Schools Without Failure

Glasser challenges a system built on rote memorization and punitive grading. Drawing on work in public schools, the author outlines concrete proposals to replace tracking with social responsibility and problem solving.

The book highlights practical trials from Los Angeles to Sacramento, detailing circle meetings where children learn to think together. Dr. Glasser bases these recommendations on his direct work with elementary teachers and administrators in California.

• Classroom Meetings: How to lead social-problem-solving, open-ended, and diagnostic discussions that give students an active voice in their own education.
• Student Discipline: A non-punitive framework that replaces lectures and paddling with value judgments and student commitments to realistic plans.
• Grading Alternatives: Techniques for replacing traditional letter marks with diagnostic progress reports and a pass-superior system that prevents early failure.
• Curriculum Relevance: Practical methods for grounding communication skills in everyday student experiences rather than dry, prescribed textbooks.
• Also by This Author: Choice Theory in the Classroom and Quality School.