Best Reviews of the 21st Century

Really? Some excellent reviews have been published in Education Review in its more than 25-year history. These may not be the absolute “Best,” but they are very good — reviews of good scholarship that rise to the level of good scholarship themselves. In the opinion of the Education Review editors, these reviews deserve a second look.

2000

• Ravitch, Diane. (1996) National Standards in American Education: A Citizen's Guide. An essay review by Michael W. Apple, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
• The Dance of Alienation and the Politics of Invitation or What Does Love Have to Do With It? An essay review of Macedo, Donaldo and Bartolome, Lilia I. (1999) Dancing with Bigotry: Beyond the Politics of Tolerance by Donald S. Blumenfeld-Jones, Arizona State University 

2001

• Chomsky, Noam. (2000) Chomsky on MisEducation. An essay review by Michael W. Apple, University of Wisconsin, Madison.   
• Welner, Kevin (2001).  Legal Rights, Local Wrongs: When Community Control Collides with Educational Equity.  Reviewed by Eric Haas.

2002

• Tse, Lucy (2001) "Why Don't They Learn English?" Separating Fact from Fallacy in the U.S. Language Debate. An essay review by Wayne E. Wright, Purdue University.

2003

• Chubb, John E. & Loveless, Tom (Eds.) (2002) Bridging the Achievement Gap . An essay review by Patrick McQuillan, Boston College.

2004

• Spillane, James P. (2004) Standards deviation: How schools misunderstand education policy. Reviewed by Adam Lefstein, King's College, London

2005

• Academia and Activism. An essay review by Gary L. Anderson, New York University, of Anyon, Jean (2005) Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and a New Social Movement.

2006

• Bees and Foxes, Spiders and Hedgehogs, an essay review by Pieter Vanhuysse, University of Haifa, of Murray, Michael (Editor) (2002) A Jacques Barzun Reader: Selections from his Works, and Gould, Stephen Jay (2004) The Hedgehog, The Fox, and the Magister's Pox.

2007

• Black Intellectual Genocide, an essay review by Girma Berhanu Goteborg University Sweden of Lynn & Vamhanen (2002) IQ and the Wealth of Nations 
• NAEP, Report Cards and Education, an essay review by Robert E. Stake, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign of Jones, Lyle V. & Olkin, Ingram (Eds.) (2004) The Nation's Report Card: Evolution and Perspectives.

2008

• The University at the End of the Last Century, an essay review by Amy Childress & A.G. Rud, Purdue University, of Frank, David John & Jay Gabler (2006) Reconstructing the university: Worldwide shifts in academia in the 20th century and Levine, Donald N.(2006) Powers of the mind: The reinvention of liberal learning in America .

2009

• Gresson's Race and Education, an essay review by Erik L. Malewski, Purdue University, of Aaron David Gresson III (2009) Race and Education.
• Social Studies in the Postmodern World, an essay review by Ashwani Kumar, University of British Columbia, of Segall, Avner; Heilman, Elizabeth E. & Cherryholmes, Cleo H. (Eds.) (2006) Social Studies--The Next Generation: Re-searching in the Postmodern.
• The KULT of KIPP, an essay review by Jim Horn, Cambridge College, of Jay Mathews (2008) Work Hard, Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America.

2010

• Celebrating a Successful and Practical Contribution to the Theory of Intelligence, an essay review by Keith S.Taber, University of Cambridge, of Kaufman, J. C., & Grigorenko, E. L. (Eds.) (2009) The Essential Sternberg: Essays on intelligence, psychology and education.
• The Death and Life of Market-Based Reform, an essay review by Sherman Dorn, University of South Florida, of Ravitch, Diane (2010) The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

2011

• Policy for the Poor and Poor Education Policy, an essay review by Michael W. Apple, University of Wisconsin, Madison, of Raffo, Carlo; Dyson, Alan; Gunter, Helen; Hall, Dave; Jones, Lisa & Kalambouka, Afroditi (Eds). (2010) Education and Poverty in Affluent Countries.
• The Question of Cosmopolitanism, an essay review by Hannah Spector, University of British Columbia, of Pinar, William. (2009) The Worldliness of a Cosmopolitan Education: Passionate Lives in Public Service and Todd, Sharon. (2009) Toward an Imperfect Education: Facing Humanity, Rethinking Cosmopolitanism and Nava, Mica. (2007). Visceral Cosmopolitanism .

