"A troubling portrait of the deeply embedded and corrosive attitudes and expectations that students encounter even in America's most favored elite secondary schools."

--Theodore R. Sizer, Brown University

"The book raises disturbing questions about the kind of 'high standards' we are pushing for in our schools. It should inform any discussion of what it means to be an educated person in the 21st century."

--Edward B. Fiske, former Education Editor of the New York Times

"A powerful, well-written book. It is deeply affecting (and not a little worrisome) to read the stories of these high school students struggling to achieve high grades and recognition."

--Nel Noddings, Stanford University

"Presented with great clarity and enlivened by vignettes of student life, this work provides a fresh perspective on the state of American education and yet another reason to press for systematic reform."

--Publishers Weekly

"A powerful, well-written book. It is deeply affecting (and not a little worrisome) to read the stories of these high school students struggling to achieve high grades and recognition."

--Nel Noddings, Stanford University

"Doing School gives us a penetrating view of how students cope with the pressures of schooling. Just how they cope should concern all who want from education substantially more than the superficial accommodation that even high achieving students display. Pope's book should be read by policymakers at all levels of education."

--Elliot W. Eisner, Lee Jacks Professor of Education and Professor of Art, Stanford University

"In a book about a high school's best and brightest students, Denise Pope has captured the texture of their harried daily lives. These academically successful students describe a boot camp for college filled with anxiety, physical exhaustion, cheating, and a disregard for learning. They have mastered the game of 'doing school' and pay a steep price for their success. Reformers dead set on making all students academically successful need to hear these students' voices."

--Larry Cuban, Professor of Education at Stanford University

"Doing School is a loud wake-up call about the disconnect between what our best high schools and colleges say they are all about and the pressure they put on students. The book raises disturbing questions about the kind of 'high standards' we are pushing for in our schools. It should inform any discussion of what it means to be an educated person in the 21st century."

--Edward B. Fiske, Editor, The Fiske Guide to Colleges, former Education Editor of the New York Times

"A scholarly study presented with great clarity and enlivened by vignettes of student life, this work provides a fresh perspective on the state of American education, and yet another reason to press for systematic reform."

--Publishers Weekly

"A revealing look at the quandaries of today's high school students. . . . An essential purchase for high school, college, and university libraries and one strongly recommended for public libraries where interest in education is strong."

--Library Journal

Yale University Press Web Site, May, 2003

This book offers a revealing--and troubling--view of today's high school students and the ways they pursue high grades and success. Veteran teacher Denise Pope follows five highly regarded students through a school year and discovers that these young people believe getting ahead requires manipulating the system, scheming, lying, and cheating.