Can you recommend a good review article or similar that gives an overview of the state-of-the-art in terms of education research? I am somewhat interested.
Equality and Achievement: An Introduction to the Sociology of Education (2nd Edition) - Similar to the above, but focusing on equality-related differences (e.g. SES, class size, etc.) as mediating variables for achievement.
Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement - Research on variables effecting achievement. The only book in this list I haven't read yet, but it's slightly newer that the Riordan book above and it has good reviews so it's probably worth checking out. IIRC tokenadult recommends it also. The only caveat is I'm not sure how it deals with the research that Ravitch is critiquing, so maybe read it after that one.
Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children - Basically a book-length academic journal article on why the amount of language spoken to children is the most important variable effecting their later academic ability. A very good read.
Life and Death of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch -- Exposing the fraudulent nature of the research behind Bill Gates' education reforms. The second half of the book is especially good, the first half is mostly about the history of failed school reforms by corporate leaders, which is interesting but kind of dry. Not only is it a must-read, but it's also very much worth going through all the footnotes and reading through the actual methodology of all the studies she's talking about. It's pretty ridiculous, and pretty much exposes Bill Gates as a complete mouth breather.
Anyway reading any of these books will be pretty much like dropping acid; you're going to come back a different person, probably for the better, but don't ask me to predict how.
Diane Ravitch is the person who thinks a high school diploma is credible even if the possessor of the diploma doesn't know beginning algebra. Her argument is that she, a professor of history, was not required to know algebra in her generation (I would hope she at least took a course in the subject as part of secondary education), so it's asking too much that young people in the United States ought to be able to pass test that includes algebra item content as part of graduating from high school. Having seen countries that do otherwise in secondary education from how the United States does things, I have to respectfully disagree with Ravitch on that point and on many other points.
