What People Are Saying
“Calls to reform or reinvent the U.S. education system are heard far and wide. Serious efforts at reinvention, though, will require a thorough understanding of our country’s education context – both its current state and the history that brought us to it. Without this deep contextual understanding, even serious reinvention efforts will fail. Zelman and Sorensen provide this desperately needed contextual understanding with extensive historical underpinnings and granular descriptions of the workings of our current system and its many nuances. They build a much-needed foundation for serious consideration of reinvention proposals and conclude with strong proposals of their own. I hope this book is widely read and thoroughly discussed.”
— Susan F. Lusi, PhD
President & CEO of Mass Insight Education & Research and author of The Role of State Departments of Education in Complex School Reform
“These authors understand the history of public education in our country and are strong advocates for improving ‘life choices’ for all students regardless of zip code or other demographic characteristics. No place is there greater need than in the rural area in which I have served for 35 plus years. Zelman and Sorensen are true champions for public education and the students they serve. This book, their work, serves as a valuable catalyst to consider the education reform needed in our country to better address individual learner and systemic needs as we move deeper in the 21st century and beyond.
—Dan Leffingwell
Executive Director of Special Projects and Student Supports, East Central Ohio Educational Service Center, Buckeye Association of School Superintendents, 2022 Superintendent of the Year
“Drs. Zelman and Sorensen suggest we seize the opportunity to grow a new foundation based on respect for our democratic principles for public education.This book advocates for creating a vigorous national dialogue to stop making public education a political tool and create systems that balance societal needs with those of all children and their families. Examining both past and future perspectives about the structural barriers that have mitigated against efforts to reform public schools, Zelman and Sorensen strike a chord as they analyze the lens with which we plan for schooling, centering the dialogue around student-centered culture building, and not the needs or desires of adults in the general public. Their key questions are important for anyone interested in schools to reflect upon, during a most crucial time in the history of our nation.”
—Kirk Koennecke
CEO—Superintendent, Indian Hill EVSD
“American education is at a crossroads and all those invested in its success need to understand the dynamics that have made schooling a commodity that has been cheapened by political myopia. Zelman and Sorensen insightfully document the way education has been bought and sold by political self-interests and how a new pluralistic model that engages a wide range of stakeholders is essential for fostering new and more effective paradigms of practice.”