"As we try to make sure that no child gets left behind, are we keeping others from getting ahead? Or, as Chester Finn and Jessica Hockett put it in Exam Schools: 'As the country strives to ... close its wide achievement gaps [and] repair its bad schools ... is it also challenging its high achieving and highly motivated students?' This isn't an easy question to answer... The information they do collect is helpful."--Naomi Schaefer Riley, Wall Street Journal "As we strive to offer better educations to all students, Exam Schools takes the important first steps toward illuminating an option that may eventually have resonance for our public school system as a whole."--Rachael Brown, New Republic "A cogent exploration of the struggle to balance equity and excellence in America's most academically selective public high schools... A fact-driven, clear text that will be of interest to educators as well as parents of students at selective public high schools."--Kirkus Reviews "Could, and should ... academically selective public high schools play a more expansive role in educating the nation's high-potential, high-achieving students[?] These are some of the questions that longtime education pundit Checker Finn, joined by educational consultant Jessica Hockett, set out to answer in their book."--Erik Robelen, Education Week "[E]ye-opening."--Jay Mathews, Washington Post "The subject is one of serious interest to colleges and universities because many of their best-prepared and motivated applicants come from these schools. These are schools and students college admissions officers and professors will want to know about."--Peter Cohee, National Association of Scholars "[T]his book raised important new questions and illuminated largely unknown facts... Finn and Hockett have done something rare in public policy debates: They've raised new issues."--Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post "If you are interested in giving your child or children a superior education, this book is a must-read."--Nano Khilnani, Biz India
"Looking at America's most selective public high schools, Exam Schools determines what ingredients are necessary for developing an outstanding secondary school in a public context. Giving us reasons to believe that education reform is possible, this illuminating book will restore optimism, help us find a direction, and chart our course. Anyone who cares about American education should read it."—Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, author of Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Education
"This engaging book investigates the important but woefully understudied phenomenon of academically selective public high schools in the United States. Given that there is virtually no systematic research available on this topic, Exam Schools fills a critical gap."—Martin West, Harvard University