Letters

To the Editor:

In the fall, 2019 issue of Academic Questions I engaged in a dialogue with professor James V. Shuls following his review of my 2018 book Changing the Course of Failure: How Schools and Parents Can Help Low-Achieving Students (“A Dangerous Belief “). Prof. Shuls was roundly critical of my recommendation to expand the role of the federal government in the lives of the most seriously low-performing students. I’d like to offer further context to that discussion.

My purpose in writing Changing the Course of Failurewas “to help policy makers to understand that massive adolescent underachievement is a social problem, one that has not been solved by our educational institutions in over 50 years.” One can only wish that Shuls had understood that “thinking outside the box” (my conclusion about what we needed to do) in this