Miracle in East Harlem:: The Fight for Choice in Public Education (Hardcover)

by Seymour Fliegel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In 1973, Community School District 4 in East Harlem was, by many parameters, the worst school district in New York City. Only 16% of the students read at grade level, and truancy was rife. Fifteen years later, 63% of students were reading at grade level, and parents from outside the district were enrolling their children in its schools. How a small band of educators accomplished the feat--which garnered for one principal a MacArthur prize--is exhaustively recounted by Fliegel, who served as the first director of District Four's Office of Alternative Schools, and MacGuire, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Among the dramatis personae are a cavalcade of Board of Education figures, including ex-school chancellor Anthony Alvarado and present chancellor Joseph Fernandez. The authors present a depressing picture of Board of Ed politics and bureaucracy. The key to District Four's success, we're shown in this inspiring study, was the establishment of mini-schools with specialized curriculums and allowing students to choose which school to attend.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
The story of N.Y.C.'s famous District 4 alternative schools and how they changed the lives of children growing up in one of the city's most challenging neighborhoods. In the recent plethora of books about improving our educational system, District 4 is inevitably one of the shining examples of what can be done. And District 4 is inevitably linked with Deborah Meier, winner of a MacArthur ``genius grant'' for her innovations in education. As this study makes clear, Meier was only one of dozens of District 4 teachers, principals, and administrators who in 1973 began to build a series of small, tightly knit schools, each with a focused curriculum, that engaged the parents and the community and that allowed families to choose the schools where their children could learn most effectively. By 1983, there were 14 alternative schools in District 4, and by the end of this school year, there will be 29. More important, in ten years, District 4 went from being the worst school district in N.Y.C. (32nd out of 32) to number 15. Reading scores soared, violence and absenteeism dropped, and students began to be accepted in record numbers to elite high schools and prestigious colleges. Fliegel (who was District 4's director of alternative schools and then deputy superintendent) and MacGuire (Senior Fellow/Manhattan Institute) recount how the alliance of visionary administrators, principals, and teachers practiced ``creative noncompliance'' with the teachers' union and a bureaucratic board of education to make choice a reality. Fiscal and other scandals--recounted relatively unsparingly here--plagued the program, and an unsympathetic superintendent slowed its momentum, but District 4's brave and innovative example is finally spreading to other districts in New York and elsewhere. Factual and editing errors--in student biographies, for example (including that of Kirkus's own Mara Frank, whose college major, job title, and very name were gotten wrong)--mar what's otherwise a satisfying behind-the-scenes look at an experiment that has given a generation of hard-pressed youngsters opportunity and hope. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Crown; F edition (August 3, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812920392
• ISBN-13: 978-0812920390
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #708,149 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling story of the power of school choice, September 19, 2004

By	kgn (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miracle in East Harlem: The Fight for Choice in Public Education (Paperback)

As one of the leaders of the public school choice movement in East Harlem, Fliegel gives us a passionate and optimistic first-hand account of the district's struggles to create and sustain their proto-charter schools. He uses his experience in East Harlem to illustrate the advantages of decentralized authority and school choice, giving particular emphasis to how these reforms empowered teachers and principals--an under-discussed advantage of choice. He also convincingly rebuts many common concerns about choice, especially fears about equity and resegregation. Because so many of the East Harlem alternative schools targeted special education students, students from broken homes, and other difficult-to-educate students, Fliegel's story provides a devastating counterargument to the concern that choice schools will cream off the best students and leave the rest behind.