Customer Reviews

Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools-- And Winning: Lessons from Houston

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Former school board member McAdams has delivered a revealing account (if you read copiously between the lines) of the exercise of power in a billion-dollar school district. Characterizing himself and the Anglophile majority on the school board as education reformers, he paints an over-flattering self-portrait of an enlightened education savior. All who disagree with incessant standardized testing, wholesale privatization of school system functions, dilution of employee rights, and rolling back affirmative action assume the role, in his little universe, of narrowly focused obstructionists opposed to his vision of "progress." Minority board members are either marginalized either as benign, quaint, almost comic figures or as irrationally strident defenders of his imagined status quo. He views unions and other employee organizations as hysterical pyramid schemes whose sole aim is to increase membership by scaring teachers and support personnel. This education expert must have been absent during several American history classes dealing with the labor movement. The deification of Rod Paige as public-school messiah is a mystery to many Houstonians who are still trying to distill substance from the "Rod Paige miracle." Co-opting Black criticism by selecting a conservative Republican from their midst did seem to inoculate the school board against some African-American groups, but the tactic alienated Mexican-Americans and other Hispanics. The Petruzielo-Paige legacy is the PR spin machine created in the Houston school district. Schools celebrated testing achievement with pep rallies, trinkets and candy, even if the results were improvements within a random statistical variation. McAdams shows himself to be a cheerleader for so-called reform which lines the pockets of consultants, corporations, and senior adminstrators while slowly bankrupting the public-school infrastructure and treating students merely as a target market. This is a must-read, since it unintentionally shows the hand of the vampires at the top of the heap who are sucking the lifeblood from our urban school systems and insuring a permanent underclass.

McAdams, Donald R., Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools... and Winning! Lessons From Houston. New York, NY: Teachers College Press (2000).

This is such a pathbreaking book that it is essential reading for school board members and others who are concerned about the sad condition of our system of education. It is notable for at least three reasons. First, it is a detailed descriptive account written by an active school board member and one of a team of leaders in the very significant education reform effort that started in Houston in 1990 and is ongoing. Second, one of McAdams' close associates in reforming the Houston school system, Dr. Rod Paige, has now been sworn in as Secretary of Education in President George W. Bush's cabinet. Third, after Dr. Paige had served as a member of the school board for over four years, his fellow board members decided, in a very controversial and unorthodox action, to appoint him to be superintendent of schools, even though he was not "qualified" by the existing rules of the system, and was opposed by the education bureaucracy.

That decision made in "Houston in 1994 helped start a pattern of nontraditional urban school district leadership that would include army generals (Seattle and Washington, D.C.), a county human services director (Milwaukee), a city budget director (Chicago), and a local prosecutor (San Diego). In all of these cities, and others such as New York City, reform has implied thinking outside the normal educator's box." [comment by G. Alfred Hess, Jr]

Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools is pathbreaking because it is the first detailed first-person description of the workings of a very successful reform school board by a member of that board. It reads like a spellbinding novel and describes in detail, but with tact and wisdom, the actions of a large number of players who are cited by name. The players include one superinten- dent that was fired by the board, another superintendent who accomplished some very good things but then began to ignore the policies decided on by the board and avoided a confrontation by leaving to take a position with another school district, an extremely difficult-to-work-with union leader, community and regional business leaders, various ethnic and other interest groups, legislators, state and city bureaucrats, and Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush.

This book is probably also the best source so far available on the unusual career of Dr. Paige, who has won the respect and admiration of educational reform leaders across the country. Both Dr. Paige and Don McAdams are moderate Republicans who worked closely with Democrats and others in a non-partisan way to do what was needed for their students and for their community. Before his election to the Houston Independent School District Board of Education, Dr. Paige had been a well-known coach, professor of education, and college dean of education. Soon after being elected to the HISD board, Dr. Paige served on a board committee assigned to prepare a statement of its vision and beliefs. The board adopted the Declaration of Visions and Beliefs prepared by the committee in 1990 and has been guided by it since then even though most of the board members have been replaced by others. The never-ending process has required a great deal of effort involving working to resolve several serious conflicts, but Paige, McAdams, and their reform associates have managed to persuade newly elected members of the board who have often arrived with narrow and limited agendas to take a broader perspective and to work for the greater benefit of students and for the good of the community as a whole.

This is the first book to explain the complexity of school district politics and show how questions of educational quality are so often put second to adult interests. It shows how one of the biggest and most complex cities in American has actually made some -- though not enough -- improvements to its public schools. it also provides good suggestions for school board members and citizens elsewhere.

