Nathan Glazer reviews Gerald Grant’s “Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There are No Bad Schools in Raleigh” for the new issue of Education Next.
I find Glazer’s review disappointing. His focus on sociological factors slights relevant historical and political issues. (We would expect this from the professor emeritus of education and sociology at Harvard University.) He fails to mention the historical role of Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education and the legacy of race-based busing in North Carolina.
Glazer does not discuss (but does briefly mention) the election of the new school board majority in October 2009, an election that would appear to undercut Grant’s thesis. Worse, Glazer ignores the absolutely critical comparison between the performance of Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Glazer’s Harvard colleague Paul Peterson discusses the book with Glazer in a short video. I appreciated Peterson’s healthy skepticism about Grant’s claims.
