cover image Poisoned Apple: The Bell-Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure

Poisoned Apple: The Bell-Curve Crisis and How Our Schools Create Mediocrity and Failure

Betty Wallace, William Graves. St. Martin's Press, $22.95 (334pp) ISBN 978-0-312-11876-1

The practice of sorting students by the statistical device known as the ``bell curve'' is attacked here by two education specialists who identify a host of problems associated with the ``Bell-Curve Syndrome's growing list of symptoms.'' Wallace was formerly superintendent of the Vance County School District in North Carolina, where her efforts to establish a more fluid and individualized system were thwarted. With education reporter Graves, she calls for change, citing school districts that are abandoning tracking, eliminating grade levels and attempting alternatives without lowering standards. Vehement about the ``demeaning forces'' of bell-curve ratings, Wallace describes her successes in implementing a non-traditional system of instruction: it emphasized teaching children according to their individual abilities and pleased both students and their teachers, but it threatened the power of a politically cautious school board. Case studies are included in this inspiring report on school reform. (Mar.)