Joshua L. Glazer

Offers a much-needed perspective on the connections between community, policymaking, and the improvement of underperforming schools. Across the United States, school reform is a perennial and fraught issue as we endeavor to achieve better outcomes for all students. How can we re-engineer schools in ways that put the improvement of teaching and learning at the center, but that are also attuned to local history and values? In The Grit and the Grind, education policy scholars Joshua L. Glazer, Cori F. Egan, William R. Berry, and Amar A. Fattal compare two markedly different programs launched in low-performing Memphis schools with the same goal: improving students’ learning at school. These two initiatives—the Achievement School District (ASD) and the Shelby County Innovation Zone, or iZone—were both designed to improve Memphis’s public schools, but their leaders occupied very different positions in relation to the communities those schools served. The ASD was a state-run entity that brought in out-of-state charter school networks to run and manage local neighborhood schools. These charter leaders replaced existing school staff and remade schools to align with their own philosophies and visions. In contrast, iZone was a district-run initiative that relied on longstanding district teachers and leaders to engineer improvements.Upon entering the iZone, schools were subject to several relatively low-profile changes—an extra hour added to the school day, a larger budget, and increased autonomy—while remaining under local school board direction. Though these schools might be assigned a new principal with the freedom to hire and fire teachers, they remained embedded in community institutions with legacy knowledge of Memphis. Comparing these two organizations allows the authors to consider the promises and perils of some of our most popular and controversial tools for making schools better. Drawing on years of comprehensive research, The Grit and the Grind presents a compelling account of the political and pedagogical drivers of meaningful reform.

Offers a much-needed perspective on the connections between community, policymaking, and the improvement of underperforming schools. Across the United States, school reform is a perennial and fraught issue as we endeavor to achieve better outcomes for all students. How can we re-engineer schools in ways that put the improvement of teaching and learning at the center, but that are also attuned to local history and values? In The Grit and the Grind, education policy scholars Joshua L. Glazer, Cori F. Egan, William R. Berry, and Amar A. Fattal compare two markedly different programs launched in low-performing Memphis schools with the same goal: improving students’ learning at school. These two initiatives—the Achievement School District (ASD) and the Shelby County Innovation Zone, or iZone—were both designed to improve Memphis’s public schools, but their leaders occupied very different positions in relation to the communities those schools served. The ASD was a state-run entity that brought in out-of-state charter school networks to run and manage local neighborhood schools. These charter leaders replaced existing school staff and remade schools to align with their own philosophies and visions. In contrast, iZone was a district-run initiative that relied on longstanding district teachers and leaders to engineer improvements.Upon entering the iZone, schools were subject to several relatively low-profile changes—an extra hour added to the school day, a larger budget, and increased autonomy—while remaining under local school board direction. Though these schools might be assigned a new principal with the freedom to hire and fire teachers, they remained embedded in community institutions with legacy knowledge of Memphis. Comparing these two organizations allows the authors to consider the promises and perils of some of our most popular and controversial tools for making schools better. Drawing on years of comprehensive research, The Grit and the Grind presents a compelling account of the political and pedagogical drivers of meaningful reform.

One of the great challenges now facing education reformers in the United States is how to devise a consistent and intelligent framework for instruction that will work across the nation's notoriously fragmented and politically conflicted school systems. Various programs have tried to do that, but only a few have succeeded. Improvement by Design looks at three different programs, seeking to understand why two of them - America's Choice and Success for All - worked, and why the third - Accelerated Schools Project - did not. The authors identify four critical puzzles that the successful programs were able to solve: design, implementation, improvement, and sustainability. Pinpointing the specific solutions that clearly improved instruction, they identify the key elements that all successful reform programs share. Offering urgently needed guidance for state and local school systems as they attempt to respond to future reform proposals, Improvement by Design gets America one step closer to truly successful education systems.

One of the great challenges now facing education reformers in the United States is how to devise a consistent and intelligent framework for instruction that will work across the nation's notoriously fragmented and politically conflicted school systems. Various programs have tried to do that, but only a few have succeeded. Improvement by Design looks at three different programs, seeking to understand why two of them - America's Choice and Success for All - worked, and why the third-Accelerated Schools Project - did not. The authors identify four critical puzzles that the successful programs were able to solve: design, implementation, improvement, and sustainability. Pinpointing the specific solutions that clearly improved instruction, they identify the key elements that all successful reform programs share. Offering urgently needed guidance for state and local school systems as they attempt to respond to future reform proposals, Improvement by Design gets America one step closer to truly successful education systems.