When Schools Work: Pluralist Politics and Institutional Reform in Los Angeles
How did a young generation of activists come together in 1990s Los Angeles to shake up the education system, creating lasting institutional change and lifting children and families across southern California?

Critics claim that America's public schools remain feckless and hamstrung institutions, unable to improve even when nudged by accountability—minded politicians, market competition, or global pandemic. But if schools are so hopeless, then why did student learning climb in Los Angeles across the initial decades of the twenty—first century?

In When Schools Work, Bruce Fuller details the rise of civic activists in L.A. as they emerged from the ashes of urban riots and failed efforts to desegregate schools. Based on the author's fifteen years of field work in L.A., the book reveals how this network of Latino and Black leaders, civil rights lawyers, ethnic nonprofits, and pedagogical progressives coalesced in the 1990s, staking out a third political ground and gaining distance from corporate neoliberals and staid labor chiefs. Fuller shows how these young activists—whom he terms "new pluralists"—proceeded to better fund central—city schools, win quality teachers, widen access to college prep courses, decriminalize student discipline, and even create a panoply of new school forms, from magnet schools to dual—language campuses, site—run small high schools, and social—justice focused classrooms.

Moving beyond perennial hand—wringing over urban schools, this book offers empirical lessons on what reforms worked to lift achievement—and kids—across this vast and racially divided metropolis. More broadly, this study examines why these new pluralists emerged in this kaleidoscopic city and how they went about jolting an institution once given up for dead. Spotlighting the force of ethnic communities and humanist notions of children's growth, Fuller argues that diversifying forms of schooling also created unforeseen ways of stratifying both children and families. When Schools Work will inform the efforts of educators, activists, policy makers, and anyone else working to reshape public schools and achieve equitable results for all children.

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When Schools Work: Pluralist Politics and Institutional Reform in Los Angeles
How did a young generation of activists come together in 1990s Los Angeles to shake up the education system, creating lasting institutional change and lifting children and families across southern California?

Critics claim that America's public schools remain feckless and hamstrung institutions, unable to improve even when nudged by accountability—minded politicians, market competition, or global pandemic. But if schools are so hopeless, then why did student learning climb in Los Angeles across the initial decades of the twenty—first century?

In When Schools Work, Bruce Fuller details the rise of civic activists in L.A. as they emerged from the ashes of urban riots and failed efforts to desegregate schools. Based on the author's fifteen years of field work in L.A., the book reveals how this network of Latino and Black leaders, civil rights lawyers, ethnic nonprofits, and pedagogical progressives coalesced in the 1990s, staking out a third political ground and gaining distance from corporate neoliberals and staid labor chiefs. Fuller shows how these young activists—whom he terms "new pluralists"—proceeded to better fund central—city schools, win quality teachers, widen access to college prep courses, decriminalize student discipline, and even create a panoply of new school forms, from magnet schools to dual—language campuses, site—run small high schools, and social—justice focused classrooms.

Moving beyond perennial hand—wringing over urban schools, this book offers empirical lessons on what reforms worked to lift achievement—and kids—across this vast and racially divided metropolis. More broadly, this study examines why these new pluralists emerged in this kaleidoscopic city and how they went about jolting an institution once given up for dead. Spotlighting the force of ethnic communities and humanist notions of children's growth, Fuller argues that diversifying forms of schooling also created unforeseen ways of stratifying both children and families. When Schools Work will inform the efforts of educators, activists, policy makers, and anyone else working to reshape public schools and achieve equitable results for all children.

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When Schools Work: Pluralist Politics and Institutional Reform in Los Angeles

When Schools Work: Pluralist Politics and Institutional Reform in Los Angeles

by Bruce Fuller
When Schools Work: Pluralist Politics and Institutional Reform in Los Angeles
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When Schools Work: Pluralist Politics and Institutional Reform in Los Angeles

When Schools Work: Pluralist Politics and Institutional Reform in Los Angeles

by Bruce Fuller

Overview

How did a young generation of activists come together in 1990s Los Angeles to shake up the education system, creating lasting institutional change and lifting children and families across southern California?

Critics claim that America's public schools remain feckless and hamstrung institutions, unable to improve even when nudged by accountability—minded politicians, market competition, or global pandemic. But if schools are so hopeless, then why did student learning climb in Los Angeles across the initial decades of the twenty—first century?

