The book addresses the essential issues in education: how best to instruct our students. It compares achievement rates that result from traditional, instruction-based approaches with those resulting from progressive methods.

This book addresses one of the most essential issues in discusses the many educational reforms and innovations that have been proposed and employed over the past century, and explains why almost all of these reforms have failed. The book compares achievement rates that result from traditional , instruction-based approaches with those resulting from progressive , student-centred methods. Chall argues that instruction-based approaches result in higher achievement overall, with particular benefits for children of lower socioeconomic status and those with learning difficulties.

Adams, Foreword. Academic Achievement: An American Dilemma. Traditional, Teacher-Centered Education versus Progressive, Student-Centered Education. Twentieth-Century
Trends in Educational Policy: The Shift toward Student-Centered Programs. Trends in Specific Areas of the Curriculum: Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies, 1900 to the 1990s. Research on the Overall Effects of Teacher- and Students -Centered Educational Programs. Research Studies of Early Educational Experiments. Student-Centered Education: From Theory to Practice. Socioeconomic and Learning Difference Effects. Parents, the Media, and other Nonschool Educators. Where Do We Go from Here? Conclusions and Recommendations. Appendix: Key Differences between Teacher-Centered and Student-Centered Instruction.