Spinning wheels
Subtitle: the politics of urban school reform
By: Frederick M. Hess.
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
Subjects: Education, Urban -- United States -- Administration -- Case studies.; Education, Urban -- Political aspects -- United States -- Case studies.; Educational change -- United States -- Case studies.
Description: Almost everyone agrees that America's urban schools are a mess. But while this agreement has fostered widespread support for aggressive reform, Frederick Hess argues that much of what ails urban education is actually the result of continuous or fragmentary reform. Hess argues that policymakers have misallocated resources by pursuing the "right" structure or the "best" pedagogy while paying insufficient attention to the more mundane - and more important - questions of how to implement, refine, and sustain a particular approach in their particular district.

Previous research on high-performing schools suggests that the best schools are characterized by focus and by an ability to develop expertise in specific approaches to teaching and learning. To help educators and policymakers adopt and nurture a focused agenda, Hess recommends institutional changes that increase the effectiveness of performance outcomes and reduce the incentives to emphasize symbolic reform.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-224) and index.
Table of contents: title: The politics of urban school reform; title: Organizational and personal incentives for reform; title: The supporting players in urban school reform; title: The dizzying pace of urban school reform; title: Political explanation of policy selection; title: Community context and urban school reform; title: The effectiveness of urban school reform; title: The spinning wheels of reform : getting unstuck.