Academic
Can We Measure What Matters Most? Why Educational Accountability Metrics Lower Student Learning and Demoralize Teachers
“J. M. Beach provides a devastatingly effective analysis of the accountability metrics that have wrought so much havoc in the American system of schooling. The accountability pandemic is now a global phenomenon, pushed by governments around the world. As Beach shows, the problems with this system are legion. He makes the case for why accountability metrics are the problem, not the solution.”
David F. Labaree, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University. He is author of How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning, Someone Has to Fail, and A Perfect Mess.
The Myths of Measurement and Meritocracy: Why Accountability Metrics in Higher Education Are Unfair and Increase Inequality
“Beach argues that the accountability movement, which has already done so much damage to American public schools, is now coming after higher education as well, and he shows that this effort is not only based on faulty measures but also promises to lay waste to a system that is the envy of the world.”
David F. Labaree, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University. He is author of How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning, Someone Has to Fail, and A Perfect Mess.
How Do You Know? The Epistomological Foundations of 21st Century Literacy (2017)
"The ability to learn and reason is badly taught in our public schools, and deserves a radical upgrade. The pathway for this crucial improvement is clearly marked out in Beach’s How Do You Know?"
Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
"Beach outlines the kind of curriculum that has long been needed to clarify the mysteries of intellectual culture, a culture that otherwise will remain a secret society reserved for the few. It won’t help students much to learn masses of factual information unless they learn "how to use" that information, which for Beach (drawing on the important work of psychologist Deanna Kuhn) means being able to use what they know to make arguments, which includes assessing the arguments of others. This argument literacy lies at the core of Beach’s proposed critical thinking curriculum for the 21st century, and nobody I know has said all this better than has Josh Beach in this book."
Gerald Graff, Emeritus Professor of English and Education, University of Illinois at Chicago, and 2008 President, Modern Language Association of America
"A giant step towards a comprehensive theory of literacy that would help to explain its role in the shaping of mind and society."
David R. Olson, University Professor Emeritus, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Gateway to Opportunity? A History of the Community College in the United States
“This book not only raises important questions about the educational practices and effectiveness of community colleges historically, it also provides detailed analyses and case studies that should inform policy debates and decision-making in the twenty-first century. Educators, researchers, administrators, and government officials concerned about the future of community colleges, and U.S. higher education in general, cannot afford to ignore J. M. Beach’s findings and conclusions” -- V.P. Franklin, University of California Presidential Chair, Distinguished Professor of History and Education, University of California, Riverside Published On: 2010-10-01
“Josh Beach expertly uses the lens of history to provide a penetrating and insightful account, examining the challenges facing community colleges. Some will find this an uncomfortable read, but all will find it thought provoking. Its detailed history and analysis of community colleges is not used to reinforce their current practices, but opens up the ‘long conversation’ and demands in us a reconsideration of what they might be." -- Martin Jephcote, Cardiff University School of Social Sciences (UK) Published On: 2010-10-01
“Josh Beach is a courageous visionary among those who seriously consider the community college and its place within the larger U.S. system of higher education. This book reflects both his critical nature and the boldness he brings to analyses of higher education. It paves new ground for re-envisioning the community college and the larger educational system of which it is such a critically important element.” -- Robert Rhoads, professor of Higher Education and Organizational Change at UCLA. Published On: 2010-07-01
"Josh Beach’s Gateway to Opportunity does a fine job of outlining the dilemmas that community colleges face now, and the dilemmas that colleges as well as historians and policy-makers need to chew over. It asks us all to think long and hard about the educational institutions we create, and why they seem so contradictory. I like to think that faculty and administrators could use this book to forge workable proposals and solutions." -- W. Norton Grubb, David Gardner Chair in Higher Education
Children Dying Inside
Academic Capitalism in China
The Paradox of Progressivism
Studies in Ideology
Studies in Poetry