A Match on Dry Grass

Mark R. Warren is Associate Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of Fire in the Heart and Dry Bones Rattling. Karen L. Mapp is Lecturer in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of Beyond the Bake Sale.The Community Organizing and School Reform Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, led by Mark R. Warren and Karen L. Mapp, consists of Keith Catone, Roy Cervantes, Connie K. Chung, Cynthia Gordon, Soo Hong, Ann Ishimaru, Paul Kuttner, Meredith Mira, Thomas Nikundiwe, Soojin Oh, Kenneth Russell, Amanda Taylor, Mara Tieken, Anita Wadhwa, and Helen Westmoreland.

• Preface & Acknowledgements ; Introduction: A New Movement for Equity and Justice in Education ; Chapter 1. How Community Organizing Works ; Chapter 2. "A Match on Dry Grass" ; Organizing for Great Schools in San Jose ; Chapter 3. "An Appetite for Change" ; Building Relational Cultures for Educational Reform and Civic Engagement in Los Angeles ; Chapter 4. <"Our Strength is the Power of Our Community>" ; Political Education and the Continuation of the Struggle in Denver ; Chapter 5. <"Weaving a Tapestry that won't Unravel>" ; The Transformation of Education in the Mississippi Delta ; Chapter 6. <"Acts of Leadership>" ; Building Powerful Forms of Parent Participation in Chicago ; Chapter 7. <"Cement between the Bricks>" ; Building Schools and Communities in New York City ; Chapter 8. Building Relationships and Power to Transform Communities ; and Schools ; Conclusion: Lessons for School Reform and Democracy-Building ; Appendix A Collaborative Research Process ; References

Civil rights activists in the 1960s insisted in the face of terror and death that national citizenship granted in the 14th Amendment meant something. That seminal work inspired organizing groups, active agents in an historic and on-going process, to bond with and bridge across racial, faith, gender, immigrant, and youth communities to reshape the narrative about the promise of citizenship. A Match on Dry Grass draws on these organizing traditions in the work to right 'the wrong this day done' in the nation's public schools. All of us doing that work will benefit from reading this book.