So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools
A brilliant, thoughtful, and provocative analysis. Charles Payne shows why almost thirty years of school reform has brought so little change to urban public schools. Rooted in the reality of the Chicago Public Schools, Payne s book contains lessons that are relevant to schools everywhere. --Pedro Noguera, New York UniversityThis is a wonderful book, absolutely essential reading for educators, policymakers, and community and civic leaders who are committed to creating schools that promote high achievement for Black and Latino students. Payne helps us understand the challenges and possibilities for the transformation of urban schools. This is a smart book one that should change our conversation about the reform of urban schools. --Theresa Perry, Simmons CollegeCharles Payne s book is likely to anger teachers and administrators, conservatives and liberals, school reformers and the foundations that fund them. All will see themselves depicted as naïve about what it takes to improve urban schools. Many will see themselves depicted as part of the problem rather than part of the solution. At the same time no reader who has spent much time in urban schools will deny the accuracy of Payne s insights for example, about why improving high schools has proved so much more difficult than improving elementary schools, why more resources alone won t produce successful urban schools, and why the choice of a particular whole school reform program is not the critical decision. While his analysis is deeply sobering, Payne shows that improvement in urban schools is possible and indeed that significant improvements have already taken place. --Richard J. Murnane, Harvard Graduate School of Education