Takes a detailed history of the Austin, Texas, school district, under Superintendent Pat Forgione, to ask the question that few politicians and school reformers want to touch. Given effective use of widely welcomed reforms, can school policies and practices put all children at the same academic level? Are class and ethnic differences in academic performance within the power of schools to change? Argues that the overall district has shown much improvement,...

"Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice takes as its starting point a strikingly blunt question: 'With so many major structural changes in U.S. public schools over the past century, why have classroom practices been largely stable, with a modest blending of new and old teaching practices, leaving contemporary classroom lessons familiar to earlier generations of school-goers?' It is a question that ought to be of paramount interest to all who are...

Published to coincide with the PBS special on public education, this collection of writings by the nation's most renowned historians of education chronicles the story of America's grand experiment in public education.