Description: Shows how education reforms take place within cauldrons of political interests and conflicting values and beliefs.
Review Quotes:
"By examining the tensions that court-mandated reforms can raise among students, teachers, administrators, and parents, Welner reveals a significant wrinkle in the way educational reform is (or is not) implemented in districts and schools." -- Library Journal
"Welner's unsettling analysis suggests modifications to influential theories and practices that often leave reformers watching helplessly as communities, courts, and schools sabotage well-intentioned, rational, but politically naive schemes for change. Welner argues for combining a nuanced awareness of local practices, a sensitivity to local norms, and the firm hand of the courts. While his recommendations frequently contradict conventional school reform wisdom, Welner grounds his unorthodoxy in powerful, first-hand observations and clear explanations, demonstrating that community resistance will almost always contort bottom-up efforts at reforms like detracking. In the end, however, we must consider even imperfect implementation of equity-minded reforms to be hopeful moments in the struggle for a more socially just society." -- From the Foreword by Jeannie Oakes and Martin Lipton, coauthors of Teaching to Change the World