Below C Level: How American Education Encourages Mediocrity - and What We Can Do About It

by John Merrow

All too often in American education, mediocrity pays. Efforts to reform and improve schools will continue to fail until that fundamental problem is addressed. Below C Level provides a road map for success from a veteran PBS and NPR reporter. According to John Merrow, these changes won't be easy, but our country has no choice if we wish to remain a competitive democracy. John Merrow has been reporting on education for 35 years. In this collection of provocative essays, covering teaching and learning from preschool to prisons, he describes the challenges facing our nation and offers thoughtful analysis and solutions.

Genres: Nonfiction

443 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2010

About the author

John Merrow began his career as an education reporter with National Public Radio nearly 40 years ago with the weekly series, Options in Education, for which he received the George Polk Award in 1982. He is currently Education Correspondent for PBS NewsHour and President of Learning Matters, an independent production company based in New York City.

An occasional contributor to USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Education Week, Merrow is also the author of The Influence of Teachers: Reflections on Teaching and Leadership (2011), Choosing Excellence (2001), and co-editor of Declining by Degrees (2005).

Merrow earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in American Studies from Indiana University, and a doctorate in Education and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He received the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education in 2012, a Lifetime Achievement Award From the Academy Of Education Arts And Sciences in 2012, the James L. Fisher Award for Distinguished Service to Education in 2000, the HGSE Alumni Council Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education in 2006, The Horace Dutton Taft Medal in 2010, and honorary doctorates from Richard Stockton College (NJ) and Paul Smith’s College (NY).

He lives in New York City with his wife, Joan Lonergan, the Head of the Hewitt School.

John Merrow also maintains a weekly blog, Taking Note.