This book discusses how best to instruct students, reviewing and evaluating the many educational reforms and innovations that have been proposed and employed over the past century and comparing achievement rates resulting from traditional, teacher-centered approaches with those resulting from progressive, student-centered methods. Findings indicate that teacher-centered approaches result in higher achievement overall. The book makes a case for basing future education reforms and innovations on a solid empirical foundation. Ten chapters discuss: (1) "Academic Achievement: An American Dilemma"; (2) "Traditional, Teacher-Centered Education versus Progressive, Student-Centered Education"; (3) "Twentieth-Century Trends in Educational Policy: The Shift toward Student-Centered Programs"; (4) "Trends in Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies, 1900 to the 1990s"; (5) "Research on the Overall Effects of Teacher- and Student-Centered Educational Programs"; (6) "Descriptive Studies of Early Educational Experiments"; (7) "Student-Centered Education: From Theory to Practice"; (8) "Socioeconomic and Learning Difference Effects"; (9) "Parents, the Media, and Other Nonschool Educators"; and (10) "Where Do We Go from Here? Conclusions and Recommendations." An appendix discusses key differences between teacher-centered and student-centered instruction. (Contains 178 references and an index.) (SM)