About the Book
Disrupting Disruption shows how three racially and ethnically diverse school districts--Union NJ, Union City OK, and Roanoke City VA--have defied the demographic odds, boosting overall graduation rates while shrinking or eliminating the opportunity gap. These districts resemble many others in their student population. What makes them distinctive is their relentless focus on developing and supporting teachers and engaging students; constantly seeking ways to do a better job; using data to enhance learning; developing partnerships with parents and local organizations; and relying on stable, supportive leadership. Disrupting Disruption demonstrates that disruption—whether by inflicting a discipline-and-punish regime on our nation's schools, or replacing them with charters or vouchers—is not the best way forward.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Pedro Noguera
Introduction: Disruption Versus Steady Work
Chapter 1: Union, OK: A Culture of "Us"
Chapter 2: Union City, NJ: Learning America
Chapter 3: Roanoke, VA: "The Whole Child" is More than a Cliché
Chapter 4: The Covid Stress Test
Conclusion: Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Appendix: Criteria for Selecting the Three Districts
Endnotes
Index
About the Author :
David Kirp is a Professor of the University and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education, a frequent contributor to The New York Times and Washington Post, and a senior scholar at the Learning Policy Institute. His most recent books are The College Dropout Scandal (Oxford, 2019) and Improbable
Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America's Schools (Oxford, 2013), which was awarded the 2014 Outstanding Book Award, American Educational Research Association. His notable earlier books include
The Sandbox Investment: The Universal Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics, which received the Award for Excellence in Education from the Association of American Publishers, and Shakespeare, Einstein and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education, which garnered the Research Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Higher Education. A former trustee of Amherst College, he has worked with policymakers, foundations and non-profits. He served on
President Barack Obama's 2008-2009 transition team, where he drafted policy agendas for early education and community schools. Earlier in his career he was the founding director of the Harvard Center for Law and Education and
an associate editor at the Sacramento Bee.
Marjorie Wechsler is the Principal Research Manager and co-lead of the Educator Quality team at the Learning Policy Institute. She has more than 25 years of experience conducting policy research at the national, state, and local levels. She leads mixed-methods research studies related to teacher and leader quality and early childhood learning. Her work at LPI focuses on supporting and documenting systems change to advance equity. Prior to joining LPI, she was Co-Director of SRI
International's Center for Education Policy.
Madelyn Gardner is a doctoral student studying Human Development, Learning, and Teaching at Harvard University. Her research interests lie at the intersection of human development and public policy, with a particular interest in unpacking the elements of early learning experiences that benefit children's learning and growth. She currently serves as a research assistant to Professors Stephanie Jones and Nonie Lesaux on the Early Learning Study at Harvard. Before beginning her
doctoral studies, Madelyn worked at the Learning Policy Institute, where she conducted research focused on issues of access, quality, and equity in state early learning systems and on strategies for effective educator
preparation and development.
Titilayo Tinubu Ali is a partner at Bellwether Education Partners and adjunct professor at Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. She previously served as senior advisor and senior director of research and policy at the Southern Education Foundation, a nonprofit founded more than 150 years ago focused on advancing equitable education policies and practices for Black students, other students of color, and students from low-income backgrounds in the South. Before
that, she served as a consultant, senior researcher and policy analyst at the Learning Policy Institute where she co-led the equitable resources and access team and co-authored the book On the Road to High-Quality
Early Learning: Changing Children's Lives. She holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.A., with honors, from Spelman College.
Review :
With public schools under siege, this deep-dive, elegantly written account of how three school districts dramatically boosted graduation rates and closed the racial and ethnic opportunity gap couldn't be more timely.
I love this book because it makes one thing crystal clear: You don't need to have superheroes to run successful school systems. Hard, steady work, informed by good evidence and collective professional wisdom in our schools, can take you a long way. Disrupting Disruption shows, in rich detail, how three US school districts keep transforming teaching and learning in their schools—the same principles that earlier lifted Finland's schools to the top.
David Kirp and his colleagues have always been ahead of the curve in identifying and explaining how successful school districts go about their work. With Kirp and company, you get painstaking methodology and crystal clarity of results. I invite the reader to read and enjoy the book, understand that district success is describable, and then realize that the devil is in the disruption. Above all, Disrupting Disruption has layers of meaning and insight read it carefully and enjoy every morsel.
Disrupting Disruption has an important and timely message. It calls into question a reform movement that, fueled by abundant self-confidence and self-righteousness, deliberately set out to rearrange the basic landscape of American education. Where the standard reform mantra offers a checklist of off-the-shelf reform cure-alls, Disrupting Disruption suggests that what matters is less the specific things a district does than the way that it does them. And by fessing up to the fact that they have no magic medications to peddle, the authors win the reader over with their forthrightness.
At a time when the American Dream is dying and quick-fix education fads are making things worse, Disrupting Disruption gives us what we need. Brilliantly analyzed and fluently written, the book offers powerful, practical lessons from three impressive school districts about what we can do to redeem the promise of public education.
The authors have done a great service by showing how to debunk the paradigm of 'demography is destiny.' School systems can help all students succeed when they create stable, supportive learning environments where there is a relentless focus on essential ingredients: talented and supported teachers, a challenging and coherent curriculum, high-quality programs, and partnerships with parents and local organizations that reinforce the shared academic mission. These strategies and examples remind us that education is the cornerstone of our democracy—and how we can keep it that way.
