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Nobody disputes the fact that inner-city schools are going to the dogs. Poor facilities, shell-shocked teachers, and hostile, apathetic students are frequent topics on the evening news, as are the supposed solutions for these problems: school vouchers, school uniforms, teacher testing, and the like. In Ghetto Schooling, author Jean Anyon exposes the futility of such social band-aids on the gaping wound that is ghetto education. Anyon starts with the premise that urban education's problems lie not within the schools themselves but rather in the "economic and political devastation" of the cities. It is the poverty, the racial isolation, and the lack of political clout that dooms inner-city schools to failure, Anyon posits, and she backs up her thesis with solid evidence: her own experiences as a school reformer in Newark, New Jersey.
Ghetto Schooling is filled with interviews, media reports and Anyon's eyewitness account of the sorry state of Newark schools and reformers' Sisyphean task of trying to make changes in the midst of urban decay and governmental indifference. Anyon concludes that it is racial, class, and ethnic discrimination at governmental levels that has led to the neglect of inner cities and, by association, their schools. The problems Anyon discusses and the solutions she proposes are not limited to the Newark city schools; they could be implemented in other urban school districts across the country. For anyone interested in the state of education in America's cities today, Ghetto Schooling is an important, if troubling, read.
Customer Reviews:
The direct effect of the city on schooling.......2005-05-24
Ghetto schooling touches on the failure of inner city schools but especially the failure of the school system in Newark, NJ. She takes a look at the expansive school system from the years 1860- 1997. Her book looks at the failure of school reform but better yet the failure of the city and how it has failed to educate it's minority students through mismangement of money to political partronage that promotes unskilled teachers and adminstrators. She traces the school system as a product of the development of the city. To Jean Anyon, the city has a direct effect on the progress of the school. As she states, "The contours and fortunes of schools in the twentieth centruy have also been intimately linked to the economic transformations of the city--and to federal and state policy as well as to local and national corporate decision making" (156). In stating what she feels is an obvious, Anyon describes the rise and fall of Newark and how fiscal prosperiety directly affected the quality of schooling. She states that through several discriminatory practices by federal and state governments such as redlining, housing segregation, financial disparity between districts and even efforts by corporations to restrict municipal spending and borrowing, education in Newark took a turn for the worst. She also says that the decline in quality of education is aligned with the increase of minorities into the city and the exodus of middle class residents to the suburbs. Anyon does a good job of presenting the historical factors that have influenced education in the city. She also shows how this has occured in other major cities. Another selling pointo f the argurment is that she presents a reform agenda that although expensive does to the root of the "underclass" urban education problem. While in no way belittling the residents of the inner cities she calls for action from these individuals and how their participation in the process strenthens the ties of the community to education. Anyon's book is only the beginning in a long line of cities that are afflicted by the same ailments as Newark, NJ.
Ghetto Schooling Review.......2002-11-18
Since as far back as formal education existed, Newark NJ school district has suffered from numerous problems. In the book Ghetto Schooling - A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform, Jean Anyon deals with the topic of the Newark school district and what has been done and what should be done in the future. The book begins with her experience of being in the Newark School system (Marcy School) as a member of a group trying to restructure eight schools in this school district. Then she follows up with a chronological break down by era of what went on in the Newark district and around the country. The book begins in the present, goes to the past, and finishes up with how we are supposed to learn from our past.
In the present time, we see schools that are ill equipped, dirty, having unqualified staff, and chaos. These children come from poor homes (if they have a home), with chaotic lives, neglect, abuse, histories of poor helth and chronic health problems, emotional stress, anxiety and anger (Anyon, 1997). If the children are coming from home environments like this, it does not seem that it would take much to make them want to come to school. However, quite a few students that were interviewed did not want to be there. Why? They did not respect the teachers. They thought the teachers were only there for the money or could not find a job anywhere else. One student did not like the abuse inflicted upon the students by the teachers. This section of the book is the one that stands out above all else. The reason being, I cannot believe how these students are handled. What these teachers say and do is uncalled for. This stems from the fact that these teachers do not have the proper training to be a teacher. We are not going to stop this vicious cycle if we do not train these teachers. We learn how to parent from our parents, and how to teach from past teachers, unless otherwise trained. If I did not get anything else out of this book, I do know how not to teach.
I am sure the information presented in this book is all true. It is just hard for me to fathom that a school district was ran this way without little interference from the outside. I know if this were the education my children were getting, I would definitely have something to say about it. I would be at every board meeting, every PTO and PTA meeting, be up at the school during class time, and hold these people accountable as well as my child. I have never been to or worked in a school of this nature. I also hope I never will. If I did though, I would pray that I would be a better, more caring, understanding teacher than the ones presented.
