Excellence for All

Jack Schneider

Description

By the early twentyfirst century, a startling consensus had emerged about the overall aim of American school reform. In an era of political discord, and in a field historically known for contentiousness, the notion of promoting educational excellence for all students was a distinct point of bipartisan agreement. Shaped by a corps of entrepreneurial reformers intent on finding "what works" and taking it to scale, this hybrid vision won over the nation's most ambitious and wellresourced policy leaders at foundations and nonprofits, in state and federal government, and in urban school districts from coast to coast.

"Excellence for all" might, at first glance, appear to be nothing more than a rhetorical flourish. Who, after all, would oppose the idea of a great education for every student? Yet it is hardly a throwaway phrase. Rather, it represents a surprising fusion of educational policy approaches that had been in tense opposition throughout the twentieth centurythose on the right favoring social efficiency, and those on the left supporting social justice.

This book seeks to understand why the "excellence for all" vision took hold at the time it did, unpacks the particular beliefs and assumptions embedded in it, and details the often informal coalition building that produced this period of consensus. Examining the nation's largest urban school districts (Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York), the author details three major reform efforts in chapters titled "The Right Space: The Small Schools Movement"; "The Right Teachers: Teach for America"; and "The Right Curriculum: Expanding Advanced Placement."

Sujets

• Public Policy
• Histoire
• History of the United States
• Education
• United States
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826518125
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

EXCELLENCE FORALL

H O W A N E W B R E E D O F R E F O R M E R S I S T R A N S F O R M I N G A M E R I C A ’ S P U B L I C S C H O O L S

J AC K S C H N E I D E R

ExcEllEncE for All

ExcEllEncE forAll

How a New Breed of Reformers Is Transforming America’s Public Schools

JAck SchnEidEr

VA n d E r b i lt U n i V E r S i t y P r E S S n A S h V i l l E

© 2 by Vanderbilt University Press

Nasville, Tennessee 37235

All rigts reserved

First printing 2

his book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Scneider, Jack. Excellence for all : ow a new breed of reformers is transforming America’s public scools / Jack Scneider. p. cm. Includes bibliograpical references and index. ISBN 7--265-- (clot edition : alk. paper) ISBN 7--265-- (pbk. edition : alk. paper) . Public scools—United States. 2. Educational cange—United States. I. Title. LA27.2.S345 2 37.73—dc22 2246

For Katie. And Annabelle.

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contEntS

ACKNOWLeDGmeNTs

iNTRODuCTION

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tHe rIGHT tIme: 19802010 11

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tHe rIGHT SpaCe: tHe SmaLL SCHOOLs MOvemeNT

tHe rIGHT teaCHeRs: teaCH fOR AmeRICa

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tHe rIGHT cuRRICuLum: EXpaNDING ADvaNCeD PLaCemeNT 105

cONCLusION

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AcknowlEdgMEntS

N    , and a full geograpy of acknowledgment would make tis a substantially ticker book. To all tose wo sared teir insigts and teir time, and especially to tose wose perspectives consti- tute a part of te work itself, I am deeply indebted.  I do particularly wis to tank a distinct subset of readers wo, wile leafing troug tis book, will be struck by a sense of familiarity if not com- plete recognition—tose wo encountered te work in various stages of its evolution and left indelible marks on it. his includes te publications staff at Taylor & Francis, Ltd., wo granted permission to use an earlier version of Capter 4 tat appeared in teJournal of Curriculum Studies(2) as “Privilege, Equity, and te Advanced Placement Program: Tug of War.”  True tanks must begin, owever, in te primordial soup, wic my initial observations about te nature of modern scool reform migt accu- rately be likened to. David Labaree from te very beginning of tis project was its unambiguous campion and, no less importantly, an unrelenting interrogator. Witout im, tis book would not exist. Oters wo encoun- tered te work in progress and generously extended teir scolarly friend- sip were also instrumental. Sam Wineburg, Larry Cuban, David Tyack, and Elisabet Hansot eac ad important insigts about te project, and eac was a consistent source of wise and sympatetic counsel.  My colleagues Sivan Zakai, Noam Silverman, and Etan Hutt did te repeated eavy lifting tat one can count only on friends to do. As suc, many of te words in tis book are teirs. he final reading of tis work, owever, was left to my wife, Katie Henderson—te Platonic ideal of te “general reader.” All tose wo elped sape tis work were influential bot personally and professionally, and obviously tat is true in er case. But wat is most true is tat I wake up eac day for er; for oter reasons, too, but mostly for er.

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