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This book chronicles the life and work of the dynamic and controversial Michelle Rhee -- from her first teaching job in a West Baltimore classroom to her current position as chancellor of Washington DC public schools.  Along the way, we also learn about the fundamental problems in our current education system, and -- most of all -- about the politics of leadership.

When Rhee first arrived in Washington, she found a school district that had been so broken for so long, that everyone had long since given up.  Her determination to turn the situation around, her encounters with community politics and long-simmering racial tensions, and her battles with central office bureaucrats and teachers unions have been featured in major media outlets such as Time, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal.    

The book concludes with an inside account of the contentious re-election race of mayor Adrian Fenty, a preview of Rhee's future, and lessons for would-be reformers.  An 8-page photo insert includes images of Rhee from childhood through the present. ... Read more

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The success story of an independent Catholic inner-city elementary school in Philadelphia that educates disadvantaged non-Catholic children, who all go on to graduate from high school, with many going onto college. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: Albany, The University of the state of New York; Publication date: 1915; Subjects: Educational law and legislation; Education; Education / General; Education / History; Law / Educational Law ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (11)

A must read for Charter School advocates and opponents alike
Jacobs brings alive the true challenges in organizing, operating, funding, and sustaining a charter school in her wonderful book, "Our School."The going certainly isn't easy.Despite support from the Board of Education, the Mayor of San Jose, and private money from Silicon Valley, Downtown College Prep struggles to survive.The fact that the school does survive -- and prosper academically -- is testament to the dedication, enthusiasm, and tremendous hard work of the founders and staff of the school.Jacobs tells a very inspirational story.

'Inspiring' is true.
'Our School' is an inspiring read, especially for those teachers who are working with students in less-than-ideal environments.
Although 'Our School' talks a lot about the American school system, the ideas and discussions on pedegogy are universal.

Our School: Chasing dreams by rewriting the rules
Diminutive Selena gripped two sides of a basketball with uncertainty before finally giving in to the shouting principal/coach on the sideline, begging her to shoot.

She shot-putted the ball forward ... and watched it sail wide of the backboard by two feet.

Selena was one of the key players on the most unlikely girls basketball team ever to win a high school game -- a team that "Our School" author Joanne Jacobs hilariously describes as "the shortest basketball team in America."

"Our School" is not about sports, but this team -- eight girls hovering around five feet tall, among the few at their school who could muster the C average required to play -- is the perfect metaphor for the academically undermanned students that San Jose's Downtown College Prep charter school promises to someday send to college.

The Lady Lobos are mostly Mexican immigrants who know little about the game they've decided to play and are short of skills needed to succeed. But with enough "ganas" -- Spanish for desire -- perhaps they can somehow pull out a victory.

Likewise, "DCP students enter the school academic losers," Jacobs writes. "They don't know how to play the game. By the standards of middle-class high schools, DCP students aren't really in the game. But they keep working, they get better. If they stick with it, they'll win a college education."

Jacobs is the education reporter and former columnist for the San Jose Mercury News now nationally known for her popular education blog, [...]."Our School" is her book chronicling the years she spent observing as two idealistic teachers attempted to write their own rules and build a high expectations high school for low performing kids in an impoverished, gang-ridden inner city.

The book is both a pleasingly written, novel-like tale of kids who struggle â" and mostly win -- against tough odds and something of a guide for would-be school charter school developers, complete with a "how to start a charter school" chapter as an appendix.

For the motivated teacher, or otherwise inspired individual, who has thought of breaking out on their own to start their own charter school, Jacobs' book is really a must read. The "Lessons Learned" chapter alone is filled with telling stories and sage advice from DCP's founders.

For instance, they sorely underestimated how much catching up their entering ninth graders would need on very basic skills after years of neglect in the school system. It wasn't enough to set high expectations and seek to inspire them. The kids, plain and simple, needed to know how the speak English and multiply. As a result, DCP ended up much more structured and regimented than anyone ever expected because that's what the kids needed.

