Urban Schools: Crisis and Revolution describes America's inner-city
public schools and the failure of most to provide even a minimally
adequate education for their students. With numerous examples, James
Deneen and Carm Catanese argue that these failures are preventable.
Early chapters document the two-tiered character of American public
schools, the tragic consequences of failing schools for millions of
students--mostly Black and Hispanic--and the financial costs to American
society. In later chapters, Deneen and Catanese describe the special
problems of inner-city schools and the changes in school organization
and curriculum needed to overcome them. They also provide examples of
schools in severely disadvantaged communities in which such changes have
enabled students to succeed academically, graduate, and enter college.
In the final chapters, the authors examine the public and non-public
school options available to urban parents. They discuss school choice, a
hotly debated issue in urban education. The book concludes with a plan,
consisting of six recommendations, for reforming a failing urban school.