The Heart of a High School

This is a rare inside look at an ambitious urban school reform initiative currently underway in a mid-sized American city. The reform, which was supported by one of the largest private donations ever given to a single high school, aims to make high achievement a reality for every student.

Poignant, penetrating, and uplifting, this narrative account of the first years of the reform illuminates the difficult choices and challenges involved in educational change. Holly Holland and Kelly Mazzoli help readers come to understand the institutional nature of American secondary education, where almost nothing has changed in the past fifteen years. Many public high schools are large, impersonal places that are more interested in regimentation than achievement. In setting the stage for reform, The Heart of a High School describes some of the factors - high poverty, low expectations, inadequate teacher training, school district bureaucracy, and parental neglect - that challenge efforts to improve urban high schools.

This story is important from a national perspective because it encompasses so many perplexing issues in education today: how to define and meet higher academic standards; how to counteract the corrosive effects of urban poverty; and how to help teachers, students, and communities embrace the changing educational requirements of the new world economy.