Lipman's High Stakes Education

I'm reading Pauline Lipman's High Stakes Education: Inequality, Globalization, and Urban Reform partly because I really wanted to find out more about the policies that drive this huge amorphous entity I hope to be working in soon. We read Chapter 2 in class, and it gave a great taste for some of the policy surrounding the city's public schools. I basically had no idea that Chicago had so much to do with the level of standardization and testing that's now touted nationally for student and school achievement. Chicago's 1988 and 1995 urban "school reforms" provided significant frameworks for national legislation (2001's No Child Left Behind). It's amazing to me that Clinton called Chicago a "model for the nation" and yet within our own city limits there are pervasive needs that many know aren't being met (p. 2).

The book includes case studies of four CPS schools, three of which serve low-income, predominantly African-American or Latino/a children. Lipman gives her personal "biography" early on, admitting that despite her best endeavors to present all sides, she is a white female with an educated activist's heart (p. 20). She is critical of globalization, racial exclusionary practices and sometimes, even her own interpretations. Yet, I would argue that so far she's making a great case for what is important to many of us: equitable opportunities in education as an unalienable right. As Lipman frequently points out, our schools are merely a microcosm of our country. Balancing a critique of the education system with a critique of the economic system, Lipman reminds us how our cultural and societal needs privilege few and disenfranchise many.

For me, this book echoes many of the themes we've discussed in class. Curriculum, standardized testing, racial segregation and economic tracking in schools. Because of Chicago's status as a "global city," there are great concentrations of corporate CEOs and a forgotten, poorly-paid working class needed to serve their luxurious tastes (p. 7). What are our neighborhoods teaching our schools? I'm anxious to see what Lipman's proposals for better schools and policies look like later in the book.