The Upside and Downside of Urban School Reform
Based on my school and district experiences and research into urban reform strategies over the past quarter-century to improve schools, I have concluded the following:
*Most urban districts, either with or without mayoral control, have centralized control of schools through state standards and testing, offered parents a portfolio of choices in elementary and secondary schools, and intensified traditional ways of schooling children.
*While some national leaders call for overhauling the existing system reform most reformers have sought incremental changes in existing school structures. In fact, acclaimed entrepreneurial ventures such as Teach For America, New Leaders for New Schools, and Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) use the rhetoric of fundamental reform but choose to work within district structures while pressing for small, important policy changes. [i]
The good news is that some top-down strategies have worked in some districts for a while. Many urban districts,