Practice of School Reform, The: Lessons from Two Centuries

Former high school teacher, school leader, activist, consultant, and now professor of education James Nehring combines vivid case studies with practical suggestions to describe how the system works to thwart good schools and what educators can do to improve them. In this book he paints the big picture of school reform in the United States, deftly distilling broad cultural patterns into useful advice for reform-minded educators. Bringing history alive through the carefully rendered stories of five schools past and present that have successfully swum against the mainstream, Nehring shows how educators can overcome the lie of the quick fix through mindful adaptation. The Practice of School Reform is a highly readable diagnosis of some of education's deepest ills and provides practical prescriptions that can empower educators to remedy them.

Through vivid stories of real schools—both contemporary and historical—provides practical advice for educators struggling for change.

James Nehring is Assistant Professor in the Leadership in Schooling Program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is the author of The School within Us: The Creation of an Innovative Public School, also published by SUNY Press, and Upstart Startup: Creating and Sustaining a Public Charter School.