Clarence Stone, Jeffrey Henig, Bryan Jones and Carol Pierannunzi, 2001
In this book from the University Press of Kansas, a quartet of political scientists develops the concept of "civic capacity" as a way - the best way - to bring about true education reform. It's not just an education policy book, however. Though its guts are based on the authors' NSF-funded study of education change in eleven cities (including some 500 interviews), the book's real purpose is to develop a new theory of political change, one that centers on the creation and use of civic capacity in a community. It partakes of Coleman's and Putnam's work on "social capital" but faults that work for being too taken with private relationships and organizations and insufficiently attentive to the role of government. It also draws on, and praises, Paul Hill's work ("It Takes a City....") but suggests that Hill and colleagues also exaggerate the roles of non-governmental entities and forces. These authors harbor no doubt that "Government is not simply one among many equal social entities. It is the unit best suited to generate a collective sense of purpose when one is missing, to coordinate or coerce action when interests remain disparate, and to provide a vehicle for democratic control." They emphasize that it's the general-purpose government (i.e. mayor, city council, etc.) that they place this confidence in, not the separate governance system that characterizes public education in most American communities. So they tend to favor mayoral leadership of education reform. But they save their real enthusiasm for the nebulous idea of building a "substantial civic coalition." And they're dismayingly agnostic about what sorts of education reforms are worth making. Though they say "attention must center on academic performance," they don't really seem to care what changes or interventions occur in attempting to boost that performance, so long as everybody is on board. And this, to me, is the key weakness in their thinking: they've persuaded themselves that productive education change is most apt to occur in a consensual manner with all the stakeholders aboard. I have yet to see a place where any serious education reforms get made that way, i.e. without major friction, conflict and old-fashioned politics whereby some interests are involuntarily subordinated to others. To me, requiring stakeholder assent ordinarily leads to the perpetuation of the status quo, not to fundamental reform designed to benefit children. Still, this is a thoughtful and perceptive book that many people will want to read for themselves. Be warned that it's 200 pages long and a mite dry. The ISBN is 0700611185, and you can find it on the web at http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/stobui.html.
