Presents a sociological perspective on the issues involved in transforming the structure of inner city schools. This book evaluates the models which have guided past and present attempts at educational reform, and proposes a coherent theory for attacking the problems of urban education. Dr. Janowitz examines the inner city school as a social system—the physical structure, community setting, people involved, and persistent patterns of behavior. He analyzes the current trend of specialization teaching and recommends instead an "aggregation" model which increases the scope of the individual teacher and restructures the climate of the school.

America's urban public schools are in crisis. Compared with their suburban counterparts, urban students have lower test scores and higher dropout rates. In an attempt to improve educational quality, responsibility for school governance has been handed over to mayors in several U.S. cities. Based on extensive research, including more than eighty in-depth interviews, Mayors and Schools examines whether mayoral control results in higher student achievement and considers the social costs of diminished community involvement. Using a comparative case study approach, Stefanie Chambers researches the impact of mayoral educational control in two big-city school districts, Chicago and Cleveland. On the whole, she finds, student test scores have improved since the takeovers but there are now fewer opportunities for grassroots participation in the educational system by minority community members. Chambers contends that these findings have important implications for democratic theory, arguing that urban schools cannot be successful in the long run without the active participation of local citizens.