Preface 1 Introduction: A Nation at Risk or a Nation in Denial? 2 Bad Students, Not Bad Schools 3 Motivating Students or You Can Take a Horse to Water and Make a Dehydrated Equine Feel Better about Herself 4 Closing the Racial Gap in Academic Achievement 5 The "War" on Academic Excellence 6 The Museum of Failed Educational Reforms 7 Business-like Solutions to Academic Insufficiency 8 The Alluring Choice Solution or Why Educating Students Is Not Manufacturing Cheap Flat Screen TVs 9 Reforming Education Is the New Great Society and Why Fixing Schools May Well Subvert the Social Peace 10 Hope? Works Cited Index