How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools

In this compelling account of Chicago school reform, key players join forces to build a promising future for the city's students. Policymakers empowered local communities. Funders invested in promising programs. Researchers studied pressing problems. Administrators cultivated capacity. And teachers delivered for kids. Despite daunting challenges and setbacks, these reformers achieved remarkable success." - Susan Moore Johnson, Jerome T. Murphy Research Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education

"How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools is a book of monumental importance. At a time when more is asked of public education than ever before, when racialized inequality continues to threaten the promise of public schooling, and when the fastest growing sector of the student population are youngsters of color, school districts should be looking for new approaches to do better for all students. In their new book, Tony Bryk joins some of the most important scholars working in education today to treat us to a panoramic overview of how systems can move the needle in serving all students. This book is the antimony to facile silver bullets, tired old quick-fixes, and magical thinking in education. It is the book every scholar, policy maker, superintendent, teacher, parent and concerned citizen needs to read." - Marcelo M. SuÁrez-Orozco, chancellor, University of Massachusetts, Boston, the UCLA Wasserman Dean Emeritus, and author of Education: A Global Compact for a Time of Crisis