Discussants

• In Event: Action Space for School Reform: Taking Stock of Philadelphia, the 1990s and Today

Abstract

Objective
The objective of the discussants will be to critically reflect on the history of urban school reform and the value of education research as a tool to improve the human condition. These seasoned scholars, a political scientist and an historian, will respond to the ideas presented in the book, and the conversation between scholars and historical actors.

Warrant
Jeffrey Henig is a professor of political science and education at Teachers College and a professor of political science at Columbia University. He is the author or co-author of ten books on the politics of urban school reform. Together with Clarence Stone, Dr. Henig (2001) developed the idea of civic capacity, a key element of the theory presented in American School Reform: What Works and Why.

Charles M. Payne is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, where he is also an affiliate of the Urban Education Institute. His interests include urban education and school reform, social inequality, social change and modern African American history. The author of numerous books and journal articles on these topics, Dr. Payne has recently published So Much Reform, So Little Change (2008), a history of reform efforts in American cities and the persistence of failure in urban districts. Dr. Payne was also an instrumental figure in the Annenberg funded effort to reform Chicago Public Schools in the 1990s. He was a member of the Board of the Chicago Algebra Project, of the Steering Committee for the Consortium on Chicago School Research, and the Research Advisory Committee for the Chicago Annenberg Project.

Payne, C. M. (2008). So much reform, so little change. Boston MA: Harvard Education Publishing Group.

Stone, C. N.; Henig, J. R.; Jones, B. D.; Pierannunzi, C. (2001). Building civic capacity: The politics of reforming urban schools. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

Authors

• Jeffrey R. Henig, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Charles M. Payne, University of Chicago