2012

• The War on Inequality, Global Inferiority & Low Standards: Common Core State Standards, an essay review by William J. Mathis, University of Colorado Boulder, of Robert Rothman (2011) Something in Common: The Common Core State Standards.

2013

• Freire in Theory and Practice, an essay review by Rebecca Tarlau University of California, Berkeley, of Kirylo, James D. (2011) Paulo Freire: The Man from Recife.
• Being Clear and Speaking Back, an essay review by Michael W. Apple, University of Wisconsin, Madison, of Katz, Michael B. & Rose, Mike (Eds.) (2013) Public Education Under Siege.

2014

• Unmasking the Reformers, an essay review by Connie Schaffer, University of Nebraska Omaha, of Ravitch, Diane (2013) Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools.

2015

• Lubienski, C. A., & Lubienski, S. T. (2014). The public school advantage: Why public schools outperform private schools. Reviewed by Amanda U. Potterton, University of Kentucky.
• Gross, Z., & Stevick, E. D. (Eds.) (2015) As the witnesses fall silent: 21st Century holocaust education in curriculum, policy, and practice. Reviewed by A. G. Rud, Washington State University.

2016

• Race, Affirmative Action, and Higher Education: Brazil and the United States, an essay review by Rebecca Tarlau, Stanford University, of Dowd, A. C., & Bensimon, E. M. (2015) Engaging the "Race Question" and Johnson, O. A. I., & Heringer, R. (Eds.) (2015) Race, Politics, and Education in Brazil.
• Do the Right (Dirty, Pretty) Thing! an essay review by William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago, of Lind, Georg (2016) How to teach morality: Promoting deliberation and discussion, reducing violence and deceit.

2017

• O'Neil, C. (2016) Weapons of math destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. Reviewed by Francis Schrag, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

2018

• Koretz, Daniel (2017) The testing charade: Pretending to make schools better. Reviewed by Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Arizona State University.
• Cuban, Larry (2018) The flight of the butterfly or the path of a bullet: Using technology to transform teaching and learning. Reviewed by John Willinsky, Stanford University.

2019

• Rooks, N. M. (2017) Cutting school: Privatization, segregation, and the end of public education. Reviewed by Diane Ravitch, New York University.

2020

• Guavas, S. M., & Gee, E. G. (2018) Land-grant universities for the future: Higher education for the common good. Reviewed by Ryan Korstange, Middle Tennessee State University.
• United States, Homeschooling, Democracy, and Regulation, an essay review by Michael W. Apple, Beijing Normal University, University of Wisconsin, Madison of Peters, S. F., & Dwyer, J. G. (2019) Homeschooling: The history and philosophy of a controversial practice.

2021

• Is Democratic and Just Schooling Possible? An essay review by Laura E. Hernandez, Learning Policy Institute, and Tina M. Trujillo, University of California, Berkeley, of Horsford, S. D., Scott, J. T., & Anderson, G. L. (2018) The politics of education policy in an era of inequality and Anderson, G. L., and Cohen, M. I. (2018) The new democratic professional in education.

2022

• Berliner, David C., & Hermanns, Carl (Eds.) (2021) Public education: Defending a cornerstone of American democracy. Reviewed by Jed Woods Hayes and Joel R. Malin, Miami University.
• Howley, C., & Redding, S. (Eds.) (2021) Cultivating rural education: A people-focused approach for states. Reviewed by Stephen J. Handel, ECMC Foundation.

2023

• Ginsberg, R., & Zhao, Yong (2023) Duck and cover: Confronting and correcting dubious practices in education. Reviewed by Paul Shaker, Simon Fraser University.
• Wagner, P. A.,& Fair, F. (2022) The personality of math: A key to learning and teaching math. Reviewed by David Fowler, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

2024

• Bob Stake (2024) Measuring Education: Memoir. A video review by Michael Quinn Patton.
• Roth, M. S. (2023) The student: A short history. Reviewed by Stefan van der Hoek, Protestant University of Rhineland-Westfalia-Lippe.