The school leaders also had to come to terms with the necessity of tossing kids out, especially for misbehavior. DCP throws out a lot of kids, a detail likely to catch the eye of charter critics, who complain that other public schools would love to have that nuclear bomb in the war to maintain discipline and order. "Our School" makes the point many times that discipline is a key. The leaders believe rules must be enforced consistently and unwaveringly, and they don't hesitate to expel even kids they like who fail to get with the program.

DCP's success is undeniable by the book's end. Just as the short kids on the girls basketball team work hard, get better, begin to compete and finally actually taste real victory, so their classmates, too, are reborn in academic success. All that stick with DCP to the end go to college and the school's test scores ultimately rank among the best around.

Still, the future of the school is far from certain. Teacher turnover is heavy. By its very nature, Jacobs tells us, the school tends to attract young dreamers to its teaching staff â" not the types to work at one school and retire 30 years later. By the book's end, one of the founders is even working on getting out.

Sustainability is a big question for charter schools, even excellent ones like DCP.

I also wonder if "Our School" won't someday be viewed as a period piece, unique to the early days of the charter movement when the romantic vision was that pioneering teachers would break free from bureaucracy and reinvent education.

In fact, the "mom-and-pop" charter schools â" truly independent and run by local folks â" may be a dying breed. An ever increasing share of charters are run by national management companies, such as Edison Schools and Heritage Academies, and more recently, non-profits and school districts themselves.

Even so, as the charter movement continues to grow, Jacobs has done a nice job encapsulating what these new public schools are supposed to be about and how they are different from traditional public schools. It's a good primer for the average parent â" those who've heard of charters but not really sure what they are exactly. And the story is an enjoyable ride right to the end.

"Pulled by my mother's dreams, I walked barefoot across the border from Mexico," Selena's begins her college essay. "I was six years old."

But with wild basketball misses behind her, on track for a diploma and a college scholarship awaiting, Selena will cross the commencement stage ready to chase her own dreams.

[...].

The story of two people making a huge difference
On my blog, Why Homeschool, I posted back in December about attending Joanne Jacobs' kickoff event for her bookI bought the book back in December and had Joanne sign it.But I've been distracted, partly by blogging, and only recently got around to reading Our School.

Our School is basically a biography of Downtown College Prep, DCP.This is a charter high school in San Jose.Joanne leads us through the birth of the school, founded in 2000.We are introduced to Greg Lippman and Jennifer Andaluz who started the push for DCP.We read of the struggles to get funding, to get a location, and to get students.

Most of the book is about incidents that happened at DCP, or in connection to DCP.It like reading a story.Along the way Joanne slips in information about charter schools and education in general.The book is well written, very engaging, and hard to put down.

Many charter schools are very selective about who they let into the school.Often they only want students who are motivated and doing well in school.There are two elementary charter schools in my neighborhood.There is great competition to get in, so the schools are able to pick the better students.

DCP was created with the intention to help those who were fluking to get back on track for college.Greg and Jennifer were going after those who were no longer in the game.They set themselves a daunting task.In some ways DCP trying to help their students catch up is a Don Quixote mission; it is an almost impossible task.Most of the freshman class was functioning around the fifth grade level.Most of them don't know how to take notes.Most of them don't want to be in school.Most of have trouble reading.A Don Quixote mission might even be easier.

Our School recounts the efforts of the teachers at DCP.One of the nice things about a charter school is they are not bound up with so much bureaucracy.The teachers at DCP would try something, and if it didn't work, they would change quickly.Over time they found ways to help the students dramatically improve their reading.They taught the students how to study.And over time most of the students became engaged and were on track for college.They accomplished these Herculean tasks.

This is a very inspiring and moving book.We get exposed to some of the problems with public education, and we see how a couple people were able to make a great difference. This is a good book to read.

