Powerful Reforms with Shallow Roots : Improving America's Urban Schools

by Cuban, Larry; Usdan, Michael D.

• ISBN13: 9780807742938
• ISBN10: 0807742937
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

Drastic reform measures are being implemented in growing numbers of urban communities as the public's patience has finally run out with perpetually nonperforming public schools. This authoritative and eye-opening volume examines governance changes in six cities during the 1990s, where either mayoral control of schools has occurred or where noneducators have been appointed to lead school districts. Featuring up-close, in-depth case studies of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, San Diego, and Seattle, this book explores the reasons why these cities chose to alter their traditional school governance structures and analyzes what happened when the reforms were implemented and whether or not teachers and students performed better because of them.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Elizabeth L. Hale
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: Learning From the Past	1	(15)
Larry Cuban
Michael Usdan
The Businessman's Educator: Mayoral Takeover and Nontraditional Leadership in Chicago	16	(22)
Dorothy Shipps
Boston: The Stars Finally in Alignment	38	(16)
Michael Usdan
Larry Cuban
A Vision of Hope: A Case Study of Seattle's Two Nontraditional Superintendents	54	(23)
Gary Yee
Barbara McCloud
Fast and Top-Down: Systemic Reform and Student Achievement in San Diego City Schools	77	(19)
Larry Cuban
Michael Usdan
A Tall Order for Philadelphia's New Approach to School Governance: Heal the Political Rifts, Close the Budget Gap, and Improve the Schools	96	(29)
William Lowe Boyd
Jolley Bruce Christman
The City-State Partnership to Reform Baltimore's Public Schools	125	(22)
James G. Cibulka
What Happened in the Six Cities?	147	(24)
Larry Cuban
Michael Usdan
About the Contributors	171	(2)
Index	173