Hope Against Hope

November 26, 2012
Aiming to distill the difficulties and possibilities facing American educational reform, journalist Carr follows three people at three charter schoolsâ14-year-old student Geraldlynn Stewart, idealistic young teacher Aidan Kelly, and dedicated principal Mary Laurieâas they navigate competing visions of education and civil rights in post-Katrina New Orleans. While the book's time period (2005â2012) sees a general if qualified upswing in student performance, Carr still finds the city, for all its unique history, emblematic of a continuing national crisis of "decayed infrastructure, overwhelmed social services, long-simmering racial tensions, and gross inequalities." Her protagonists' perspectives capture subtleties rarely probed in a national debate more preoccupied with test scores, corporatization, and teachers' unions: discipline, gun violence, and the unmet needs of students facing a wide range of physical and mental problems. Carr, for her part, critiques the increasingly prevalent charter school system, which now serves roughly two million students, for its paternalism, unforgiving "no-excuses" approach, and rigidly college-oriented ethos. Her scholastic prescription is holistic, understanding and embracing the wider social circumstances of a child's learning process by balancing quality teaching against the self-determination and cultural values of that child's particular community. Agent: Farley Chase, Farley Literary.

December 1, 2012
Education reporter Carr debuts with a balanced account of the growing charter-school movement in post-Katrina New Orleans. Deftly weaving in background on the abysmal historical performance of New Orleans public schools and the strong focus on discipline and routine of charter schools aimed at preparing students for college, the author shows how the charter approach is working on the ground through the eyes of individuals in three randomly selected schools: 14-year-old Geraldlynn Stewart, who struggles to find her way as a high school student; Aidan Kelly, a 24-year-old teacher and Harvard graduate who sees his school as an academic boot camp; and Mary Laurie, veteran principal of one of the first schools to reopen after Katrina, who asks students, "Would you come along with me on this journey?" Their closely reported experiences in schools of the national chain KIPPS (Knowledge Is Power Program) illustrate the issues, challenges and satisfactions of the demanding, no-excuses charter way. Like the other charters, Sci Academy, where Aidan teaches, emphasizes success on standardized tests; it is "a technocrat's dream: run by graduates of the nation's most elite institutions, steeped in data, always seeking precision, divorced from the messiness...of democracy." With their missionary zeal and outsider status, its young teachers "resemble the settlement house workers of a century ago," writes Carr. Principal Laurie hopes her students will journey on to college; Geraldlynn's parents, too, hope the new charter schooling will open a longed-for door. While often repetitive, the book evokes the realities of a city school system in transition. The schools are improving and test scores are up, she writes, but only college graduation rates in future years will tell whether charters make a difference. Detailed and thoughtful.

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November 1, 2012

Carr tracks a teenaged student, a new teacher, and a new principal in post-Katrina New Orleans, offering a perspective on 21st-century American education that will be of special interest to African American parents.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.