Great Read, Great Resource
As a school psychologist, I saw many students who struggled and sometimes gave up. I enjoyed reading "Our School," which is about a charter high school that recruits freshmen who've earned D's and F's and graduates them with the skills and motivation they'll need to earn a four-year college degree. At Downtown College Prep, students and faculty experience many "glorious failures," learn from their mistakes and go on to do better the next time. As a charter school, DCP has the flexibility to try new ideas to find out what works best for its students, most of whom come from low-income, non-English-speaking families. The book is a well-told eyewitness account infused with humor. I really liked the chapter about Ride the Carrot Salad. "Our School" is a great resource for teachers and other educators, and I think anyone who cares about our schools will find this book a rewarding read. ... Read more

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This text examines the impact of school vouchers and charter schooling on three urban school districts. It explores the causes of the behaviour observed and explains how the structure of competition is likely to shape the way it affects the future of public education. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

definitely worth reading
Most of the research on school vouchers and charter schools is a matter of dueling statistics.Different authors study the same programs and come to opposite conclusions.Since they all offer elaborate defenses of their methods, making sense out the analyses becomes a matter of statistical nit-picking.Meanwhile, they don't say much about how or why educational competition works. This book approaches the issue from the opposite direction: it doesn't offer any statistical proof of anything, but it provides a challenging look at the reality of educational competition.

What I really liked about this book is that the author doesn't try to prove that school choice does or doesn't work. Instead, he dives into trying to understand how it affects the public schools in the community.Using extensive interviewing, research, and document collection, he offers the deepest look I know of into how school choice competition actually plays out.The reliance on interviews and historical narrative also has the plus of making it much more engaging than the standard analysis of school vouchers.The book also offers some important insights regarding urban schooling and the nature of urban school reform.

This is a book that is definitely worth reading for anyone interested in school vouchers, or even those who just want to learn more about school reform or urban schooling.

Amazing Book
Hess explores these issues in a unique and interesting way.

The dreary 'science' of education
This book provides an evaluation by an educational and governmental researcher of the impact of several schemes of the 1990's setting up voucher and charter schools - paying poor parents if they withdrew their children from inner-city state schools and enrolled them in the private sector. As previous school reform efforts backed by liberal-leftists had failed children, and as court-propelled desegregation led to White flight, many of America's inner-city schools became so appalling that even Democrat-voting Blacks wanted the opportunity to seek private education - and linked up with Republicans to achieve that goal. Frederick Hess's concern here is with the argument of pro-choice campaigners that the new private schools, far from threatening public schools by creaming off brighter children, would actually stimulate much-needed reforms in the public sector; and his strategy is to interview heads, teachers and administrators in three public authority areas which allowed some degree of parental choice - Milwaukee, Cleveland and the Edgewood district of San Antonio, Texas.

Regrettably, Revolution at the Margins says rather more about educational research than about the impact of pro-choice initiatives. Essentially, Hess finds virtually no result at all from competition with the politically well-entrenched public sector. Bureaucrats occasionally mobilized themselves to a little mendacious propaganda (hanging banners outside public schools saying 'High Standards Start Here'), to teaching test-taking strategies to children, and to mounting legal actions to cramp the style of choice schools; but usually there was no action beyond verbal "lashing out" (for example at the "racist and rapacious" proponents of choice). Behind and explaining such inertness lie the 'education systems' of the (Black and Hispanic) slums with their low wages for, and high turnover of teachers. An area that *did* risk union wrath by sacking scores of teachers one spring found it had to re-employ them all, in different schools, by the autumn. Since only idealists and incompetents will work for low wages, yet need self-respect, state teachers would simply shrug off the arrival of competition and continue in their own favoured ("idiosyncratic", says Hess) ways - telling Hess "we have too much on our hands to worry about vouchers and charters" and "you're lucky we're here to provide this service" (even when 40% of state teachers had themselves stopped sending their own offspring to state schools). Quite often, because of high pupil turnover in slum schools, teachers had literally no idea that their school was indeed losing pupils to the private sector. In any case, the size of the challenge in the three schemes studied was slight. Hess concludes that only really large choice schemes will prove sufficiently "fearsome" to make state teachers change; and that, even then, change will be unlikely without background 'institutional reform' needed for the last thirty years but never adopted - notably, giving heads the power to sack weak teachers. State educators are in an impossible position, apparently, after decades of liberal-left misrule. "Imagine," Hess writes, "a private sector producer whose consumers disagree about what kind of product they want; who depends on the support of both consumers and nonconsumers; whose executives are largely unable to evaluate, hire, fire, reward, or sanction employees; and whose product is hard to judge. Any executive, whether Henry Ford, Jack Welch, or Bill Gates - would struggle in the face of such odds." Thus "there was no evidence that competition bulldozed away inefficiencies or forced systemic efforts to reform policy or improve practice, as officials had neither the incentive nor the ability to mount aggressive assaults on organizational culture or procedure."

