The Diverse Schools Dilemma A Parent Guide to Socioeconomically Mixed Public Schools eBook Michael Petrilli
Download As PDF : The Diverse Schools Dilemma A Parent Guide to Socioeconomically Mixed Public Schools eBook Michael Petrilli 
Many of today's parents yearn to live in or near the lively, culturally vibrant heart of the city--in diverse, walkable neighborhoods full of music and theater, accessible to museums and stores, awash in ethnic eateries, and radiating a true sense of community. This is a major shift from recent generations that saw middle class families trading urban centers for suburbs with lawns, malls, parks, and good schools. But good schools still matter. And standing in the way of many parents' urban aspirations is the question Will the public schools in the city provide a strong education for my kids? To be sure, lots of parents favor sending their sons and daughters to diverse schools with children from a variety of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. But can such schools successfully meet the educational needs of all those different kids? How do middle class children fare in these environments? Is there enough challenge and stimulation in schools that also struggle to help poor immigrant children reach basic standards? Is there too much focus on test scores? And why is it so hard to find diverse public schools with a progressive, child-centered approach to education? These quandaries and more are addressed in this groundbreaking book by Michael J. Petrilli, one of America's most trusted education experts and a father who himself is struggling with the Diverse Schools Dilemma.
The Diverse Schools Dilemma A Parent Guide to Socioeconomically Mixed Public Schools eBook Michael Petrilli
This book is a quick and "easy" read, and one not to be missed by anyone who is going through the process of selecting a school. The author has done an excellent job of gathering data and research and making it more readily understandable and accessible to parents and guardians facing the decision of school selection. It is also good information for any community member who wants to learn more about factors affecting local schools, and to hopefully better-understand all the rankings that are reported by the media and state departments of education. I also appreciated and could relate to the author's personal account of going through selecting a public school for his own child.Product details
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The Diverse Schools Dilemma A Parent Guide to Socioeconomically Mixed Public Schools eBook Michael Petrilli Reviews
This is a terrific book for parents trying to figure out where to send their kids to school. Petrilli effectively summarizes a big body of research, integrates it with his own personal stories, and provides useful guidance about the questions to ask a principal and the ways to read test score data. His voice is funny, modest, and humane.
Read this book and you'll learn a lot, fast, and enjoy yourself while you're at it. Highly recommended.
Mike Petrilli is rightfully respected as an exceptional education policy analyst. But, wonder of wonders, he also has his his feet and ears to the ground in confronting the real-life choices of upper income parents. The Diverse Dilemma is wrenching for many families, and Petrilli wrestles in a remarkablly open and informed way with his own quest to balance the values of diversity and what may be best for his own kids. Needless to say, the quest for socioeconomically mixed public schools is even more important in many ways to low-income families; the income diversity of students in any particular school can be a key to improved school success. So there is much in this book to admire and engage all who care about school reform for all children.
Petrilli gives an interesting overview of the benefits of diversity in education. Children thrive in mixed settings, yet the barriers can be significant. This is part analysis, part personal journey; it is perhaps best read as an extended piece of journalism. I
Definitely worth he read for all concerned with education in our metro areas.
Very relevant to the ongoing discussion in my own community. I was initially put off by the idea that diverse schools were being presented as a "dilemma" but the material and data was ultimately pretty balanced; not just presenting the issues facing white, middle-class gentrifiers but the larger picture factors as well.
In this thoughtful book, Michael Petrilli asks aloud the question that many middle and upper class parents often wonder to themselves - can my child go to a school that is diverse and still receive an excellent education? This has become is a critical question for a handful of parents who enjoy an urban lifestyle, value diversity, and also want their kids to go to great schools. The question itself is controversial; the answers Petrilli explores can be even more so. Of course, he's savvy enough not to answer the question directly, but he does explore the key issues and considerations that parents face with an authentic voice. This book is a must-read not only for these forward-thinking parents, but also for anyone who believes that every child deserves a great education in which diversity is a core component.
This book provides insightful information based on scientific research and answers questions that I didn't even know I needed to be asking.
Mike did a great job with this book.
I was raised in a close-in Boston suburb, at a time when Judge Arthur Garrity turned everything upside down with his forced busing order. J. Anthony Lukas helped make that dilemma of school integration personal through his Pulitzer-winning masterpiece, "Common Ground." A generation later, Mike has made the story practical, by walking the reader through his own hands-on exploration of what school integration really means for a parent seeking the best both for his child and his wider society.
I now have two kids of my own, and live in the DC area, and so my wife and I essentially went through much of what Mike and his wife did in trying to make a local school choice that could provide both diversity and top-quality education. We in fact looked at some of the very same schools, and came to some similar conclusions. Our mutual assessment appears to be It's not easy, and you probably can't have it all. That said, there's quite a lot that Mike helps the reader consider - from using hard data on school performance and economics, as well as his policy expertise - when weighing the factors that will lead to a final choice.
Looking at the book from a parochial perspective, I found it fascinating and highly practical to have his assessments of several prominent DC area schools. But even for someone living far away from the DC area, particularly in an urban area, there would seem to be plenty of insights to be gleaned.
And beyond all the informational value, two of the best things about the book were its size and tone. On size, it's relatively short and to-the-point, and the fluid writing style makes the read even easier. And on tone, I would have found it very hard to be as dispassionate and objective as he managed to be, given all the emotions and stakes involved here.
My main complaint, if I have to have one, would be with the final sentence, where he states of the Lowell School "Were it not for the $25,000 tuition, it could be a model for the nation." My complaint there is that it's not really the $25,000 tuition that's the problem, but the lack of priority we as a nation put on schooling.
If education was really the national priority that it should be, then we'd find a way to have schools as fine as Lowell all over the area and the country. After all, per-student spending in Washington, DC, is already more than half the annual tuition at Lowell, so we'd really only need to come up with the difference. And if we add up all the costs we are incurring by not doing that (Mike of course knows them well, and touched on them, including crime and prisons and health and lost economic power and so much more), then the real cost shrinks even more.
That quibble aside, Mike has put together a well-reasoned exploration of the topics of education and race and demographics, and one well worth a quick read for parents and anyone else interested in the topic.
This book is a quick and "easy" read, and one not to be missed by anyone who is going through the process of selecting a school. The author has done an excellent job of gathering data and research and making it more readily understandable and accessible to parents and guardians facing the decision of school selection. It is also good information for any community member who wants to learn more about factors affecting local schools, and to hopefully better-understand all the rankings that are reported by the media and state departments of education. I also appreciated and could relate to the author's personal account of going through selecting a public school for his own child.
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