Hugging the Middle―How Teachers Teach in an Era of Testing and Accountability

''I know of nobody who does the 'long view' of educational reform better than Larry Cuban, and this text exemplifies this more than ever. For those genuinely interested in sustainable rather than superficial reform, this is required reading.''

-- Ciaran Sugrue, University of Cambridge, UK


Larry Cuban's How Teachers Taught has been widely acclaimed as a pathbreaking text on the history and evolution of classroom teaching. Now Cuban brings his great experience as a classroom teacher, superintendent, and researcher to this highly anticipated follow-up to his groundbreaking work. Focusing on three diverse school districts (Arlington, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; Oakland, California), Hugging the Middle offers an incisive portrayal of how teachers teach now. It is a revealing look at a range of current, workable pedagogical options educators are using to engage students while satisfying parents and policymakers -- options that succeed by creating hybrid practices that combine both teacher-centered approaches (e.g., mostly direct instruction, textbooks, lectures) with student-centered ones (e.g., team projects on real-world problems, independent learning, small-groupwork).


A state-of-the-profession assessment in this era of top-down educational policy, Hugging the Middle:

* Brings Larry Cuban's years of experience and keen historian's eye to an analysis of teaching today.

* Looks at teachers' continuing adaptations to standards-based education reform and the No Child Left Behind Act.

* Compares classroom practices in a cross-section of U.S. urban schools.

* Gauges the impact of technology (or lack thereof) in the contemporary classroom.