PRAISE FOR Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?

"This book unmasks the error of our policy makers' obsession with test scores and their misguided determination to get higher scores than Shanghai. Yong Zhao explains why the pursuit of higher test scores is an unworthy goal, both for China and the United States, because it is essentially authoritarian and crushes creativity and fresh thinking." --DIANE RAVITCH, research professor of education, New York University, bestselling author, The Death and Life of the Great American School System and Reign of Error

"Zhao's startling and masterful account is the best book ever written about China's schools today. He exposes sloppy thinking on the part of people like me who thought the Confucian principles still at the core of Asian culture were all that were needed to push China and other East Asian countries far ahead of the rest of the world in school achievement. This is an irresistible story of both China's weaknesses and ours, and how the two countries could make each other better if we conquered our mutual ignorance." --JAY MATHEWS, Washington Post education columnist, author, Work Hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America

"This book is an important message to shake up the illusions we have about schooling in the East and the West. It shows how obsession to top the international education league tables is leading both the United States. and China away from what they should do instead: to prepare all their students to find their talents and to live good lives. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? is a masterpiece that only Yong Zhao could have written." --PASI SAHLBERG, visiting professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education, author, Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland?