From Publishers Weekly
For three years, Schorr trailed parents, teachers and students as they struggled to establish the E.C. Reems Academy in one of Oakland, Calif.'s poorest neighborhoods. Beginning with community outrage over graffiti-decorated, rat-infested trailers masquerading as classrooms, Schorr (formerly an urban public school teacher) chronicles their bureaucratic wrangling, search for a principal, building renovation and discipline problems in exhaustive detail. The scope of this investigation is admirable, particularly its even-handed treatment of School Futures, an idealistic and highly political organization that helps set up charter schools. However, Schorr's attention to detail gets tiresome. Why, for instance, is it relevant that teacher Valentin Del Rio arose at 5:27 a.m. "an odd number he arrived at by pressing the `fast' button on his digital clock" on the first day of school? Despite such fastidious reporting, Schorr never manages to breathe life into his one-dimensional subjects. The result is a useful handbook for parents and educators undertaking the Herculean task of building a viable charter school. But given Schorr's distant and somewhat preachy tone, it seems unlikely that this account will appeal to readers outside the academic world.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
Starting with the critical experiences of public schooling 40 years ago, every generation has needed its own storytellers to record America's chronic inability to create just schools for deserving communities. Following the model of such empathic and articulate eyewitnesses as George Dennison and Jonathan Kozol, Schorr provides highly detailed observations of an Oakland charter school, the E. C. Reems Academy. Like all educational stories, this one has the essential mix of ingredients. The human players compose an unstable cast of invested folks: diverse kids, inexperienced teachers, anxious parents, tense administrators, and politicized community observers. Surrounding factors make up an entire record of the social issues and aspirations that affect such ventures: low school achievement, recent immigrant populations, homeless families, poor materials, and the cultural marginality of education as a priority. The result is a story that measures out hope in teaspoons, and frustration by the cup. Schorr is a warm and graceful writer with all of the right sensitivities for perceiving this mix and understanding its ambiguities. David Carr
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
