Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-city Schools and the New PaternalismThe most exciting innovation in education policy in the last decade is the emergence of highly effective schools in our nation's inner cities, schools where disadvantaged teens make enormous gains in academic achievement. In this book, the author takes readers inside six of these secondary schools and reveals the secret to their success: they are paternalistic. These schools share a paternalistic ethos supporting a common school culture that prizes academic achievement, teach teens how to act according to traditional, middle-class values (e.g., diligence, politeness, cleanliness, and thrift) set and enforce exacting academic standards, and closely supervise student behavior. But unlike paternalistic institutions of the past, these schools are warm, caring places, where teachers and principals form paternal-like bonds with students. In the first two chapters, the author describes how paternalism works and what it is up against. Chapters 3 through 8 supply the school-specific case studies. These include the the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, Amistad Academy in New Haven, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, KIPP Academy in the Bronx, the SEED school in Washington, D.C., and University Park Campus School in Worcester. The two concluding chapters draws lessons and generalizations from the school profiles and examines the prospects for replicating these schools by the hundreds. (Contains 9 tables and 299 endnotes.) [Additional funding for this project was provided by the Searle Freedom Trust. Foreword by Chester E. Finn Jr. and Marci Kanstoroom.]. |
Contents
The Achievement Gap and Education Reform | 10 |
The Rise Fall and Rise of Paternalism | 34 |
The American Indian Public Charter School | 68 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
academic achievement achievement gap Adler AIPCS American Indian Public Amistad Academy attend average Barack Obama behavior Ben Chavis boarding schools Bronx charter schools Chavis Chavis's classroom closing the achievement college-prep Concepcion Cristo Rey Network CRJHS culture curriculum district Economic Policy Institute eighth graders English enrolled failing families Feinberg fifth graders grade graduates high school Hispanic homework Ibid Indian Public Charter inner-city schools Institute instruction JROTC kids KIPP Academy KIPP Foundation KIPP schools KIPP's Latino Lou Gehrig math middle school neighborhood schools Network no-excuses schools Oakland orchestra orphanages Pat Garrity paternalism paternalistic schools percent performance poor proficient Public Charter School public schools pupils reading replication Richard Rothstein Rodrigues says school day school reform secondary schools SEED School SEED's seventh graders skills South Bronx success Teach for America teaching test scores Toll UPCS urban schools Vinnakota Washington work-study program York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-city Schools and the New Paternalism |
| Author | David Whitman |
| Edition | 2 |
| Publisher | Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 2008 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Sep 20, 2010 |
| ISBN | 0615214088, 9780615214085 |
| Length | 365 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |