Harvard Graduate School of Education

Reviews of Toward Excellence with Equity:

from Diverse: Issues in Higher Education:

“While many educators, policymakers and citizens remain bogged down in debates over who is responsible for causing and for wiping out differences in educational achievement, Ronald F. Ferguson calls on all of us to do something. He envisions a new ‘movement’ focused on better results for all students — and not just because it would benefit Blacks and Hispanics, but also because it is good for the country. ‘Working to raise achievement levels for all segments of the population is a key to keeping America strong and vital,’ he writes in the introduction.”
—excerpt from book review in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, October 2008

from Education Book Reviews:

“The reader of Toward Excellence with Equity will gain much insight concerning the gap between the academic achievement of black and white students in America's public school but can gain that knowledge without a concluding sense of guilt. Ferguson somehow manages to present the facts, numbers, and his own philosophies concerning this racial divide without insinuation of blame toward any one group of people. His focus on the success of our nation as the ultimate goal for education and society guides his writing from the beginning to the end of this book.”
—excerpt from book review in Education Book Reviews

from Education Next:

“The volume provides an illuminating and alarming tour of today’s racial gaps (white-black, mainly, but also white-Hispanic) and the many factors that feed them.”
—excerpt from book review in Education Next, Summer 2008

from Book News Inc.:

“Ferguson (founder of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard U.) considers the factors that create racial disparity in academic performance in American schools and suggests reforms in the eight essays collected here, some previously published in journals. One essay evaluates the success of six popular proposals for closing the black-white achievement gap.”
—excerpt from book review in Book News Inc., May 2008

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