If you're like me, you spend most of your limited reading time on the latest reports and articles. My book project, however, has given me a reason to go back and read some of the classics of the field, and I'm much better for it.
If you have the time and inclination, I highly recommend David Tyack's exceptional 1974 book,??The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education.
In a relatively small number of pages, it explains why urban districts look and behave as they do and how immigration, race, elitism, and more influenced the mix.
If you've ever wondered how such seemingly irrational and preternaturally low-performing institutions came into being and held on, this book is for you.