School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School - Book Alert

Education Next, Spring, 2004

School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High School, by Edward Humes (Harcourt). What makes Whitney High School so special? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes immersed himself in the life of this renowned magnet school in Cerritos, California, to find out. The school is not notable for having extra money or a first-class facility; it is housed in a no-frills building, and its per-pupil spending is the lowest in the district. Nor is it distinguished by the quality of its teaching staff, which Humes describes as "at best uneven."

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Visionary leadership clearly plays a role in fostering an expectation that all Whitney graduates will attend college--many of them at elite universities. Strangely, however, Humes places less emphasis on the fact that the school accepts only the district's strongest students, who must maintain a C average or return to their neighborhood schools.

Humes' account is engaging, but beware of journalists peddling policy advice based on the experiences of one highly atypical school and a tendentious reading of the research on test-based accountability.