Ineptitude, Conformity, and Obfuscation

Dr. Richard J. Giordano worked for over twenty five years in public education as a teacher and secondary school principal. Having left the public schools, he developed a unique educational program, that to help university student-athletes maintain good academic grade point averages while competing in sports. Beginning with football players at Indiana University and the University of Notre Dame, his “Making up Crap” learning heuristic was later employed to help both male and female athletes at other universities in a variety of sports. His work with student-athletes resulted in his first book: Super-Charged Learning: How Wacky Thinking and Sports Psychology Make It Happen. www.superchargedlearning.com. Dr. Giordano resides in Colorado. He is a frequent guest on the Rush to Reason radio show in Denver, speaking to the cultural and educational issues that impact the public schools in Colorado and around the nation. He can be reached by e-mail at: drgioman@q.com

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1: The Way We Were: A Brief History of Schooling and Teacher EvaluationEarly HistoryChapter 2: Teacher Classroom EvaluationChapter 3: The Way We Are: The Current State of Teacher EvaluationChapter 4: The Way We Can Be: Toward Better Teacher EvaluationChapter 5: Leadership in Public EducationConclusionAbout the Author

This is my kind of book. As an experienced educator, I resonate with the author’s assertions, with his documentation, and with his suggested solutions. Yes, the book is about evaluation, but more importantly it is about leadership in education. Giordano writes with an informal, entertaining, yet clear and decisive style that takes on current educational orthodoxies of permissiveness, nonjudgementalism, and “school climate” based cultures. Some of his conclusions may seem obvious while others are very insightful. All make the reader think and be challenged to action. This should be required reading in all educational leadership programs.