I found this book to be a hard read. It included entirely too many statistics. If I had to come up with my favorite part of the book, it would be part 1. It was real and easier to read. My least favorite part was Chapter 7 - Class, Race, Taxes, and State Educational Reform: 1970-1997. It was cumbersome to say the least. It seemed to have more statistics than any other chapter. If I could change one thing about this book it would be to reduce the amount of numbers included and include more real life situations.
Revisiting Marcy School got my attention again. It almost felt like I was there. I am not sure it is a place I would want to be. I know I would not go at this time in my life. I am not equipped to teach these kids. I sub in a small school district in Illinois and experience none of this. I probably would do more harm to these children than good. On the other hand, it sounds like they just need someone to care for them and let them know they are cared for. It broke my heart to hear what the white teacher had to say. She said,
" These kids have major problems! Incest, drugs, the girls to from boyfriend to boyfriend. You look at them and say `what's the matter,' and they cannot tell you. I have a little boy [in first grade] who's wondering where his mother went. No one knows. No wonder things go in one ear and out the other [when you're trying to teach them]."
Another teacher said,
"We think, `they're only going to sweep floors' - why teach them science?"
And another added,
"When you realize who they [the students] are, you laugh, and you can't take it [teaching] seriously."(Anyon, 1997)
These statements made me want to help these boys and girls. Saying they were only going to sweep floors is such a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even if that is what they are going to do, science may help them someday. If these teachers cannot take teaching seriously, who could? These students need more teaching and caring than the average student does.
Jean Anyon appears to have all the qualifications needed to write a book of this nature. As the books states she has her Ph.D., and is an Associate Professor at Rutgers University. She taught elementary grades in inner city schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY; Philadelphia; and Washington D.C. She is Director of the Institute for Research in Urban Education on the Rutgers-Newark Campus. She has published widely on the relation of social class and race to issues of curriculum, equity, classroom practice, and school reform. This is her first book (Anyon, 1997).
If I were asked if I would recommend this book to someone else, I would definitely respond with a hearty NO! If you are interested in research for this subject, you might find some useful information, with some careful reading. This just was not a book I could not put down. Usually I want to read a book from cover to cover in one sitting. This book seemed to be never ending.
A look into inner city schools and reform.......2002-11-14
Anyon gives us a glimpse into the world of inner city schooling and everything that goes with it. This is an eye opening journey for educators that do not teach in the inner city schools. I do feel that she is way off and don't believe that some of her suggestions would actually work to improve the schools. She has not herself worked as an educator in the inner city schools. So how does she know that what she is reccommending will work?
She does make a good point and that new funding is needed in the schools. It is just a matter of where to get those funds. I do believe that educationing our young children is a responsiblity for all of America, therefore everyone should help in the funding process. I do not think that one soul contributor should be used.
Thoughts on Ghetto Schooling.......2002-11-12
Jean Anyon's book, Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform paints a harrowing portrait of the struggles of those who have a role in inner-city schools. It is written in three parts that address the present situation, reflect upon the past, and look to the future, respectively. The book took several years to write due to the level of research involved for the historical content, but the personal account was based on four years of the author's participation in the reform effort in Newark, New Jersey, beginning in 1992. The reform efforts targeted eight schools in the central section of the city. (On a broader note, the historical text of the book points out that the decline of the schools really began in the 1930s.) The book begins by showing the present state of education within the reform district, but then postulates the reasons for this status by looking at the historical foundations of the problems. In the first chapter of part two, Anyon begins the historical breakdown by looking at early situation with educating the children of the many immigrants who came to Newark beginning in the 1860s. Despite early attempts at reform, the seeds had already been planted for the disenfranchisement seen today. The historical context of Anyon's research design shows decade by decade the continual decay of the Newark schools. Reform efforts were suggested, but never truly implemented. After the period of organized crime and municipal scandals had arrived, Anyon notes that:
"Because there was no rescue of the Newark educational system in 1968, it would continue to limp along, and further generations of Newark children-the grandchildren, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of the southern rural immigrants-would
join their parents in the ranks of the uneducated and the undereducated. Many would therefore be unable to participate in the economic and political institutions of U.S. society" (p. 127).
This generational cycle of poverty and hopelessness is at the heart of Anyon's determination that changes can only be effective if they consider the sociocultural status and economic plight of those involved. I found the accounts in the book to be a revelation to say the least. I think people like myself who are born and raised outside urban areas live in blissful ignorance as to the true state of education for the thousands trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. I like that Anyon takes such an honest approach to her research, realizing that to be effective she must be disclose everything she witnessed. The only change I would like to see is the statistical information presented in some type of graph form so that it would be easier to read and interpret. Otherwise, I found the book to be an invaluable read as a future educator. In fact, it has made me think beyond the world of education and to ponder my place among the human race and the responsibility I must take for needs of my fellow man and the generations to come.
