Jonathan Schorr
August 2002
Jonathan Schorr, a "former teacher and urban education journalist," authored this institutional biography of two Oakland charter schools during their first three years. It nicely evokes the promise of and challenges faced by those who would start charter schools, as well as the dreams and desperation of those who entrust their children to these new educational institutions. Neither of the schools that Schorr followed did a good job of getting off the ground, and this is very much a warts-and-all report on them. But he matches their stories with a clear-eyed view of the potential of charter schools as a (partial) solution to the problems of urban education, and ends with sage policy ideas for maximizing the return on that potential. It's not, at heart, a "policy book," however. It's a well-written, emotions-tapping, human-interest tale with heroes, villains and all the rest. The ISBN is 0345447026, the publisher is Ballantine and you can obtain further information at http://www.randomhouse.com/BB/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0345447026.
