Overview

In Confessions of a School Reformer, eminent historian of education Larry Cuban reflects on nearly a century of education reforms and his experiences with them as a student, educator, and administrator. Cuban begins his own story in the 1930s, when he entered first grade at a Pittsburgh public school, the youngest son of Russian immigrants who placed great stock in the promises of education. With a keen historian's eye, Cuban expands his personal narrative to analyze the overlapping social, political, and economic movements that have attempted to influence public schooling in the United States since the beginning of the twentieth century. He documents how education both has and has not been altered by the efforts of the Progressive movement of the first half of the twentieth century, the Civil Rights Movement of the fifties through the seventies, and the standards-based school reform movement of the eighties through today. Cuban points out how these dissimilar movements nevertheless shared a belief that school change could promote student success and also forge a path toward a stronger economy and a more equitable society. He relates the triumphs of these school reform efforts as well as more modest successes and unintended outcomes. Interwoven with Cuban's evaluations and remembrances are his ""confessions,"" in which he accounts for the beliefs he held and later rejected, as well as mistakes and areas of weakness that he has found in his own ideology. Ultimately, Cuban remarks with a tempered optimism on what schools can and cannot do in American democracy.

Full Product Details

9781682536957

Table of Contents

Reviews

Confessions of a School Reformer combines personal memoir with a history and analysis of U.S. school reform efforts over the past century, seeking to show how Cuban's own life and career have been entangled with that history and the lessons he has drawn from that junction. This sober-verging-on-glum analysis cannot be termed encouraging, but it's based on a great deal of experience, reflection, and hard-won wisdom. It's an ambitious undertaking that is ultimately illuminating and sobering. -- Thomas Fordham Institute

Author Information

Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available