Told from the admittedly biased viewpoint of one who was in the trenches, this is a must read for anyone interested in reform in the public schools. There is intrigue, dirty dealing, ethnic conflict, blackmail, and politics, but this is also a story of consensus building, teamwork, hard learned lessons, and working across party lines. Discussing past struggles and the struggle ahead, the book offers both encouragement and warning.

This book is a great look into the inner workings of a school board and how it functions.

McAdams, Donald R., Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools... and Winning! Lessons From Houston. New York, NY: Teachers College Press (2000).

This is such a pathbreaking book that it is essential reading for school board members and others who are concerned about the sad condition of our system of education. It is notable for at least three reasons. First, it is a detailed descriptive account written by an active school board member and one of a team of leaders in the very significant education reform effort that started in Houston in 1990 and is ongoing. Second, one of McAdams' close associates in reforming the Houston school system, Dr. Rod Paige, has now been sworn in as Secretary of Education in President George W. Bush's cabinet. Third, after Dr. Paige had served as a member of the school board for over four years, his fellow board members decided, in a very controversial and unorthodox action, to appoint him to be superintendent of schools, even though he was not "qualified" by the existing rules of the system, and was opposed by the education bureaucracy.

That decision made in "Houston in 1994 helped start a pattern of nontraditional urban school district leadership that would include army generals (Seattle and Washington, D.C.), a county human services director (Milwaukee), a city budget director (Chicago), and a local prosecutor (San Diego). In all of these cities, and others such as New York City, reform has implied thinking outside the normal educator's box." [comment by G. Alfred Hess, Jr]

Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools is pathbreaking because it is the first detailed first-person description of the workings of a very successful reform school board by a member of that board. It reads like a spellbinding novel and describes in detail, but with tact and wisdom, the actions of a large number of players who are cited by name. The players include one superinten- dent that was fired by the board, another superintendent who accomplished some very good things but then began to ignore the policies decided on by the board and avoided a confrontation by leaving to take a position with another school district, an extremely difficult-to-work-with union leader, community and regional business leaders, various ethnic and other interest groups, legislators, state and city bureaucrats, and Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush.

This book is probably also the best source so far available on the unusual career of Dr. Paige, who has won the respect and admiration of educational reform leaders across the country. Both Dr. Paige and Don McAdams are moderate Republicans who worked closely with Democrats and others in a non-partisan way to do what was needed for their students and for their community. Before his election to the Houston Independent School District Board of Education, Dr. Paige had been a well-known coach, professor of education, and college dean of education. Soon after being elected to the HISD board, Dr. Paige served on a board committee assigned to prepare a statement of its vision and beliefs. The board adopted the Declaration of Visions and Beliefs prepared by the committee in 1990 and has been guided by it since then even though most of the board members have been replaced by others. The never-ending process has required a great deal of effort involving working to resolve several serious conflicts, but Paige, McAdams, and their reform associates have managed to persuade newly elected members of the board who have often arrived with narrow and limited agendas to take a broader perspective and to work for the greater benefit of students and for the good of the community as a whole.

This in-depth look at eight years in the life of the Houston Independent School District is remarkable for its balance and honesty. One of my favorite parts is about an audit of the district undertaken by Texas Comptroller John Sharp. We come to see how this audit excercise is both overtly political and unfair and, at the same time, a useful tool for improving the district. MacAdams appears to be one of those rare public servants who has the ability to see and even appreciate multiple apparently contradictory truths.

We also learne about how the media impedes progress by always reporting scandals (even the dubious ones) while almmost never reporting about progress. This fuels the public's sense that the district is "broken," no matter what is happening.

His parting recommendation to find ways to take the politics out of schools is thought-provoking. Yet, one wonders, perhaps, whether it isn't preferable that a certain amount of "direct democracy" prevails in our schools. After all, it's not just the parents who have a stake in the system. Taxpayers and citizens of every stripe have hopes and expectations of schools and as long as they are footing the bill, they probably need to be heard in some fashion.

If I have one complaint, it's that the book is a little bit too long and I'm not sure that all of the detail is necessary. I could have done without some of the details of meetings and campaigns.

I highly recommend this book for any serious student of school reform and anyone interested in how school boards can drive school improvement. We need more thoughtful, committed leaders like Don McAdams on our school boards.

Poorly written, full of self-serving indulgence. No one outside of the Houston area could begin to comprehend what this book is about. The first half reads like a diary and the second half contains no new ideas on how to save our public schools....unless you live in Houston. Talk about backdoor politics! I feel sorry for the folks in Houston.