So
Much Reform, So Little Change:
Building-Level Obstacles to Urban School Reform
Charles Payne
Abstract
This paper addresses the poor payoff from most attempts
to reform urban schools, especially bottom-tier urban schools. Based
on observations of schools undergoing reform in Chicago, the paper
develops a typology of reasons why programs fail and then suggests
that reformers ordinarily underestimate the salience of social,
political, and organizational obstacles to change. Reformers seem
to learn little from past attempts at reform, perhaps because of
the way they conceptualize the process of change.
Charles Payne, Departments
of African-American Studies and History, Duke University; Adjunct
Professor, Department of African-American Studies, and Faculty Associate,
Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University
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