The Big Lies of School Reform provides a critical interruption to the ongoing policy conversations taking place around public education in the United States today.

Paul C. Gorski is an Associate Professor of Integrative Studies, teaching in the Social Justice and Education concentrations, at George Mason University and the founder of EdChange.

Kristien Zenkov is an Associate Professor at George Mason University, where he teaches courses in secondary and literacy education and serves as co-director of the "Through Students' Eyes" project.

Foreword
Kevin Kumashiro

Introduction
Paul C. Gorski & Kristien Zenkov

The Big Picture

1. The Pedagogy of Poverty: The Big Lies About Poor Children
Gloria Ladson-Billings

2. Improving Education and the Mistaken Focus on "Raising Test Scores" and "Closing the Achievement Gap"
Rochelle Gutiérrez

Curriculum and Assessment

3. The Common Core: Engine of Inequity
Anthony Cody

4. Direct Instruction: Effectively Teaching Low-Level Skills
Curt Dudley-Marling

5. Detangling the Lies about English-Only and Bilingual Education
Jim Cummins

6. The Test Does Not Know Best: On Collecting Good Evidence for Student Learning
Deborah Meier

Teachers and Teaching

7. Lying about Teachers and Their Training
Kristien Zenkov"

8. Debunking the Lie that Teachers' Unions Are Bad for Kids
Katy Swalwell

Schools and Policy

9. The Truth about Tracking
Lauren Anderson and Jeannie Oakes

10. Poverty, Economic Inequality, and the Impossible Promise of School Reform
Paul C. Gorski

11. Seeing Students as Humans, Not Products: Why Public Schools Should Not Be Run Like Private Businesses
Wayne Au

12. The Trouble with Federal Turnaround Policies and Their Impact on Low-Scoring Schools
Michelle Renée and Tina Trujillo