Making a Difference in Urban Schools

'Making a Difference in Urban Schools provides a very informative account of efforts to address problems of equity in urban school districts, along with practical insights and recommendations on designing and supporting change initiatives. Engaging and accessible, it will be a useful reference for school-based leaders, school trustees, and policy makers at both the district and ministerial levels. It will also appeal to students and researchers interested in governance, policy, poverty, and educational reform.' Lynn Bosetti, Dean of Education, University of British Columbia Okanagan 'Making a Difference in Urban Schools is a must-read book for graduate students, ministry personnel, trustees, school board employees, community workers, and activists interested in understanding the possibilities of educational change and school reform through a school board politics lens. Providing valuable insight into how school boards have taken up agendas around poverty and diversity, it is a significant contribution to the field of Canadian school reform.' -- Katina Pollock, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario

Making a Difference in Urban Schools evaluates how school and community leaders have worked to change urban education in Canada for the better over the past fifty years.

What can be done to improve the educational experiences of students who live in cities with increasingly high levels of diversity and inequality? Making a Difference in Urban Schools evaluates how school and community leaders have worked to change urban education in Canada for the better over the past fifty years.

This analytic and comparative study traces the evolution of urban education in Toronto and Winnipeg from the 1960s onward. Jane Gaskell and Ben Levin identify important contrasts between the experiences in each city as a result of their different demographics, institutional structures, cultures, and politics. They also highlight the common issues and dilemmas faced by reformers in these two cities, across Canada, and globally – including many that persist and remain controversial to this day.