Yet, as if all this were not depressing enough, Hess's method of arriving at his conclusions will make grown men weep. It is not just that Hess's 'research' involves none of the normal listings of subjects interviewed, questions asked, percentages favouring different answers, etc. Hess is content to provide the kind historical record of developments that could be, and probably was culled from local newspapers - supplemented by a few conversations of his own. This method results in pages littered with dollar signs, numbers and capital letters as the various outlays are made, as votes are taken, and as unions express outrage; but even this is not the worst.

A specialist volume like this should present, first, a testing of whether choice schools produce better end-of-the-year results for pupils than could be expected from their children's starting IQs; and, secondly, a testing of whether such value-added results occur with increasing frequency in state schools after the arrival of private school competition. How else could one possibly say whether either set of schools had truly been doing a good job? Yet test results are scarcely mentioned in this volume, and value-added calculations not at all - and this despite the book being endorsed on its dust jacket by half-a-dozen worthies from the world of educational research. OK, since Hess believes test scores are largely determined by socio-economic circumstances (and never mentions education professor Arthur Jensen), it might have been less problematic for him to ask the children and their parents if they became *happier* as school choice was expanded; but Hess does not even consider, let alone use this humdrum route. Frankly, one wonders what hope there can be for America's children when even a sympathizer with 'choice', as Hess apparently is, cannot imagine and discuss a reasonable way of evaluating the experiment that has been underway in the cities. Hess is right as far as he goes: "So long as school systems are governed by rickety bureaucracies, run by managers bereft of data or tools, staffed by employees who have little motivation beyond the intrinsic, charged with producing ill-defined and ambiguous outcomes, and faced with few penalties for poor performance, efforts at substantive improvement - whether market driven or not - will be stifled." But educational research, too, turns out to stand in similar need of data and re-tooling. One thing is sure: experiments in allowing parental freedom will continue by popular demand so long as educators and educationalists persist in the dismal set of attitudes and practices that this book casually reveals. ... Read more

Product Description
Education in Small Schools of Pennsylvania addresses theproblems that have plagued education in the past and the most recentproblems in education. Each chapter of the book contains one majorproblem facing education in small schools of Pennsylvania today. Thefirst part of the chapter presents the controversy surrounding thetopic, involving the ongoing debate found in the media. Moreimportantly, the second section provides the answers to these issues,which are found by utilizing educational research and the experienceof the author. Many of the problems facing the small schools can besolved without money. For the most part, educational problems can besolved using logical and pragmatic solutions.

The family in America has changed, and this has translated into thepublic schools being the fundamental environment responsible indealing with most of the problems facing the family unit. The schoolscan not do it alone. The new thinking is that the community should bemade aware of the problems of the small schools and should be includedin the solutions.

This book contains the author's 25 years of experience in the small public schools of Pennsylvania. It is unique, in that, many of the problems of the public schools can be solved using new methods but without new money.

