Multiethnic Moments

The Politics of Urban Education Reform

Susan E. Clarke, Rodney E. Hero, Mara S. Sidney, Luis Fraga and Bari Anhalt Erlichson, foreword by Clarence N. Stone

"I like this book very much. The authors come to grips with the impact that the multi-racial character of America's cities will have on a critical aspect of urban politics. Multiethnic Moments is pitched at a level of sophistication that will engage specialists in the field yet written clearly enough to be accessible to undergraduate students."
—Benjamin Marquez, University of Wisconsin-Madison

When courts lifted their school desegregation orders in the 1990s—declaring that black and white students were now "integrated" in America's public schools—it seemed that a window of opportunity would open for Latinos, Asians, and people of other races and ethnicities to influence school reform efforts. However, in most large cities the "multiethnic moment" passed, without leading to greater responsiveness to burgeoning new constituencies.

Multiethnic Moments examines school systems in four major U.S. cities—Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco—to uncover the factors that worked for and against ethnically-representative school change. More than a case study, this book is a concentrated effort to come to grips with the multiethnic city as a distinctive setting. It utilizes the politics of education reform to provide theoretically-grounded, empirical scholarship about the broader contemporary politics of race and ethnicity—emphasizing the intersection of interests, ideas, and institutions with the differing political legacies of each of the cities under consideration.

Reviews

"Political scientists Susan E. Clarke, Rodney E. Hero, Mara S. Sidney, Luis R. Fraga, and Bari A. Erlichson have done an admirable job in giving readers a road map for understanding how historical trends, power relations, and racial and ethnic demographic changes have influenced the trajectory of urban education reform in four cities: Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston."
—Teachers College Record

"The authors of this timely and provocative work have thoroughly examined the politics of race and education reform in four highly multiracial/multiethnic cities....It is essential reading for reformers of the future who are willing to read it carefully and learn its lessons well."
—Multicultural Review

"While acknowledging the historical importance of biracial politics, the authors move beyond a black versus white racial paradigm to explain the complex reasons for the limited representation and influence Latinos and Asians have experienced...Figures of theoretical models and data tables are a valuable component."
—Choice

"The rich detail of the case studies (often organized in summary tables in a nicely comparable way) provides much fodder for scholars of urban education seeking other explanations for urban politics…[T]he authors have examined four interesting cases of urban education politics….Multiethnic Moments provides a rich set of hypotheses that could be tested with larger samples and different data sets. That is a valuable contribution to scholars and well worth reading. A second major contribution that needs to be recognized is the utility of the book for classroom usage. The cases are engaging and the analysis is accessible."
—Perspectives on Politics

"The book is well written and clearly organized….The book would be most appropriate for a graduate course in social policy analysis. Faculty teaching change graduate student courses in social change, social stratification, race and ethnicity, or sociology of education may find this book a useful supplemental text….Parts of this book may be quite useful in an undergraduate course"
—Teaching Sociology

"This book is an important contribution to our understanding of urban politics….Multiethnic Moments is a ‘must-read’ for scholars and practitioners in the field of urban education. It provides a useful analytical perspective that helps us to understand better the changing nature of urban education. This book is at the forefront of those studies helping to analyze and explain the growing multiethnic and multiracial of U.S. cities."
—Urban Affairs Review

Foreward – Clarence Stone
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Interests, Ideas, and Institutions: The Politics of School Reform in Multi-Ethnic Cities
2. Race, Ethnicity, and Education
3. Local School Reform Agendas: Changing the Rules of the Game
4. The Politics of School Reform in Multi-Ethnic Cities: An Interest-Based Perspective
5. Ideas and Education Reform in Multi-Ethnic Cities
6. Institutions and Education Reform in Multi-Ethnic Cities
7. A Developmental Perspective on Education Reform in Multi-Ethnic Cities
Notes on Authors
Appendix: Methods
Appendix: Data
Index

About the Author(s)

Susan E. Clarke is Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Rodney E. Hero is Packey J. Dee III Professor of American Democracy, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame.

Mara S. Sidney is Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University-Newark.

Luis R. Fraga is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Stanford University.

Bari A. Erlichson is a Classroom Teacher in Plainfield, NJ.

Subject Categories

Political Science and Public Policy
Education
Race and Ethnicity