Chapter 4: Staffing Urban Principals in an era of Hyper-Reform: A Case from “The Port of Good Things”

The year 2013 marked what many are referring to as 30 years of educational reform in the United States. An analyst on National Public Radio (NPR) stated on April 26, 2013:

NPR, scholars, and other media sources recognized three decades of education reform and used their platforms to not only mark this significant moment in the reform movement but also to stimulate what can best be described as a short lived and largely unnoticed marker regarding the benefits and pitfalls to these three decades. These discussions centered on the outcomes of the decades of reform in urban school with particular attention to educational opportunities and equity for the largely poor and minority students who attend these schools. Two large gaps seem to guide these discussions: the gap in student achievement and the gap in America’s comparison with other nations. These gaps are analyzed through student achievement data, graduation rates, and dropout rates as markers of the successes and failures of educational reform.