Full Description
What can be done to improve the educational experiences of students who live in cities with increasingly high levels of diversity and inequality? Making a Difference in Urban Schools evaluates how school and community leaders have worked to change urban education in Canada for the better over the past fifty years.
This analytic and comparative study traces the evolution of urban education in Toronto and Winnipeg from the 1960s onward. Jane Gaskell and Ben Levin identify important contrasts between the experiences in each city as a result of their different demographics, institutional structures, cultures, and politics. They also highlight the common issues and dilemmas faced by reformers in these two cities, across Canada, and globally - including many that persist and remain controversial to this day.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1- Setting the stage: Poverty, diversity and urban education
Demographic challenge and change
Poverty
Diversity
The changing meaning of equity
The literature on urban educational systems
Conclusions
Chapter Two - Change in the Winnipeg School Board
Chapter Three - Reform at the Toronto Board of Education
The Toronto Board of Education
The 1970's: setting an agenda for reform
Some of the Toronto reform trustees
The 1980s: institutionalizing change
Conclusions
Chapter Four - Ideas Matter: The Impact of Evidence and Belief
How do ideas matter?
Social movements and evidence informed policy
Frameworks for thinking about education and equity
Educational analysis in the Toronto and Winnipeg boards
Ideas as a resource for change in Toronto
Ideas as a resource for change in Winnipeg
Conclusions
Chapter five - Politics, conflict and civic capacity
Central and local: Relationships between districts and provincial governments
Trustees and boards
Community involvement
Relations with board administrators
Conclusions
Chapter 6 - Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools
Creating a welcoming classroom environment
Changing the curriculum
Rethinking literacy
Streaming and secondary school change
Testing and assessment
Relationships with teachers and their unions
Conclusions
Chapter 7 - Lessons from Canadian urban school reform
Have things improved over the last forty years?
Policy proposals and their limits Ideas and research
Politics
Teaching and learning
What should be done?
School districts need thoughtful strategic plans
Stronger links are needed between urban districts and provincial governments
More public debate based on good data around the political controversies inherent in urban public education.
Urban schools must be good places to work and learn so as to attract and retain good people
A central and sustained focus on improved teaching and learning
Strong, consistent community engagement
Better use of research and evidence
The necessary infrastructure to support all of the above
Appendix on methodology
The study
Index of Names and Organizations
References
