Paul T. Hill and James Harvey, editors, The Brookings Institution
2004
This wonderful little book by Paul Hill and company offers novel ideas to break through the inertia plaguing most attempts at school reform. School districts lack the capacity for real change - not necessarily for want of trying, but because they have evolved to excel in certain other capacities: running the buses on time, scheduling classes, coordinating thousands of employees, etc. This means that they are not necessary experts in "data-driven decision making," in leadership training, in creatively filling teacher shortages, and other elements critical to overhauling a struggling system. So it's time to rely on a "third way," and time for philanthropy to help fill these needs. This book proposes that private foundations help birth new community based institutions that would work in partnership with districts and schools to meet their reform needs. A Public School Real Estate Trust could manage facilities decisions and transactions for a school district, freeing it to focus on educating students (and saving money, as these financial decisions would be made by real estate experts, not uninformed administrators). Data centers could conduct research and crunch numbers on behalf of schools, forecasting which schools are improving and which are sliding, to liberate such important judgments from the politics and bureaucracies of districts. The book carefully thinks through these suggestions and several others, even offering basic cost models for each. There are good ideas throughout, with important insights into the barriers to - and benefits of - education reform strategies. It's a must read for any serious education reformer; buy it online here.
