A BOOK REVIEW

Review of:

Peterson, P. (2010)?Saving Schools.?Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

Schools have gone through many phases of growth like in many other developing countries around the world. Education has developed through challenging stages of rise and fall yet it has always been one of the major concerns of political leaders. The book titled “Saving the Schools”, written by Paul E.Peterson (2010) seems to be a story of saving everyone linked to the schools - students from different socio economic background, race, color, ethnic background, different languages and having special needs, as well as teachers and educational personnel. It narrates a history of balancing the rights and responsibilities of people associated with schools in USA.?This book presents a nation, its leaders, institutions and people trying to save the schools from all kinds of negative effects.?

Various authors have taken into account the history of education in different forms. Some have talked about only K-12 education and some have also included higher education. Some have talked particularly about a certain reform movement and given its background and consequences; while others have chosen specifically any one of science education, teacher education or educational administration etc. Peterson focused on the reform movements for schools of USA and has done a marvelous job in capturing history of education by dividing it into three phases and explored through an analysis of efforts made by educational leaders in relation to other factors effecting education in those specific era.

He clearly mentions that the leaders were not alone in their struggle for the cause of changing the status quo but were a part of the “broader wave of forces” (p.13).?But in the last chapter he states that “Change requires a leader” (p.236); may be this belief has motivated him to explore history with reference to the “leaders” or “heroes” who played a key role in reform movements in education - Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Shanker, William Bennett,?James Coleman and Julie Young.?

Author has provided various kinds of evidence for each of the three phases to prove them as “rise, decline and resurrection”.?He has included detailed information about thinkers, researchers and leaders playing their roles; civil right movements to empower those who were being marginalized in anyway within education system; research findings supporting or rejecting a change; and legislative, constitutional and policy perspectives on various reforms. It is not only a book of history of American schools but it is a book of how the society and people struggled for the development of education together.

Going through the three phases of “rise, decline, resurrection” the author proves each reformer and reform movement succeeded to a large extent but it also brought some unintended or may be unforeseeable consequences. Therefore the movements in “rise” phase end up in “decline phase” of i.e. marked by its features like “rising expenditure but declining quality” (p.132) and “increasing centralization” (p.149). But the reformers still kept trying and finding ways to improve the educational stagnation. The author has brought the “resurrection” movements into account such as “the voucher program” (p.204), “charters in practice” (p.213), “home schooling” (p.221) and ended his discussion with new endeavor of “virtual education” (p.236) through educational technology that according to his analysis can be hope as well as a challenge for future.

First section of the book- “The Rise” consists of four chapters. Other than the introductory chapter all the other three are titled after the leaders of the movements being discussed. In the first chapter Peterson begins with his own memories of his schooling and shows how within his own years of school the change had occurred in schools (p. 1-3). Then he discusses how education developed and declined over time. He has provided an interesting example of a “professor at John Hopkins University” who used a test with his students in 2006 that he had once used in 1989, to prove his claim “even the highest performing students do not excel at the same level as students once did” (p.10). In the further three Chapters about Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr. respectively he has provided brief life histories of each of the three leaders or “heroes” as he calls them. ?

For every leader, the also brings into light the social scenarios and educational developments that had already occurred or were going on while these leaders were struggling for their specific goals. For instance he provides background for Horace Mann’s work by telling about the ideas of “17th?century political theorists John Lock” about politics and education (p.22) and the ideas of public education by describing how Thomas Paine, Benjamin Rush and Thomas Jafferson looked at it. After addressing how the schools were developing like “extensions of home schools” under the religious influences (p.22-26), he then moves on to the work done by Horace Mann and his fellows, whom he calls “The Nation Builders” (p.26). Within this struggle for of public education he has explored the growth of “compulsory education” beginning from Massachusetts in 1852 and to “compulsory education laws” in all states by 1918 (p 30-31). Further the emergence of issues like “anti-immigrants, language, private schools and segregated schooling” is discussed which provides the background of the next movements of progressive education.