This work is concerned mostly with small schools in Pennsylvania; however, the issues are national in scope. The specific audience is parents, educators, administrators, school board members, educational advocate groups and the growing number of the public who are concerned with improving education for the children in our schools. ... Read more

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The charter school movement in America is a radical departure from traditional ways of facing the dilemma of matching student to school. With the advent of the charter concept--schools where individualized attention becomes possible, where lower teacher-to-student ratios are the norm, and where public moneys provide the same backing as for "regular" schools--enormous possibilities opened up for addressing the unsuccessful high school careers of many in America's cities. "Indispensable Tools" follows a year in the life of a new charter high school and its principal. From birth pangs to the Education Board's award of a five-year opportunity, Gateway High School in San Francisco has proven that modern pedagogy and inspired leadership can offer real betterment to those facing secondary education's disheartening pitfalls ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A book for all parents
Its time to remove government from schools, and give more power back to the parents regarding the education of their children.Our society has a problem (thanks to democrats) of erasing self accountability.If you wantto get a definitive review of what the charter schools system could do,then read this book. ... Read more

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While the debate rages in America on how best to improve the education system, some parents have taken action to ensure that their children receive the best education possible.This is not about whether private or parochial schools are better than their public counterparts but about finding the right school to educate their children.

Featuring the stories of six inner-city families struggling to provide quality education for their children, Trinnietta Gets a Chance: Six Families and Their School Choice Experience makes a powerful case for parental involvement and school choice. It also vividly shows the obstacles these families face and the joy they experience when their children flourish thanks to competition in education. ... Read more

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The federal government is devoting millions of dollars to charter and voucher programs that currently require parents to abandon regular public schools. The School Choice Hoax: Fixing America's Schools exposes the misleading hyperbole that has been driving the school choice movement and shows how charter schools can become more effective and useful to public school districts. ... Read more

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Describes the creation of and development of learning communities that are changing the conversation about what schools can be and do. ... Read more

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Charter Schools is part of the Contemporary Education Issues Series. From zero in 1991 to 1,100 seven years later, charter schools (public schools under contract) today educate well over a quarter of a million students. Charter Schools examines this unusual experiment and the controversies that surround public choice and charter schools as a means of educational reform. The coverage looks at what motivates the rise of charter schools, from the frustrations of parents, teachers, and students to the expectations of community members. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

This is a new edition so please disregard all reviews with dates older than 2009
This is a new edition of Charter Schools, 2nd edition.Pleaser ignore all reviews that are dated before 2009.The book was reviewed in 2002 by David Levin and it is now 2009.the book doesn't even have the same title.

Danny Weil
Author

Want to start a Charter School?
A good succinct "raison d'etre" and recent history of Charter schools across the US. Excellent 6-page section on "How to start.." a charter school. Includes the most important gottchas and check lists.

Since this book is almost a decade old, is a 2nd Edition forthcoming?
Since each state and school district has specific requirements, it is important to consult with other local charter school administrators and regional universities on various pitfalls to avoid.

An important topic is parential involvement and demographics.

As for details for State of Minnesota and MN Dept of Education, there is a on-line "MN Charter School Handbook" at the Univ of Minn website, H.H. Humphrey Insitute of Public Affairs, Center for School Change.

Additionally, there is a directory of Charter Schools at mncharterschoolsDOTorg

There may be similar resources available in your state. Individual charter schools sometimes have a history webpage which talks about the trials and tribulations that Charter founders have to go through.

Sets forth the issues
Defining just what constitutes a charter school is a daunting task. There are so many variables. A charter school is basically a school that receives a charter or contract which is granted by a public agency to a group, such as parents, teachers, agencies, businesses etc. which wish to create an alternative to public schools within the public school system. However, state laws differ, thereby creating many variables. Some laws allow the state to grant a charter. Other states allow the local school district to grant the charter. State laws also differ as to who may propose the charter school or even allow any of several bodies to grant the charter. Laws differ as to whether such schools must adhere to state standards or may be exempt from them. Laws also differ as to the degree which they may be self governed and the extent to which they are accountable to local school boards. In other words, differing state laws have created several models as to what constitutes a charter school.

