Amanda Datnow, Lea Hubbard and Hugh Mehan
2002
This is a fascinating book about efforts to replicate "school reform designs" across the United States. The authors, writing for the Educational Change and Development Series (an English/Canadian/American research initiative), note the sheer number of schools that have "redesigned" themselves based on external models developed elsewhere. For example, more than 2000 schools are implementing the New American Schools reform designs. The authors contend that the growth in pre-packaged curricular and instructional models is directly related to the increased political pressure educators feel to improve test scores. Schools that are seen as struggling or failing are often given an ultimatum by district or state administrators-either redesign what you are doing yourself or find a model that works and implement it. Many principals choose the latter course. The authors make clear, however, that reforming a school is a messy undertaking, and that "schools change reforms as much as reforms change schools." There are many reasons why successfully importing an educational model into a successful real-life school is devilishly difficult, and much of this book is dedicated to understanding these reasons. For example, in the final analysis, teachers will make or break any effort at redesigning a school. If teachers feel change is being forced on them, they will merely resist the effort as little more than the reform du jour that simply needs to be waited out. A second lesson could almost be called the John Lennon principle- "life is what you're doing while you are busy making other plans." Reform efforts often dissipate over time as school leaders and teachers get swamped by the mundane, never-ending details of everyday life in a school-holding meetings, assigning tasks, carrying them out, settling petty feuds, etc. Time is not a reformer's best friend. To learn more about this book go to http://www.routledgefalmer.com. (Click on "catalogue" and search by title or author)