Beginning with the life history of John Dewey the author highlights the similarities between him and Horace Mann’s life e.g. “born and raised in a small town New England”, experiences with religious education and being “fatherless in adolescence” (p.38). But “Mann’s Educational Agenda had been shaped by Enlightenment rationalism” while “Dewey fashioned a pragmatist philosophy” (p.41). The author then explores Dewey’s “Progressive Pedagogy” (p.41) that was mainly rooted in his “Laboratory School” (p.42), and the “organizational reforms” (p.45) that involved school boards and state legislators; this movement was not aimed only for a push towards “larger district schools” (p.48) but it aimed for change in power structures, which according to Peterson never happened completely.

?“Could schools even when led by sophisticated professionals, actually change social order?” (p.50) is one of the questions that author poses and leaves them unanswered while moving on to the next movement of “School Desegregation” lead by Martin Luther King Jr. He begins with indicating two clauses – “the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses” of “Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution” being there since 1868 but not being addressed till 1954 when the Supreme Court declared “a ban on segregation of students by race” (p.52).?Presenting a life history of Martin King Luther Jr. the author again gives a comparison of his ideology with Dewey: “much like Dewey, King discerned a middle way between capitalism and communism” (p.55). For King he mentions “progress was not in evitable, and pacifist acceptance of status quo could not be tolerated” (p.56). He explores then how the desegregation movement that did not have a very fast pace before King’s involvement, “picked up dramatically in 1968” (p.60) but then after 1972 it had faded again. The “Coleman I” project report 1966 supported desegregation as it proved the positive effect of having “white or higher socio-economic status” fellow on “a low-income African American child” (p.71). The desegregation movement ended in mixed results in different states and districts due to different reactions from white as well as African American populations and legislature.

Section two – “The Decline” does not begin with a leader’s history but tells the second half of the story of desegregation movement, which did not give the intended results. The chapter “Rights Movement Diversifies” (p. 79-104) covers detailed analysis of a range of events and change processes going on within the era of “decline” as the author calls it. It includes “Customization” of schools through “Due Process Rights” (p.82), “Disability Law and Practice” (p.87), and “From Bilingual Education to English Language Learners” (p.96).??His analysis of these three change processes relates back and forth with the other historical events and movements but according to Peterson “in all three cases it was the law and its interpretation, not the pedagogical ideas or insight that transformed the schools” (p.104). Then there is the next movement of “Collective Bargaining” that he explores with the leadership of Albert Shanker in the next chapter.

Peterson opens the new chapter with “Historical Practice” section which mainly describes how it was seen impossible till 1950s to have “collective bargain” with Government specifically in “civil services” (p.106). Then he gives the life history of Albert Shanker and he became an active member of “an anti-communist?organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor” after he himself facing difficulties as a teacher (p.109).?The chapter further elaborates the movement of “collective bargain” through explaining the role of different organizations and unions like “High School Teachers’ Association” and “Teachers Guild” merging into “United Federation of Teachers” Shanker becoming its president and the interactions between American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association for saving the “civil rights of teachers” (p. 110-114). Then exploring the “Rights in Conflict” addresses how the teachers’ rights were in conflict with the rights of the learners as laid down by the progressives and their proponents.?Along with the battles of rights Peterson also mentions how on the one hand the “quality of teaching profession” had “deteriorated” within a period of 50 years from 1960s to 1990s (p.119) and how it brought “Unions on the Defensive” position. On the other hand “Teacher certification” being mandatory had still not proved to provide effective teachers which opened ways for alternative routes. Unions oppose it and also the “uniform salary schedules” (p.123). But the results are not as intended by the unions and their leaders.

Another significant chapter describing “The Decline” is “Money and the Adequacy Lawsuit” which elaborates how the costs have gone up and quality has gone down over the years. Peterson has examined these features not only by providing the cost records and quality reports but has also explained in detail the ideas of “Fiscal Equity” (p.136) and “Fiscal Adequacy” (p.143).?His analyses are summarized to a large extent in the following passage:

“The centralization of finance was probably inevitable given the economic reality that schools were facing. As labor-intensive industry, education is doomed a treadmill of rising costs and declining adequacy. Any industry that fails to keep pace with productivity gains in the overall economy will necessarily become more expensive or decline in economy.” (p.150)