Review of Ghetto Schooling.......2002-11-11
Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Education Reform, is an interesting explanation of the case study done by the author, Jean Anyon. Anyon was a part of the attempted educational reform of the Newark, New Jersey schools in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Although most of her personal contact was with the faculty, staff, administration, parents, and children of the Marcy school, she gives the historical background for the Newark schools system starting in 1860. This history ventures all of the way to the present, which includes her personal experience in the reform process. Although the reform process in which she participated in failed, she did learn a great deal and shared a lot of insight about school reform. Her main point was that reform would not happen until the economic and political systems that surround the schools are transformed, neither would the schools be transformed. (Anyon 13) I found this book to be informative and insightful. Through this reading I have a better understanding of the inner city school setting, and how much help is needed there. Unfortunately, as Anyon point out, money is not the answer. The answer is reform on the larger scale. This book helped me to see this. Additionally, because of my current quest to become a teacher this booked helped me to prepare for some of the obstacles I may face. Although I will probably never teach at a school like those in the Newark district, it is very beneficial to my learning process to see the problem that plague the educational community. I am glad this book was part of my college curriculum.
Book Description
This book examines the fundamental role of politics in funding our public schools and fills a conceptual imbalance in the current literature in school finance and educational policy. Unlike those who are primarily concerned about cost efficiency, Kenneth Wong specifies how resources are allocated for what purposes at different levels of the government. In contrast to those who focus on litigation as a way to reduce funding gaps, he underscores institutional stalemate and the lack of political will to act as important factors that affect legislative deadlock in school finance reform.
Wong defines how politics has sustained various types of "rules" that affect the allocation of resources at the federal, state, and local level. While these rules have been remarkably stable over the past twenty to thirty years, they have often worked at cross-purposes by fragmenting policy and constraining the education process at schools with the greatest needs.
Wong's examination is shaped by several questions. How do these rules come about? What role does politics play in retention of the rules? Do the federal, state, and local governments espouse different policies? In what ways do these policies operate at cross-purposes? How do they affect educational opportunities? Do the policies cohere in ways that promote better and more equitable student outcomes?
Wong concludes that the five types of entrenched rules for resource allocation are rooted in existing governance arrangements and seemingly impervious to partisan shifts, interest group pressures, and constitutional challenge. And because these rules foster policy fragmentation and embody initiatives out of step with the performance-based reform agenda of the 1990s, the outlook for positive change in public education is uncertain unless fairly radical approaches are employed.
Wong also analyzes four allocative reform models, two based on the assumption that existing political structures are unlikely to change and two that seek to empower actors at the school level. The two models for systemwide restructuring, aimed at intergovernmental coordination and/or integrated governance, would seek to clarify responsibilities for public education among federal, state, and local authorities--above all, integrating political and educational accountability. The other two models identified by Wong shift control from state and district to the schoool, one based on local leadership and the other based on market forces. In discussing the guiding principles of the four models, Wong takes care to identify both the potential and limitations of each.
Written with a broad policy audience in mind, Wong's book should appeal to professionals interested in the politics of educational reform and to teachers of courses dealing with educational policy and administration and intergovernmental relations.
This book is part of the Studies in Government and Public Policy series.
Book Description
Transitions to democracy from authoritarian political systems have often occurred at times of economic crisis. The reforms required to transform the economic systems often cause sever material hardships for vast sectors of the population. Hence, new democracies forming under such circumstances confront a formidable challenge: to consolidate the nascent political institutions under conditions of economic hardship.
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The Political Economy of Power Sector Reform: The Experiences of Five Major Developing Countries
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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 Labor Policy
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ASIN: 0521865026 |
Book Description
Over the last fifteen years the world's largest developing countries have initiated market reforms in their electric power sectors from generation to distribution. This book evaluates the experiences of five of those countries - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa - as they have shifted from state-dominated systems to schemes allowing for a larger private sector role. As well as having the largest power systems in their regions and among the most rapidly rising consumption of electricity in the world, these countries are the locus of massive financial investment and the effects of their power systems are increasingly felt in world fuel markets. In-depth case studies also reveal important variations in reform efforts. This accessible volume explains the origins of these reform efforts and offers a theory as to why - despite diverse backgrounds - reform efforts in all five countries have stalled in similar ways.
Book Description
In the past decade, China was able to carry out economic reform without political reform, while the Soviet Union attempted the opposite strategy. How did China succeed at economic market reform without changing communist rule? Susan Shirk shows that Chinese communist political institutions are more flexible and less centralized than their Soviet counterparts were.
Shirk pioneers a rational choice institutional approach to analyze policy-making in a non-democratic authoritarian country and to explain the history of Chinese market reforms from 1979 to the present. Drawing on extensive interviews with high-level Chinese officials, she pieces together detailed histories of economic reform policy decisions and shows how the political logic of Chinese communist institutions shaped those decisions.
