - as well as my dream that our education system could do so much better. It is pragmatic, unflinching, infuriating and hopeful all at once - offering real solutions rather than pie-in-the-sky bureaucraticese. Far from arcane, the book is entertaining, readable and thought-provoking. You need not be an educator to find it both enjoyable and illuminating."

-Goodreads review

"Mr. Ballard's research, delineation and synthesis of education systems across the globe is presented in very real and very raw truth that should cause us ALL to take up a vigilant charge for change in the United States educational system."

-Lynn M Barker, EdD

"What [Ballard has] done is unprecedented as an educator. I agree ... that the U.S. education system is not giving students what they need and what employers need. I applaud [Ballard for his] mission to improve education in America."

-Mike Rose, late research professor at UCLA

"So, who said one man can't make a difference? This revealing masterpiece proves otherwise."

-Karen Sayward, Boston University

"[Ballard is] the first schoolteacher I have met in the United States who has taken it upon him or herself in a serious way to understand what these countries that are vastly outperforming us are doing and to accept the thought that they might actually have something to teach us. I have spent my life trying to help make teaching a profession, and what [he is] doing is what a real professional in education ought to be doing. So I see [Ballard] as a pioneer."

-Marc Tucker, founder of the National Center on Education and the Economy

"Keith Ballard attacks the myths surrounding 'American exceptionalism' and the myths of American education. ... He gives us workable ideas that improve teachers through emphasis on teacher collegiality, development of higher esteem among teachers, teacher mentorship programs, different work schedules for teachers and more significant involvement in curriculum building. Keith's book provides a genesis for a rebirth of American schools."

-William Frantz, EdD and retired Canadian educational administrator

"This is the medicine many of America's educators don't want to take. Don't blame the messenger for the realistic and honest diagnosis of our educational system."

-Marcus Butler, associate professor in Southern California

From the Publisher