Download or read book Charting Chicago School Reform written by Anthony Bryk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1989, Chicago began an experiment with radical decentralization of power and authority. Intertwining extensive narratives and rigorous quantitative analyses, this book tells the story of what happened to Chicagos elementary schools in the first four years of this reform. }In 1989, Chicago began an experiment with radical decentralization of power and authority. This book tells the story of what happened to Chicagos elementary schools in the first four years of this reform. Implicit in this reform is the theory that expanded local democratic participation would stimulate organizational change within schools, which in turn would foster improved teaching and learning. Using this theory as a framework, the authors marshal massive quantitative and qualitative data to examine how the reform actually unfolded at the school level.With longitudinal case study data on 22 schools, survey responses from principals and teachers in 269 schools, and supplementary system-wide administrative data, the authors identify four types of school politics: strong democracy, consolidated principal power, maintenance, and adversarial. In addition, they classify school change efforts as either systemic or unfocused. Bringing these strands together, the authors determine that, in about a third of the schools, expanded local democratic participation served as a strong lever for introducing systemic change focused on improved instruction. Finally, case studies of six actively restructuring schools illustrate how under decentralization the principals role is recast, social support for change can grow, and ideas and information from external sources are brought to bear on school change initiatives. Few studies intertwine so completely extensive narratives and rigorous quantitative analyses. The result is a complex picture of the Chicago reform that joins the politics of local control to school change.This volume is intended for scholars in the fields of urban education, public policy, sociology of education, anthropology of education, and politics of education. Comprehensive and descriptive, it is an engaging text for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Local, state, and federal policymakers who are concerned with urban education will find new and insightful material. The book should be on reading lists and in professional development seminars for school principals who want to garner community support for change and for school community leaders who want more responsive local institutions. Finally, educators, administrators, and activists in Chicago will appreciate this detailed analysis of the early years of reform.

Download or read book Reinterpreting Urban School Reform written by Louis F. Miron and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have urban schools failed, or has reform failed urban schools? This book examines existing urban school programs, ranging from desegregation to reading improvement, in light of available historical, empirical, and case study evidence. Miron and St. John and their contributors probe the underlying theoretical, normative, and political assumptions embedded in specific reform initiatives. They explore how reforms might be reconstructed to better address the underlying challenges and they demonstrate that reforms can be constructively critiqued throughout the stages of implementation, arguing that greater attention should be paid to ethnic and cultural traditions within urban educational settings. Contributors include Leetta Allen-Haynes; Joseph Cadray; Choong-Geun Chung; Richard Fossey; Barry M. Franklin; David Gordon; Carol Anne Hossler; Siri Loescher; Kim Manoil; Genevieve Manset; Louis F. Mirón; Glenda Droogsma Musoba; Kathryn Nakagawa; Carolyn S. Ridenour; Ada B. Simmons; Edward P. St. John; Neil Theobald; Sandra Washburn; Kenneth K. Wong; and Kim Worthington.

Download or read book Structuring Inequality written by Tracy L. Steffes and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2024-04-12 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How inequality was forged, fought over, and forgotten through public policy in metropolitan Chicago. As in many American metropolitan areas, inequality in Chicagoland is visible in its neighborhoods. These inequalities are not inevitable, however. They have been constructed and deepened by public policies around housing, schooling, taxation, and local governance, including hidden state government policies. In Structuring Inequality, historian Tracy L. Steffes shows how metropolitan inequality in Chicagoland was structured, contested, and naturalized over time even as reformers tried to change it through school desegregation, affordable housing, and property tax reform. While these efforts had modest successes in the city and the suburbs, reformers faced significant resistance and counter-mobilization from affluent suburbanites, real estate developers, and other defenders of the status quo who defended inequality and reshaped the policy conversation about it. Grounded in comprehensive archival research and policy analysis, Structuring Inequality examines the history of Chicagoland’s established systems of inequality and provides perspective on the inequality we live with today.

