cover image HARD LESSONS: The Promise of an Inner City Charter School

HARD LESSONS: The Promise of an Inner City Charter School

Jonathan Schorr, Tom Watson, . . Ballantine, $26.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-345-44702-9

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. (Sept.)