City Schools: Leading the Way

School Administrator, March, 1994 by Philip A. Nathan

Nowhere are the turbulent, uncertain times for American public education more apparent than in our urban schools--an outmoded system steeped in sloth, inefficiency, and failure. Accordingly, city schools are far better known for their ills than for their hopes and possibilities. How do we ameliorate this plight?

The Urban Initiative Project, sponsored coactively by the Danforth Foundation and the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) has five premises: (1) urban schools deserve nationwide scrutiny; (2) principals' leadership is linked inexorably to school reform; (3) the existing knowledge base is neither developed nor introduced to provide availability and application to urban school principals; (4) preparation programs for urban educational administrators need to be strengthened; and (5) the Danforth Foundation and UCEA can act as catalysts relative to all these themes.

While the above embody phase one of the project, phase two encompasses City Schools: Leading the Way, the contents of which include in toto a knowledge-base applicable to the performance and effectiveness of urban school principals.

Addressing nine salient "problems of practice," this collection brings together many perspectives for enhancing curriculum development in urban school administration. The result is a model of utility to school leaders.

(City Schools: Leading the Way, edited by Patrick B. Forsyth and Marilyn Tallerico, Corwin Press, P.O. Box 2526, Thousand Oaks, Calif. 91319-8526, 1993, 352 pp. with index, $46.95 hardcover, $23.95 softcover)