As a member of my local board of education, I am interested in the issues surrounding innovative proposals for public education. There are strong arguments both for and against the concept of charter schools and this book sets them forth. On the one hand, such schools are said to be more accountable and provide alternative educations designed for the constituency it serves. Arguments against are that such schools drain funds from public schools and take away the common factors that unite us as citizens from the common education provided. The author does a good job in settting forth the arguments both pro and con. He also sets forth the issues regarding the position of education labor unions on the subject.

The concept of charter schools is new so there will be much data to be gathered over the upcoming years as to the success of charter schools. The movement is likely to continue to grow and as it does so, this book may, in some ways, become dated as new information becomes available. Meanwhile, this book does a good job of explaining what charter schools are and laying out the issues which surround the movement towards these schools.

Excellent and exciting new book
As a fifth grade teacher I found this book seated much regarding charter schools in an important historical context.The book is unique in that it does not rehash old arguments but brings new light to a subject that is of great importance today.Refreshing and well written.

Holly Anderson ... Read more

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Product Description
Public-private partnerships in education exist in various forms around the world, in both developed and developing countries. Despite this, and despite the importance of human capital for economic growth, systematic analysis has been limited and scattered, with most scholarly attention going to initiatives in the United States. This volume helps to fill the gap, bringing together recent studies on public-private partnerships in different parts of the world, including Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

These initiatives vary significantly in form and structure, and School Choice International offers not only comprehensive overviews (including a cross-country analysis of student achievement) but also detailed studies of specific initiatives in particular countries. Two chapters compare public and private schools in India and the relative efficacy of these two sectors in providing education. Other chapters examine the use of publicly funded vouchers in Chile and Colombia, reporting promising results in Colombia but ambiguous findings in Chile; and student outcomes in publicly funded, privately managed schools (similar to American charter schools) in two countries: Colombia's "concession schools" and the United Kingdom's City Academies Programme. Taken together, these studies offer important insights for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers into the purposes, directions, and effects of different public-private educational initiatives.

Contributors: Felipe Barrera, Cristian Bellei, Eric P. Bettinger, Rajashri Chakrabarti, Geeta G. Kingdon, Michael Kremer, Norman LaRocque, Stephen Machin, Karthik Muralidhara, Thomas Nechyba, Harry A. Patrinos, Paul E. Peterson, Ludger Woessmann. ... Read more

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Chapters: Classical Academy Charter School of Clifton, Princeton Charter School, North Star Academy Charter School, Foundation Academy Charter School, Academy Charter High School, Robert Treat Academy Charter School, Elysian Charter School, Create Charter High School. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 30. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Classical Academy Charter School of Clifton is the charter school created in Passaic County, and serves the Clifton area. As a charter school, it is a public school serving students in grades 6-8 under a charter granted by the New Jersey Department of Education. Tuition is free and is covered by the home districts of its students. As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 94 students and 8.3 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 11.3:1. 40% of students come from families that are below the poverty line. As part of its mission, the school has a policy of eliminating administrative positions and granting teachers decision-making authority. The school's compensation plan rewards teachers based on educational results, with individual and school-wide bonuses granted based on academic success. The school describes itself as the first public education program in the state in which major portions of teacher pay is based on "talent, effort, and outcomes", not longevity. The school requires students to learn Latin for all three years as a language, in addition to English, History, Math, Science and Public Speaking. The school also requires three years of Literature and Literary classics, starting with Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid and progressing to works by Dante and Shakespeare. During the 2008-09 school year, Classic Academy Charter School of Clifton was recognized with the Blue Ribbon ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=19446247 ... Read more