Download or read book A Political Education written by Elizabeth Todd-Breland and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2018-10-03 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2012, Chicago's school year began with the city's first teachers' strike in a quarter century and ended with the largest mass closure of public schools in U.S. history. On one side, a union leader and veteran black woman educator drew upon organizing strategies from black and Latinx communities to demand increased school resources. On the other side, the mayor, backed by the Obama administration, argued that only corporate-style education reform could set the struggling school system aright. The stark differences in positions resonated nationally, challenging the long-standing alliance between teachers' unions and the Democratic Party. Elizabeth Todd-Breland recovers the hidden history underlying this battle. She tells the story of black education reformers' community-based strategies to improve education beginning during the 1960s, as support for desegregation transformed into community control, experimental schooling models that pre-dated charter schools, and black teachers' challenges to a newly assertive teachers' union. This book reveals how these strategies collided with the burgeoning neoliberal educational apparatus during the late twentieth century, laying bare ruptures and enduring tensions between the politics of black achievement, urban inequality, and U.S. democracy.

Download or read book American School Reform written by Joseph P. McDonald and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dissecting twenty years of educational politics in our nation’s largest cities, American School Reform offers one of the clearest assessments of school reform as it has played out in our recent history. Joseph P. McDonald and his colleagues evaluate the half-billion-dollar Annenberg Challenge—launched in 1994—alongside other large-scale reform efforts that have taken place in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay Area. They look deeply at what school reform really is, how it works, how it fails, and what differences it can make nonetheless. McDonald and his colleagues lay out several interrelated ideas in what they call a theory of action space. Frequently education policy gets so ambitious that implementing it becomes a near impossibility. Action space, however, is what takes shape when talented educators, leaders, and reformers guide the social capital of civic leaders and the financial capital of governments, foundations, corporations, and other backers toward true results. Exploring these extraordinary collaborations through their lifespans and their influences on future efforts, the authors provide political hope—that reform efforts can work, and that our schools can be made better.

Download or read book Restructuring Public Schooling Europe Canada America written by Rodney J. Reed, Fons van Wieringen, Stephen Lawton and published by Waxmann Verlag. This book was released on with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers an overview of educational restructuring, its aims and possibilities in the European and North American context. A conceptual analysis of educational policy systems and development in both continents is provided and empirical cases are presented within this framework. Overviews are given of the national stage in Canada. from several countries.

Download or read book The Politics of School Reform 1870 1940 written by Paul E. Peterson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1985-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was school reform in the decades following the Civil War an upper-middle-class effort to maintain control of the schools? Was public education simply a vehicle used by Protestant elites to impose their cultural ideas upon recalcitrant immigrants? In The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940, Paul E. Peterson challenges such standard, revisionist interpretations of American educational history. Urban public schools, he argues, were part of a politically pluralistic society. Their growth—both in political power and in sheer numbers—had as much to do with the demands and influence of trade unions, immigrant groups, and the public more generally as it did with the actions of social and economic elites. Drawing upon rarely examined archival data, Peterson demonstrates that widespread public backing for the common school existed in Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco. He finds little evidence of systematic discrimination against white immigrants, at least with respect to classroom crowding and teaching assignments. Instead, his research uncovers solid trade union and other working-class support for compulsory education, adequate school financing, and curricular modernization. Urban reformers campaigned assiduously for fiscally sound, politically strong public schools. Often they had at least as much support from trade unionists as from business elites. In fact it was the business-backed machine politicians—from San Francisco's William Buckley to Chicago's Edward Kelly—who deprived the schools of funds. At a time when public schools are being subjected to searching criticism and when new educational ideas are gaining political support, The Politics of School Reform, 1870-1940 is a timely reminder of the strength and breadth of those groups that have always supported "free" public schools.

