The Redesign of Urban School Systems: Case Studies in District Governance

The Redesign of Urban School Systems provides a uniquely valuable resource for anyone involved in preparing education leaders for the political and practical realities of district-based school reform.

Edited by two leading experts in education reform, this absorbing volume brings together twelve teaching cases on urban school governance developed specifically for training school boards and district leaders. The cases illustrate major shifts in district-wide reform, from traditional, hierarchical, compliance-driven bureaucracies to high-performing, student-centered systems. Richly detailed, fast-paced, and incisive, they describe real-life situations in which district leaders and school boards grapple with district wide reform efforts.

Donald R. McAdams is the founder and chairman of the Center for Reform of School Systems. In January 2002, he completed twelve years as a member of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) board of education, where he served as board president in 1993 and 1997. McAdams has been a research professor at the University of Houston and an independent quality management consultant with national and international clients in manufacturing, mining, travel, financial services, health care, and education. Previously, he served as executive vice president of the American Productivity and Quality Center, president of the Texas Independent College Fund, president of Southwestern Adventist College, and professor of history at Andrews University. McAdams has served on the boards of a major hospital, two private schools, and many academic and civic organizations, as well as on national commissions and task forces focused on urban school district governance and redesign. He has published numerous articles in academic and trade journals and opinion editorials in newspapers, and is the author of Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools . . . and Winning! Lessons from Houston (Teachers College Press, 2000), and What School Boards Can Do: Reform Governance for Urban Schools (Teachers College Press, 2006). McAdams received a PhD in British history from Duke University.

Dan Katzir is a senior adviser to The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. From 1999 to 2010, he served as the founding managing director of the foundation’s education work. During that time, he oversaw the growth of the foundation’s education work to nearly half a billion dollars in grant commitments. Katzir also was instrumental in developing and launching the foundation’s four national flagship initiatives: The Broad Prize, the nation’s largest annual education award; The Broad Institute for School Boards, a national training and support program for urban school district governance teams; and The Broad Superintendents Academy and The Broad Residency, two management development programs designed to train executives from education and other sectors as senior managers and CEOs in the nation’s largest and most challenged school systems. Early in his career, Katzir was a management consultant with Bain & Company and then served as chief operating officer for Teach For America. He went on to serve as the first executive director of the UCLA School Management Program, a joint venture of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Anderson School of Management, and as the founding regional director of Sylvan Learning Systems in Los Angeles. He is an inaugural Fellow in the Aspen Institute–NewSchools Venture Fund Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education Fellowship. Katzir has a bachelor’s degree in history from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.