Combining theoretical ambition with the flavor of on-the-ground policy-making in Beijing, this book is a major contribution to the study of reform in China and other communist countries.
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The Political Economy of Tax Reform (National Bureau of Economic Research-East Asia Seminar on Economics)
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0226386678 |
Book Description
The rapid emergence of East Asia as an important geopolitical-economic entity has been one of the most visible and striking changes in the international economy in recent years. With that emergence has come an increased need for understanding the problems of interdependence. As a step toward meeting this need, the National Bureau of Economic Research joined with the Korea Development Institute to sponsor this volume, which focuses on the complexities of tax reform in a global economy.
Experts from Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand, as well as the United States, Canada, and Israel examine the major tax programs of the 1980s and their domestic and international economic effects. The analyses reveal similarities between the United States and countries in East Asia in political constraints on policy making, and taken together they show how growing interdependence interacts with domestic economic and political concerns to affect issues as politically vital as tax reform. Economists, policymakers, and members of the business community will benefit from these studies.
Book Description
The quest for freedom from hunger and repression has triggered in recent years a worldwide movement toward political democracy and economic rationality. Never have so many people experimented with democratic institutions. At the same time, traditional strategies of economic development have collapsed in Eastern Europe and Latin America and entire economic systems are being transformed on both continents. What should we expect in the countries that venture on the paths to democracy and markets? Will these transitions result in democracies or in new dictatorships? What economic system, new or old, will emerge? This major book analyzes recent events in Eastern Europe and Latin America, focusing on transitions to democracy and market-oriented economic reforms. The author underscores the interdependence of political and economic transformations and draws on extensive local data as part of his analysis. A distinctive feature of the book is that it employs models derived from politics, economics, and game theory. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and graduate students in political science and sociology.
Customer Reviews:
Best political economy.......2006-06-16
I read this book in 1995 and I have never found a better one in analyzing democratization since then. His idea on democracy as a result of "spontaneous compliance" is so powerful that nothing else can actually stimulate more on a research direction for the preconditions of democratization process in countries like China.
It can be read together with his "Democracy and the Rule of Law", which addresses the question of why governments act or do not act according to laws, and interprets the rule of law as a strategic choice of actors with powerful interests (rather than as an exogenous constraint on politicians), and concludes that the rule of law emerges when no group is strong enough to dominate the others and political actors seek to resolve their conflicts by recourse to law.
Unfortunately, Adam Przeworski is later on obsessed with math, statistics, graphs, and aggregate analysis instead going deeper into specific political culture, which is yet another sad example of how mathematical academics continues to ruin more economists and political scientists (States and Markets: A Primer in Political Economy, 2003). The point is, applied mathematics and statistics concern with correlation, social scientists concern with causation. Mathematics and statistics are good tools, but social scientists are not technicians. If all they can do is applying mathematics and statistics without institutional analysis or policy analysis, they are in a wrong career.
Excellent book.......1999-09-07
Adam Przeworski is one of the top five political scientists of the world. "Democracy and the Market" is amazing and should be read by everybody that wants to know why democracies last (or don't). Przeworski is probably one of the few writers that compare the situation in East Europe with the situation in Latin America. And he does it perfectly. A bit technical at times but a very contemporary work of Political Science. A must buy.
Sophisticated, profound, and interesting!!!!.......1999-06-21
Przeworski's writing is always penetrating. This is the best work that I've ever read in the literature of political economy and comparative politics. Although his approach is too much immersed in rational-choice, he knows the history of political philosophy. Although he is basically a Marx-oriented scholar, he correctly understand what neo-classical theories are lacking. Adam Przeworki is a rare intellectual who combine science with philosophy.
is worth buying and worth reading although somehow technical.
Book Description
Much of the discussion of Russia's recent post-Communist history has amounted, both in Russia and the West, to a series of monologues by strong-minded people with starkly divergent views. In contrast, Padma Desai's conversations with influential, intelligent participants and observers provide the reader with a broad, nuanced view of what has and has not happened in the last fourteen years, and why. Conversations from Russia will thus serve as a much-needed reference volume, both for academics who study Russia and for laypeople who only have vague perceptions of what has occurred in Russia since the collapse of Communism. In conversations with important figures like Boris Yeltsin, George Soros, Anatoly Chubais, and Yegar Gaidar, Desai considers questions like why the Soviet Union fell apart under Gorbachev, what went wrong with economic reforms after Gorbachev, whether the privatization of Russian assets could have been managed differently, and what the prospects are for the Russian economy in the near future. Desai, a recognized expert in the field of Soviet studies, ties the interviews together with an introduction, ultimately reaching her own judgment on each issue considered in the conversations. This book will appeal to researchers and students in developmental economics, political economy, and Soviet studies, and educated laypeople interested in Russia.
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