Download or read book School Restructuring Chicago Style written by G. Alfred Hess and published by . This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Realizing Educational Rights written by Anne Newman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Realizing Educational Rights, Anne Newman examines two educational rights questions that arise at the intersection of political theory, educational policy, and law: What is the place of a right to education in a participatory democracy, and how can we realize this right in the United States? Tracking these questions across both philosophical and pragmatic terrain, she addresses urgent moral and political questions, offering a rare, double-pronged look at educational justice in a democratic society. Newman argues that an adequate K–12 education is the right of all citizens, as a matter of equality, and emphasizes that this right must be shielded from the sway of partisan and majoritarian policy making far more than it currently is. She then examines how educational rights are realized in our current democratic structure, offering two case studies of leading types of rights-based activism: school finance litigation on the state level and the mobilization of citizens through community-based organizations. Bringing these case studies together with rich philosophical analysis, Realizing Educational Rights advances understanding of the relationships among moral and legal rights, education reform, and democratic politics.

Download or read book Improvement by Design written by David K. Cohen and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-12-06 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the great challenges now facing education reformers in the United States is how to devise a consistent and intelligent framework for instruction that will work across the nation’s notoriously fragmented and politically conflicted school systems. Various programs have tried to do that, but only a few have succeeded. Improvement by Design looks at three different programs, seeking to understand why two of them—America’s Choice and Success for All—worked, and why the third—Accelerated Schools Project—did not. The authors identify four critical puzzles that the successful programs were able to solve: design, implementation, improvement, and sustainability. Pinpointing the specific solutions that clearly improved instruction, they identify the key elements that all successful reform programs share. Offering urgently needed guidance for state and local school systems as they attempt to respond to future reform proposals, Improvement by Design gets America one step closer to truly successful education systems.

Download or read book The New Politics Of Race And Gender written by Catherine Marshall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-11-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can schools do to eliminate sexism and racism? By the 1990's with shifting demographics, disillusionment with conventional liberal policies and new political coalitions, the politics of race and gender requires new analyses. The chapters in this book demonstrate how the politics of race and gender enter into proposals for parental choice, business involvement in schools, definitions of good leadership, special schools for minority children, curriculum debates, and debates about testing and accountability. Catherine Marshall provides the political historical context of race and gender politics in schools, and the following eighteen chapters provide a greater in-depth analysis. The chapters include work of scholars and policy analysts focusing on policy and policy implementation at all levels of school politics in the US, Australia and Israel. The book ends with critical policy analysis, raising deep theoretical questions and pulling out the chronic race and gender issues in education politics.

Download or read book Teachers and Reform written by John F. Lyons and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on archival as well as rich interview material, John F. Lyons examines the role of Chicago public schoolteachers and their union, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), in shaping the policies and practices of public education in Chicago from 1937 to 1970. From the union's formation in 1937 until the 1960s, the CTU was the largest and most influential teachers' union in the country, operating in the nation's second largest school system. Although all Chicago public schoolteachers were committed to such bread-and-butter demands as higher salaries, many teachers also sought a more rigorous reform of the school system through calls for better working conditions, greater classroom autonomy, more funding for education, and the end of political control of the schools. Using political action, public relations campaigns, and community alliances, the CTU successfully raised members' salaries and benefits, increased school budgets, influenced school curricula, and campaigned for greater equality for women within the Chicago public education system. Examining teachers' unions and public education from the bottom up, Lyons shows how teachers' unions helped to shape one of the largest public education systems in the nation. Taking into consideration the larger political context, such as World War II, the McCarthy era, and the civil rights movements of the 1960s, this study analyzes how the teachers' attempts to improve their working lives and the quality of the Chicago public school system were constrained by internal divisions over race and gender as well as external disputes between the CTU and the school administration, state and local politicians, and powerful business and civic organizations. Because of the obstacles they faced and the decisions they made, unionized teachers left many problems unresolved, but they effected changes to public education and to local politics that still benefit Chicago teachers and the public today.

