So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools

Abstract

As Charles Payne states in his introduction, this book is about failure, frustration, and struggle: After nearly half a century of educational reforms any promised change has not come through. What happened? Was it lack of implementation? Weak policies? Inadequate leadership? Is anyone to be blamed? Lots of questions could be posed in order to understand the breakdown of the latest reforms in education. First it is necessary to be aware of the difference between reform and change. Not all change in education is produced by reform and not all reforms bring about change. In other words, reform as a deliberated intervention in education through policy may or may not generate change. The occurrence of educational change could be driven by different factors that are not necessarily related to policy. Payne aims to explore factors involved in what he calls the sociology of failure, focusing mainly on the phenomenon of demoralization, which in his view, is the most common symptom of dysfunctionality in schools. Examples include (a) the lack of trust, (b) the lack of collegiality, (c) the disenchantment, and (d) the disillusion that dwell in the most troubled schools where no reform attempt has succeeded in years. Although parts of the study use the city of Chicago as background, the stories and experiences can be easily extrapolated to other contexts. Certainly, this is not a locally focused book: The challenges of reform, implementation, and change that Chicago schools face, are faced by school districts throughout Canada as they become more diverse and multicultural. Payne states two methodological points at the beginning:

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