Customer Reviews

New Schools for a New Century: The Redesign of Urban Education

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One of the contributors to this book, Chester Finn, puts urban education in perspective with the fact that in 1995 nearly 25% of the furnaces in urban schools were still coal-fired. Ravitch and her contributors assess new political and educational policy initiatives from a positive, clear-headed point of view, toward the goal of understanding what works well, and how to make that happen elsewhere.

The emphasis on school improvement, away from what Ravitch calls the "decrepit factory model of schooling," calls for a discussion of (i) the history of school improvement movements, (ii) the emergence of structural reforms in the early 1990s, including vouchers, contracting, charters, and deregulation, and (iii) specific examples of system-wide reforms from Chicago, the Milwaukee vouchers, and the Edison project. Good examples of deregulation include Texas Governor George W. Bush reducing state-imposed regulation on local districts from 490 to 230, and Michigan Governor John Engler a similar proportion.

This book grew out of a seminar hosted at New York University from 1994-1996. There is newer information available, for example, on the Milwaukee charters, but these contributors are not dated and convey their hopes and ideals about education fully. Chester Finn is always a pungent writer and worth reading. I especially liked Valerie Lee's chapter on the promise and results of Catholic school education.

I think Ravitch's contributions to educational reform are unique. Trained as a historian, she brings to the discussion of educational reform a new and refreshing viewpoint. You do not have to be a policy wonk to enjoy this book. END