Download or read book Changing Urban Education written by Clarence Nathan Stone and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With critical issues like desegregation and funding facing our schools, dissatisfaction with public education has reached a new high. Teachers decry inadequate resources while critics claim educators are more concerned with job security than effective teaching. Though urban education has reached crisis proportions, contending players have difficulty agreeing on a common program of action. This book tells why. Changing Urban Education confronts the prevailing naivete in school reform by examining the factors that shape, reinforce, or undermine reform efforts. Edited by one of the nation's leading urban scholars, it examines forces for change and resistance in urban education and proposes that the barrier to reform can only be overcome by understanding how schools fit into the broader political contexts of their cities. Much of the problem with our schools lies with the reluctance of educators to recognize the profoundly political character of public education. The contributors show how urban political contexts vary widely with factors like racial composition, the role of the teachers' union, and relations between cities and surrounding metropolitan areas. Presenting case studies of original field research in Baltimore, Chicago, Houston, and six other urban areas, they consider how resistance to desegregation and the concentration of the poor in central urban areas affect education, and they suggest how cities can build support for reform through the involvement of business and other community players. By demonstrating the complex interrelationship between urban education and politics, this book shows schools to be not just places for educating children, but also major employers and large spenders of tax dollars. It also introduces the concept of civic capacity—the ability of educators and non-educators to work together on common goals—and suggests that this key issue must be addressed before education can be improved. Changing Urban Education makes it clear to educators that the outcome of reform efforts depends heavily on their political context as it reminds political scientists that education is a major part of the urban mix. While its prognosis is not entirely optimistic, it sets forth important guidelines that cannot be ignored if our schools are to successfully prepare children for the future.

Download or read book Opportunity Lost written by Marcus D. Pohlmann and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Opportunity Lost, Marcus D. Pohlmann examines the troubling issue of why Memphis city school students are underperforming at alarming rates. His provocative interdisciplinary analysis, combining both history and social science, examines the events before and after desegregation, compares a city school to an affluent suburban school to pinpoint imbalances, and offers critical assessments of various educational reforms. In addition to his analysis of the problems, Pohlmann lays out educational reforms that run the gamut from early intervention and parental involvement to increasing teacher compensation, improving time utilization, and more. Pohlmann?s illuminating and original study has wide application for a problem that bedevils inner-city children everywhere and prevents the promise of equality from reaching all of our nation?s citizens. -- Book cover.

Download or read book Interest Groups and Education Reform written by Veronica Donahue DiConti and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1996 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1980s, the education policy agenda proceeded from a consensus reached by politicians, the business community and educators to restructure the nation's public schools as a way to improve student achievement. This book begins with a critical examination of the impact of interest groups on American education since the inception of the first school system. Two restructuring proposals became extremely popular in the reform debate but stemmed from different premises about the best way to restructure the schools. The first, Public School Choice, centers on the idea that students should have the right to exit their assigned schools and attend a school of their choice. Schools would then be forced to improve because they would have to compete in the marketplace of students. The second proposal, School-Based Management, looks at the merits of strengthening the mechanism of voice for parents, students and teachers in the management of their neighborhood school. Those involved in the education process assess the needs, resources and development of local schools. Through two case studies, Minnesota and Baltimore City, the efforts and intentions of reformers demonstrate the abiility of interest groups to capture and define the purpose of a public institution at the state and local level.

Download or read book Jsl Vol 2 N3 written by JOURNAL OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1992-05-01 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Journal of School Leadership is broadening the conversation about schools and leadership and is currently accepting manuscripts. We welcome manuscripts based on cutting-edge research from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological orientations. The editorial team is particularly interested in working with international authors, authors from traditionally marginalized populations, and in work that is relevant to practitioners around the world. Growing numbers of educators and professors look to the six bimonthly issues to: deal with problems directly related to contemporary school leadership practice teach courses on school leadership and policy use as a quality reference in writing articles about school leadership and improvement.

Download or read book Schools With Heart written by Daniel Brown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-28 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Schools with Heart , Brown explores voluntarism by using original data gathered from 185 interviews with public school principals, teachers, and volunteers, many of whom worked in schools known for their volunteer programs. Supplementing these data from other studies, this careful inquiry finds that volunteers offer much to schools. School volun