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Race and Educational Reform in the American Metropolis offers a penetrating analysis of urban school reform through the intertwined lenses of race, power, and democratic participation. Centered on the education of African Americans yet grounded in a broader examination of urban school politics, it explores decentralization as both a policy strategy and a social movement aimed at including historically marginalized groups within the institutions of civil society. Drawing on case studies from major U.S. cities—including New York, Detroit, Dade County, Los Angeles, and Chicago—the authors illuminate how decentralization has unfolded differently across local contexts and with varying consequences for racial equity.
Moving beyond narrow accounts of school reform, the book situates educational change within larger patterns of societal transformation. A key contribution is its distinction between two modes of parental involvement—empowerment and enablement—and its careful assessment of the promises and limits of community participation in school governance. Through detailed analysis of local school councils and representative democracy in action, the study raises critical questions about who truly gains power under decentralization and how reform efforts can unintentionally reproduce inequality. Essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, this work deepens our understanding of the political and social dynamics shaping urban education reform and their implications for the next generation of policy initiatives.
"The book combines a concern for the education of African-Americans with a broader concern for urban school politics and the issues of decentralization. This is a powerful combination of issues that this book effectively weaves into a coherent analysis." — Philip G. Altbach, State University of New York at Buffalo
"The book offers a broad, structural perspective on school reform in the past twenty years. Too often research on education reform tends to take a narrow view that fails to link the school system to societal transformation. I believe that the book will contribute to our understanding of school decentralization, which the authors defined in terms of 'a general societal movement to include marginal groups within the broader institutional protection of civil society.' The book also examines the important issue of the impact of school reform on racial equity in the changing urban context. Finally, it usefully differentiates two modes of parental involvement—empowerment and enablement. The limits of parental participation, as suggested by this study, are likely to have broad policy implications on the next round of school reform." — Kenneth Wong, University of Chicago
Dan A. Lewis is Professor of Education and Social Policy at the Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research at Northwestern University, and Vice President for Public Policy of the Mental Health Association in Illinois. He has also written Worlds of the Mentally Ill and The State Mental Patient and Urban Life. Kathryn Nakagawa is Assistant Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine.
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Decentralization: The Ideologies of Inclusion and Deinstitutionalization
2. Big Cities and Patterns of Decentralization
3. New York City and Detroit: Empowerment in Perspective
4. Creating Enablement: Dade County and Los Angeles
5. Chicago Overview: Empowerment Today
6. Representative Democracy: Comparing and Contrasting the Attitudes of Chicago Parents
7. Enablement or Empowerment? The Workings of the Local School Council
9. Conclusion
Appendix
References
Author index
Subject index