The Color of School Reform

Jeffrey R. Henig, Richard C. Hula, Marion Orr, & Desiree S. Pedescleaux

Why is it so difficult to design and implement fundamental educational reform in large city schools in spite of broad popular support for change? How does the politics of race complicate the challenge of building and sustaining coalitions for improving urban schools? These questions have provoked a great deal of theorizing, but this is the first book to explore the issues on the basis of extensive, solid evidence. Here a group of political scientists examines education reform in Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., where local governmental authority has passed from white to black leaders. The authors show that black administrative control of big-city school systems has not translated into broad improvements in the quality of public education within black-led cities. Race can be crucial, however, in fostering the broad civic involvement perhaps most needed for school reform.In each city examined, reform efforts often arise but collapse, partly because leaders are unable to craft effective political coalitions that would commit community resources to a concrete policy agenda. What undermines the leadership, according to the authors, is the complex role of race in each city. First, public authority does not guarantee access to private resources, usually still controlled by white economic elites. Second, local authorities must interact with external actors, at the state and national levels, who remain predominantly white. Finally, issues of race divide the African American community itself and often place limits on what leaders can and cannot do. Filled with insightful explanations together with recommendations for policy change, this book is an important component of the debate now being waged among researchers, education activists, and the community as a whole.

List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii Chapter One Civic Capacity, Race, and Education in Black-Led Cities 3 The Challenge of Urban Education 9 Reforms That Go Nowhere 12 Civic Capacity: Organizing Communities to Get Things Done 14 A Tough Task: Why Human Development May Be More Difficult than Economic Development 15 Competing Views of Race and School Politics 17 Research Design 22 The Plan of the Book 26 Chapter Two Racial Change and the Politics of Transition 30 Patterns of Racial Turnover in Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and D.C. 31 Racial Transition and Political Change: The Rise of Black Political Power 33 Managing School Desegregation 41 Political Compromise and Transition: The Evolution of Black-led School Districts 50 The Political Landscape in Black-Led Cities: From Formal to Informal Power 55 Conclusion: Historical Legacies and Racial Politics 61 Chapter Three The Elusiveness of Education Reform 63 The Condition of Education: Poor Performance and Even Poorer Conditions 65 Local Problem Definitions: A Favorable Foundation for Reform 71 An Array of Reform Efforts 74 The Frustration of Reform 82 Why Is Reform So Difficult? 113 Chapter Four Race and the Political Economy of Big-City Schools: Teachers and Preachers 115 Race, jobs, and Politics 118 Unions and Reform 127 Black Ministers and School Affairs: 1960-1980 137 Reform with Teachers and jobs in Mind 152 Chapter Five Parental and Community Participation in Education Reform 155 What Kind of Participation and on Whose Terms? 158 Patterns of Participation in Black-Led Cities 164 The Dog That Hasn't Barked: Accounting for the Absence of a Stronger Community-Based Movement 189 Fizzled Expectations 207 Chapter Six Black Leaders, White Businesses: Racial Tensions and the Construction of Public-Private Partnerships in Education 209 Business-School Partnerships: The Rallying Cry 212 Some Cautionary Notes 217 Business and School Reform in Black-Led Cities 220 Race As an Inhibiting Factor to Business Involvement 235 Partnerships and Racial Politics in Black-Led Cities 243 Chapter Seven The Role of External Actors 247 Traditional Roles of External Actors 249 Growing Regulatory Assertiveness of External Actors 252 The Changing Role of the Courts 255 Current Issues and Interventions 257 Variations in State Policy 266 Local Capacity and External Actors 271 Chapter Eight School Reform As If Politics and Race Matter 273 Race As a Complicating Factor in the Politics of School Reform 275 Education Policy As If Politics and Race Matter 279 Prospects for a Human Capital Regime 290 Index 293