The next chapter then addresses a “Demand for Accountability” movement lead by William Bennett. The previous discussion on equity and adequacy provides genuine bases for this movement. The report “A Nation at Risk” proved the declining features of education. Peterson here again provides the brief life history of William Bennett and then gives the “Origins of Accountability” (p.164) on the bases of Bennett’s “three Cs- content, character and choice” (p.157) and the first and last C not being “compatible with each other” (p.164). He identifies the “National Assessment of Educational Progress” as being an initial step towards accountability, though it was not the clear cut goal of it. He then reports the breakdown of “old-fashioned system of accountability” and strengthening of “centralized forms of assessment” (p.169). “No Child Left Behind” then gave a new dimension to accountability by “allowing each state to establish its own standards and its own definition of proficiency” (p.175). According to Peterson this is not at all a step towards “introducing excellence into American education” as this allows states to set standards at various levels which does not ensure quality.

Section three of the book “Signs of Resurrection” gives hopes for future of education in USA. But this is the smallest portion of the book which makes reader think it has not been long or enough since the “Resurrection” began.?It begins with a Chapter on “James Coleman and Choice Theory” (p.183). According to Peterson though there are similarities between the two but “Coleman’s work was more disciplined that Dewey’s” (p.184) and the reason he gives for that is that “Coleman could test his ideas in ways un available to Dewey” (p.185) Coleman being a social theorist on the bases of his research advocated for giving parents and students the choice of which school to attend. It was similar idea given in seventeenth century by the theorists. The three reports – Coleman I, II and III, were the outcomes of large surveys and identified various features of how various kinds of schooling affected student performance. Besides these reports also received much criticism the “school choice” found a place on “national political agenda” (p.195). Peterson himself being one of the researchers at Harvard, has reported with marked neutrality how various research reports, educational dataset and critiques had pointed out flaws in their own research results.

The next chapter “The Practice of Choice” begins with describing how and why Milwaukee had the first voucher program and in the subtitle author puts a question mark on “The Last” showing it may or may not be so. (p. 204). Describing the dynamics in voucher schools?author then describes how Charter school theory became popular and got acceptance. But on the other hand he also identifies the reasons of “no less than 10 percent of all Charter start-ups” having shut down for which he accounts “imprudent or fraudulent business practices” as reasons (p.219).?Elaborating on success and failures faced by charters he then introduces “Home Schooling” as “the fastest growing alternative to country’s district schools” (p.221). He relates this back to the “choice movement” and calls it the “most profound and successful expression” of it (p.228).?

The previous chapter discussed above once again seems to be providing bases for the last chapter about “virtual schooling”. Peterson gives a detailed description of how Florida Virtual School near Orlando is working. He has marked Julie Young being different from all other leaders, and has described her “Normalcy” as the main feature of her career (p.237). He then has explained how virtual education works and is getting better with the development of technology on one hand and virtual schooling pedagogy and curriculum on the other. The most promising features of this new type of schooling are “customization” and “co-production” which is not possible in any other form of schooling (p.252). These capabilities along with being economically beneficial, makes it even more attractive. But then he also points out the possible “The Roadblocks” not only from the “school districts and teacher unions” but also with the “competing providers” (p.256-257). He has also addressed the “Transparency and Accountability” issues related to such innovative system of schooling. And the most significant point given in his final thoughts is about as usual this initiative being adopted by the rich instead of those in need. This indicates as if the “virtual schooling” is cost effective for the providers but may be not economical for the people.

Conclusion

In this book Peterson not only described the historical and socio-political events but provides a clear analysis of the after effects of those events on changing school education. He has given a comprehensive commentary on how the struggle of these leaders became a vital part of the policy and legal changes occurring for educational development in USA. It is not that every struggle resulted in the desired change scenario. But the efforts made by these leaders and their successors brought visible changes, which then became the bases of further reform movements. Virtual schooling is something like the latest movement within schools but it is interesting that within a book titled “Saving Schools” ends up with a movement that alters the physical nature of schools and gives it a new meaning altogether. It leaves many features unexplored because still neither research findings nor policy perspectives are clear about this new dimension in education. Hence it is hard for a reader to believe that this is another equally strong movement that may or may not have as long-lasting inscriptions as other movements did.?