Dark Side of School Reform

Jeffrey S. Brooks is assistant professor of educational leadership at Florida State University.

Education reform efforts generally start off with good intentions, but often lose their effectiveness as they unfold within the daily life of schools. The Dark Side of School Reform is a skillfully-written book that speaks to a wide variety of audiences about this deterioration, but does not alienate any of them. Indeed, policy-makers, researchers, teachers, administrators, and vested constituents alike are bound to find this book approachable, insightful, and useful.

• Chapter 1 ForewordChapter 2 AcknowledgmentsChapter 3 Introduction: Exploring the Dark Side of School ReformChapter 4 Theschooldayisfastandtheschoolyearisfaster!Chapter 5 Add Duties, Subtract Duties; Add Responsibility, Subtract Responsibility; Add Rigmarole, Subtract RigmaroleChapter 6 Teaching as an Everyday Ambiguity: Who Is Doing What, Where, When, Why, and How?Chapter 7 The "Old Guard" versus the "New Way"Chapter 8 Snake Charmers in the Star ChamberChapter 9 Strangers in a Strange School: Isolated Instructors, Divided Departments, Fractured FacultyChapter 10 There's No "I" in the Word "School"Chapter 11 Distraction + Disorientation = DisaffectionChapter 12 Leading with Smoke and Mirrors: Of Misty Missions, Vague Values, and Floating PhilosophiesChapter 13 Coda or Refrain? Reforming Again and Again and Again and Again...Chapter 14 Teaching in the Space between Reality and UtopiaChapter 15 Methodological Appendix