With a tremendous amount of fanfare five years ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a $100 million donation to the Newark school district on the Oprah Winfrey Show with the Big Hairy Audacious Goal of fixing the public school system and making it a national model.
The importance of having a BHAG was first proposed in the 1994 book "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" by James Collins and Jerry Porras.
In the new book "The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?," Dale Russakoff, who spent 28 years at The Washington Post, provides a behind-the-scenes account of a four-and-half-year effort to remake the Newark school system. The author reveals that infusion of $100 million from Zuckerberg and an additional $100 million in contributions from foundations and individuals were not able to reform what Cory Booker, then mayor of Newark, described as a "repugnant" school system.
The book's end notes indicate that key players in the drama gave Russakoff a "rare opportunities to witness the unfolding story of education reform in Newark."
One of the book's few deficiencies is its failure to indicate how much of the blame for the inability to turn the district around was attributable to the performance of the key players. More important than assigning blame would be suggesting what might have been done differently to increase the chances of bringing about transformational change.
The book provides real insight regarding the growth of charter schools in Newark and the issue of "charter culling" ā facilitated by parents some call "choosers:" "those with time to navigate the charter lotteries and to foster a striving attitude at home."
[For more of this story, written by Irwin S. Stoolmacher, go to http://www.nj.com/times-opinio...en_are_forgotte.html]
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