In When Schools Work, Bruce Fuller details the rise of civic activists in L.A. as they emerged from the ashes of urban riots and failed efforts to desegregate schools. Based on the author's fifteen years of field work in L.A., the book reveals how this network of Latino and Black leaders, civil rights lawyers, ethnic nonprofits, and pedagogical progressives coalesced in the 1990s, staking out a third political ground and gaining distance from corporate neoliberals and staid labor chiefs. Fuller shows how these young activists—whom he terms "new pluralists"—proceeded to better fund central—city schools, win quality teachers, widen access to college prep courses, decriminalize student discipline, and even create a panoply of new school forms, from magnet schools to dual—language campuses, site—run small high schools, and social—justice focused classrooms.

Moving beyond perennial hand—wringing over urban schools, this book offers empirical lessons on what reforms worked to lift achievement—and kids—across this vast and racially divided metropolis. More broadly, this study examines why these new pluralists emerged in this kaleidoscopic city and how they went about jolting an institution once given up for dead. Spotlighting the force of ethnic communities and humanist notions of children's growth, Fuller argues that diversifying forms of schooling also created unforeseen ways of stratifying both children and families. When Schools Work will inform the efforts of educators, activists, policy makers, and anyone else working to reshape public schools and achieve equitable results for all children.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421442778
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 03/01/2022
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.86(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Bruce Fuller (BERKELEY, CA) is a professor of education and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Standardized Childhood: The Political and Cultural Struggle over Early Education and Organizing Locally: How the New Decentralists Improve Education, Health Care, and Trade.

Table of Contents

Notes on the Vernacular
Prologue. Pluralist Politics Move Institutions
1. Civilizing Los Angeles
with Melissa Ancheta and Sarah Manchanda
2. Palace Revolt
3. Outside Agitators
with Malena Arcidiacono, Caitlin Kearns, and Joon Ho Lee
4. Organizing Pluralist Politics
with Sarah Manchanda
5. Pluralist Politics and Institutional Reform
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos

"An incredibly original and substantial volume that merges theory, historical analysis, and practice to lay out an argument about institutional change in the second largest school district in the country. Using a unique theoretical model, this will be the go-to book for understanding school reform in Los Angeles."

Pedro A. Noguera

Combining a historical focus with an emphasis on community engagement, this compelling, accessible book will be interesting and relevant to a broad audience.

Terry M. Moe

Bruce Fuller provides us with an insightful, beautifully written, and enlightening account of the politics of education in Los Angeles, showing how pluralist dynamics, energized by ethnic diversity, allowed reformers to gain leverage over the protectors of the status quo and bring about real change. A welcome contribution.

Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos

An incredibly original and substantial volume that merges theory, historical analysis, and practice to lay out an argument about institutional change in the second-largest school district in the country. Using a unique theoretical model, this will be the go-to book for understanding school reform in Los Angeles.

Jay Mathews

No one has gone so deep for so long into the intricacies of California politics as Bruce Fuller has. He is always full of surprises, perhaps more so here than ever before. Why did bad urban schools in Los Angeles improve in the first two decades of this century? I learned more about the political dynamics of raising achievement than I have anywhere else.

From the Publisher

Combining a historical focus with an emphasis on community engagement, this compelling, accessible book will be interesting and relevant to a broad audience.
—Pedro A. Noguera, Dean, University of Southern California Rossier School of Education

An incredibly original and substantial volume that merges theory, historical analysis, and practice to lay out an argument about institutional change in the second—largest school district in the country. Using a unique theoretical model, this will be the go—to book for understanding school reform in Los Angeles.
—Oscar Jiménez—Castellanos, Trinity University

Bruce Fuller provides us with an insightful, beautifully written, and enlightening account of the politics of education in Los Angeles, showing how pluralist dynamics, energized by ethnic diversity, allowed reformers to gain leverage over the protectors of the status quo and bring about real change. A welcome contribution.
—Terry M. Moe, Stanford University, author of The Politics of Institutional Reform: Katrina, Education, and the Second Face of Power

No one has gone so deep for so long into the intricacies of California politics as Bruce Fuller has. He is always full of surprises, perhaps more so here than ever before. Why did bad urban schools in Los Angeles improve in the first two decades of this century? I learned more about the political dynamics of raising achievement than I have anywhere else.
—Jay Mathews, Washington Post education columnist, author of An Optimist's Guide to American Public Education

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