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This book explores the constitutionality of religion-based charter schools. The method of analysis useshypothetical charter schools to answer legal questions. The answers are grounded in law using the latestprecedent. The background material before examining charters sets forth both the legal and policy contextsof religious charters schools. The legal context includes a detailed analysis of the EstablishmentClause of the U.S. Constitution focusing on the most recent Supreme Court cases on that topic. The policyanalysis examines the normative and structural dimensions of charter schools, which are then comparedwith voucher programs.The historical, political and educational contexts of charter programs are also examined. The book concludes that charter schools present anopportunity for parents and communities to form charter schools that will accommodate their beliefs; however, the constitution does notallow them to form schools that endorse their beliefs. ... Read more

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The most exciting innovation in education policy in the last decade is the emergence of highly effective schools in our nation's inner cities, schools where disadvantaged teens make enormous gains in academic achievement. In this book, David Whitman takes readers inside six of these secondary schools and reveals the secret to their success: they are paternalistic. The schools teach teens how to act according to traditional, middle-class values, set and enforce exacting academic standards, and closely supervise student behavior. But unlike paternalistic institutions of the past, these schools are warm, caring places, where teachers and principals form paternal-like bonds with students. Though little explored to date, the new paternalistic schools are the most promising means yet for closing the nation's costly and shameful achievement gap.Visit www.edexcellence.net for more information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Just a Tip
This book is now avaliable online for FREE through the Fordham Institute. I just downloaded it. Save yourself the $80+ bucks some of these merchants are trying to squeeze out of you.

The Search For Common Demoninators
The achievement gap between white students and African American/Latino students is one our country's greatest tragedies.However, there are a few remarkable schools that have closed this achievement gap.In "Sweating the Small Stuff" education writer David Whitman examines six of the best schools and searches for commonalities between the schools. His goal is to extract "truths" that can help influence the course of our country's education debate.

At its core, this book is fascinating look into why these six schools succeed.Towards the end of the book, Whitman produces a list of twenty lessons that can be learned from these schools.In turn, he groups these lessons under the loaded term of, "New Paternalism".Whitman makes a strong argument as to why this term is correct. Unfortunately, "paternalism" is a such a loaded concept that is easy to become fixated on the word and lose track of the lessons Whitman has extracted from his research.

The education achievement gap is a real problem and it will not go away by tinkering on the margins of the current system.Significant changes will be needed and these six schools are helping lead the way.I found this book to be well written and many of Whitman's arguments to be compelling.I would especially recommended this book for anyone thinking of opening up a new charter school.Highly recommended.

Raises Some Interesting Points
In the book, Whitman details the strategies of 6 high-performing inner-city schools: 4 charter, 1 neighborhood, and 1 private (American Indian Public Charter School, Amistad Academy, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, KIPP Academy, The SEED School, and University Park Campus School). He concludes that they all have one thing in common: they are highly paternalistic.

In other words, all of these schools go to great lengths to manage every little detail of students' lives, no matter how small (hence the title). Though most of the schools' leaders reject the term "paternalistic," Whitman does seem to have a point.

In defining the term "paternalistic" Whitman builds on the prior work of Lawrence Mead, who once wrote that "the problem of poverty or underachievement is not that the poor lack freedom. The real problem is that the poor are too free" (p. 36). As Whitman writes, "the paternalistic presumption, implicit in the schools portrayed here, is that the poor lack the family and community support, culutral capital, and poersonal follow-through to live according to the middle-class values that they, too, espouse."

While I'm sure that many of the founders and leaders of the schools profiled would be hesitant to explicitly endorse either of these views, their schools certainly implicitly endorse at least something similar to this. Whitman makes a strong argument that these schools essentially strive to remove students from their current environments and inculcate them into a new culture -- in other words to accept the social and cultural norms of the middle or upper class and reject those that they see in the streets.

