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ERIC Number: ED421605
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1997
Pages: 338
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: ISBN-0-292-77719-1
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Community Organizing for Urban School Reform.
Shirley, Dennis
This book tells the story of an innovative approach to educational change in urban schools. Using a case study approach, the book describes how working class parents, public school teachers, clergy, social workers, business partners, and other engaged citizens have worked to improve education in inner-city schools. Their combined efforts are linked through the community organizations of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), which have developed a network of over 100 "alliance" schools in poor and working-class neighborhoods throughout Texas. The economic dislocations, decline in political participation, and social disorganization that characterize the national educational predicament are described, and then background information is given on the origins of the IAF in Texas. The organization's philosophy of education and its strategies of community organizing around issues of school change and neighborhood development are reviewed. The narrative then moves to case studies in which local organizations of the Texas IAF have mobilized low-income citizens for new networks. The case studies are not limited to individual schools, but include both citywide and statewide initiatives that reflect the capacity of community-based organizations to develop political power. The following chapters are included: (1) "The Contemporary Context"; (2) "Moving Schools into the Power Arena"; (3) "Morningside Middle School: Starting a Path for Change"; (4) "Jefferson Davis High School: The Struggle for Reform"; (5) "Ysleta Elementary School: From Parental Engagement to a New School"; (6) "Zavala Elementary School: Learning the Tools of Democracy"; (7) "San Antonio: Building Networks of Reform throughout the City"; (8) "Texas: Alliance Schools throughout the State"; (9) "Resistance to Change"; (10) "The Pursuit of Success"; (11) "'A Great Truth Wants To Be Criticized'"; and (12) "Building Laboratories of Democracy." (Contains 130 references.) (SLD)
University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819 (paperback: ISBN-0-292-77719-1; clothbound: ISBN-0-292-77718-3).
Publication Type: Books; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A