"Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures offers concrete lessons to school reformers, policymakers, and classroom teachers about the value and effectiveness of different approaches to teaching writing. For U.S. educators, the British experience provides cogent reasons for rethinking the adoption of a "high stakes" national examination on the British model - a model Freedman found detrimental to learning. At the same time, the book highlights British educational policies and structures that could improve instruction in U.S. schools. British teachers, for instance, can aspire to positions of leadership and increasing responsibility within their schools, while professional opportunities for U.S. teachers generally take them away from their schools to share their expertise elsewhere. In observing the varied classrooms in both countries, Freedman looks anew at Vygotsky's and Bakhtin's theories of social interaction and their implications for learning, and she explores ways to meet the needs of all students when classes are not tracked by ability level." "Freedman's cross-cultural comparison stimulates us to envision new possibilities for our familiar school organizations in order to reshape our urban schools into institutions of high-quality education for all students."--BOOK JACKET.