Whitman is, however, hardly a dispassionate observer. He makes no attempt to mask his contempt for liberals, "multicultural activists," and unions. The book is certainly written from a particular point of view -- which should probably not come as a surprise given that it is published by a think tank that also pushes a particular point of view. It is perfectly clear that Whitman wants more charter schools and fewer unionized teachers. That said, the main topic of the book is not one that should be particularly susceptible to one's ideological beliefs. He points out that despite the fact that many conservatives have extolled the virtues of these schools that most of their founders are, in fact, unabashedly liberal. In the end, the main purpose of the schools is to raise student achievement -- not serve as guinea pigs in any ideological debates.

The tales that Whitman tells of the schools paint a clear portrait of six schools that, while very different, operate quite similarly. All of the schools take a no-nonsense approach to discipline and work hard to create a positive school culture in which bad behavior is unacceptable and good behavior is rewarded. All of the schools go to great lengths to explicitly teach various social behaviors that one would expect to be second nature to middle and upper-income youth. All of the schools put great emphasis on attendance and manage to lengthen the school year and/or day in some fashion. And all of the schools have produced results that are quite impressive.

Whitman acknowledges some limitations to the these results -- the KIPP in the Bronx enrolls students that outperform their community peers before entering, The SEED School expells about 5% of their students, and Cristo Rey only admits students that they believe are capable of working in an upscale office, for example. And he also addresses some of the limits to replicability on a national scale -- most notably that there may not be enough individuals willing to put forth the time and effort that managing or teaching in one of these schools requires. Although he sings their praises for 311 pages, he acknowledges that they do not necessarily represent a definitive and simple solution to all of our nation's woes.

While Whitman makes a strong argument that increased paternalistic tendencies in schools have a good track record and merit more investigation, he fails to address a few major points. In the beginning of the book he extolls the virtues of self-discipline and details a study that found it to be a more important determinant of success than IQ. Whitman fails to investigate whether a more paternalistic environment does, in fact, develop more self-discipline in students and, if it does, whether it is the most effective way in which to develop self-discipline. I suspect that there's a body of literature of this in psychology or child development. He also fails to ask at what point paternalism becomes a negative instead of a positive. He highlights the successes of such schools, but leaves one wondering at what point a school could be so paternalistic that Whitman would no longer be enamored. In other words, how much control is too much?

Lastly, Whitman compiles a list of the 20 things that these schools have in common and that other schools should copy (p. 259). While many of these points are self-evident, some appear to be part of the list more as a result of ideology than anything else. Number 13, for example, reads "Eliminate (or at least disempower) local teacher unions." While none of the schools have strong unions, it's unclear whether the schools succeed because they don't have strong unions or that they don't have strong unions because they succeed. If management and labor get along, unions serve little purpose. In the case of schools, if teachers trust the people running their school then there is little reason for the union to exist. So it's unclear whether the lack of a strong union helps these schools or whether a strong positive culture simply means that teachers don't feel the need to join together and defend themselves. Similary, point 17 reads "Don't waste resources on fancy facilities or technology." While most of the schools don't have fancy facilities, this does not establish that nicer surroundings are bad -- it simply establishes that success is possible without them. Every year we see a barefooted runner succeed in the Olympics or another big running race. This makes it clear that human beings are capable of running without shoes, but does not prove that buying shoes does not help.

In the end, the book provokes a compelling discussion about what is right and wrong about our urban schools and how we might push them to succeed. While it may not technically be research, it provides interesting insights and original ideas. The notion that the most successful are paternalistic is an idea that is not frequently discussed in the academic literature. If the key to success is, in fact, to remove students from their home environments and acculturate them to different norms and behaviors then this shifts the frame of thinking surrounding school reform. What remains to be seen is how easy it will be to replicate what these schools have done. I've said many times before that discipline is one of the largest hurdles that high-poverty urban schools face, and I'm curious to see how well the successful discipline systems of these schools can be replicated. Is it possible, for instance, to replicate these systems in schools that cannot expel students and where every student is admitted regardless without having to apply? Only time, and quality research, will tell. ... Read more