‘When the nation has a cold, the schools sneeze’: Larry Cuban on how to make schools better

Larry Cuban, emeritus professor of education at Stanford, challenges the belief that schools are stuck in the past. (Photo: Andy — Larry Cuban, emeritus professor of education at Stanford, challenges the belief that schools are stuck in the past. (Photo: Noah Jacquemin/Flickr Creative Commons)

‘When the nation has a cold, the schools sneeze’: Larry Cuban on how to make schools better

History offers many lessons for school reform advocates today, Stanford scholar says.

July 31, 2017

It might seem like American schools today are much as they were a few generations ago. But that’s hardly the case, says Larry Cuban, emeritus professor of education at Stanford and a leading scholar on the history of school reform.

“Schools do change,” said Cuban. “Just not at the pace nor toward the ends that many reformers want.”

In this episode of School’s In, Cuban joined Graduate School of Education Dean Dan Schwartz and Senior Lecturer Denise Pope to talk about how schools have changed over the years, what it takes to make change happen and why it can be so difficult.

One problem, he said, is that those calling for reform often have varying educational ideals. “Reformers have a vision of how schools ought to be, and how teachers ought to teach, and how kids ought to learn,” he said. “Those visions compete with one another.”

Listen from the link below, and find more episodes of School's In at the Stanford Radio main page. The show airs Saturdays on SiriusXM Insight Channel 121.