Grit and the Grind

Building High-Performing Education Systems in an Era of Polarization

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

AvJoshua L. Glazer,Cori Egan,William R. Berry,Amar Fattal

1 589 kr

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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.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-10-26
Mått152 x 229 x undefined mm
Vikt454 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor208
FörlagThe University of Chicago Press
ISBN9780226852614

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List of AbbreviationsPrefaceIntroduction: Of Politics and SystemsChapter 1. From Reconstruction to ResistanceChapter 2. Designing Systems and Building CoalitionsChapter 3. New Systems Encounter Old ProblemsChapter 4. Contested ReformChapter 5. Politics, Systems, and PracticeChapter 6. School Improvement as a Partnership Between the Profession and the PublicTechnical Appendix: Methodological ProceduresNotesBibliographyIndex

Scholars and reformers – for at least two centuries – have divorced the gritty politics and ideologies of schooling from the tireless grind of how to enrich teaching and kids' motivation inside classrooms. Now, Joshua Glazer and colleagues marry these two spheres of social action in pathbreaking fashion, shining a bright light on how local histories and human values interact with educators' internal efforts to reshape the organizational guts of schools. We learn from these insightful researchers how ignoring the ideals and tribal ties that animate communities leads us to misread dashed efforts to alter schools. In turn, when we obsess on the external actors and forces that envelop schools, we often forgo the opportunity to enliven life for teachers and students inside.