Confessions Of A School Reformer

In Confessions of a School Reformer, eminent historian of education Larry Cuban reflects on nearly a century of education reforms and his experiences with them as a student, educator, and administrator. Cuban begins his own story in the 1930s, when he entered first grade at a Pittsburgh public school, the youngest son of Russian immigrants who placed great stock in the promises of education. With a keen historian's eye, Cuban expands his personal narrative to analyze the overlapping social, political, and economic movements that have attempted to influence public schooling in the United States since the beginning of the twentieth century. He documents how education both has and has not been altered by the efforts of the Progressive Era of the first half of the twentieth century, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s through the 1970s, and the standards-based school reform movement of the 1980s through today. Cuban points out how these dissimilar movements nevertheless shared a belief that school change could promote student success and also forge a path toward a stronger economy and a more equitable society. He relates the triumphs of these school reform efforts as well as more modest successes and unintended outcomes. Interwoven with Cuban's evaluations and remembrances are his "confessions," in which he accounts for the beliefs he held and later rejected, as well as mistakes and areas of weakness that he has found in his own ideology. Ultimately, Cuban remarks with a tempered optimism on what schools can and cannot do in American democracy.

For better or for worse, the news media in the United States has huge worldwide influence. And yet little is actually known about its real inner workings, inherent logic and deeply embedded customs.

Policy Patrons offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of decision making inside four influential education philanthropies: the Ford Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. The outcome is an intriguing, thought-provoking look at the impact of current philanthropic efforts on education. Over a period of several years, Megan E. Tompkins-Stange gained the trust of key players and outside observers of these four organizations. Through a series of confidential interviews, she began to explore the values, ideas, and beliefs that inform these foundations’ strategies and practices. The picture that emerges reveals important differences in the strategies and values of the more established foundations vis-à-vis the newer, more activist foundations—differences that have a significant impact on education policy and practice, and have important implications for democratic decision making. In recent years, the philanthropic sector has played an increasing role in championing and financing education reform. Policy Patrons makes an original and invaluable contribution to contemporary discussions about the appropriate role of foundations in public policy and the future direction of education reform.

American educators and policy makers have grown increasingly frustrated in recent decades as attempts to enhance equity and bring American student learning to the level experienced in other countries have faltered. Recent efforts have included the standards movement as well as broad expansion of “school choice.” These endeavors, which largely rely on market-based thinking, assume that individual schools and teachers have the will and ability to do better, if only prodded by competition and other sticks and carrots. Such attempts overlook flaws in a system developed to provide a “common” education while also subdividing resources to maintain privilege for some. This book traces the history of American education as a foundation to examining persistent weaknesses in education today. Meaningful reform and improvement, which are urgent needs, will require broad, systemic change, based on the engagement of many sectors. This book offers a vision for such reform. Following successful models in other countries suggests options for moving away from current, deeply enmired, systemic inequities, to a system better suited to meeting a broad range of educational needs. A portfolio of diverse schools, regionally administered and held accountable for student learning, presents an option for moving away from inequitable district structures and scatter-shot “choice” options. The critical questions are how to get there from here, and do we have the will to do so? The book concludes with suggestions on how to start the process.

A visionary blueprint for educational reform that envisions school systems as opportunity engines, preparing young citizens for future workplace success, civic engagement, and fulfilling lives. Educating for Purposeful Life documents positive change within the Anaheim Union High School District, whose overarching mission is to prepare high school graduates who possess a clear sense of purpose and the capacity to achieve their goals. Superintendent Michael Matsuda and education consultant David Brazer lay out the district's innovative approaches to organizing, leading, teaching, and learning. They demonstrate how education policy, organization theory, and external partnerships work together within this grades 7–12 district to scaffold student success, resulting in greater high school graduation rates and four-year college matriculation and persistence rates. A rousing account of effective school reform, this work illuminates the district's Career Preparedness Systems Framework, which integrates affective and cognitive development opportunities, trade and professional development programs, and community engagement efforts. Matsuda and Brazer show how this framework, combined with a strengths-based approach that recognizes and affirms students' individual life experiences, helps meet the educational needs of all students, including those from traditionally underserved populations. Presenting secondary education as a means to support democracy, address employability gaps, and elevate student voice and purpose, this thought-provoking work provides ample ideas for how other districts might engage in educating for purposeful life.

"Much has been written about the quality and practice of teaching for the last century and a half or so. Most of that writing has been about how teachers should teach, but here celebrated education scholar Larry Cuban turns to the lessons we can learn by examining both how teachers used to teach and how they teach today. Knowing both is important; reformers eager to implement innovative techniques and policies must know first how US teachers have actually taught and do teach today if they are to make suggestions that might actually effect change. Cuban's research takes us into classrooms, both through contemporary observations undertaken for research and a rich historical archive of classroom accounts, but it also asks larger questions about teacher training and the individual motivations of people in the classroom. Cuban asks, do teachers freely choose how to teach, or are they driven by their beliefs and values about teaching and learning? What role do students play in determining how teachers teach? Do teachers teach as they were taught? Or have the organizations in which they have taught and do teach now-the age-graded school and its "grammar of schooling"- shaped the character of teaching and learning? By asking and answering these and other policy questions backed by concrete data about actual classroom practices, Cuban helps us make a crucial step toward pushing more reforms aimed at altering instruction"--