EDST 137: Leading Change in City Schools: Urban Education Reform in Action

Public education has long strived to be society’s “great equalizer.” Yet, throughout its history, the American education system has failed to deliver on this promise. In this course, we will examine specific high-profile and popular system-level reform initiatives aimed at improving urban public schools. For example, we will investigate New York City’s efforts to improve high schools and develop a “college for all” culture, Boston’s focus on teacher quality, and Denver’s school choice initiative. We will meet key leaders of these reforms: district level policy makers, principals, teachers, non-profit leaders and funders who collectively developed theories of action, negotiated new policies, and implemented the reforms with students. We will dive deep into their work to understand how political, economic, and cultural systems have enabled and constrained it, and

we will review the growing body of research on these reforms. Through course assignments, students will have opportunities to further investigate initiatives that interest them by visiting schools, interviewing education leaders, synthesizing research, and reflecting on whether and how recent reforms have influenced their own educational experiences.