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Saving the School: The True Story of a Principal, a Teacher, a Coach, a Bunch of Kids and a Year in the Crosshairs of Education Reform
An unstoppable principal's race to save a failing high school from falling short of its numbers and closing its doors forever.
Anabel Garza: No school board would have put her forward as a model principal. Pregnant and alone at sixteen, widowed by twenty-five, Anabel got along teaching English to Mexican immigrants, raising her son, and taking night school classes.
But then no model candidate would have taken the job at John H. Reagan High School. Once known to sports fans across Texas as the great champion Big Blue, Reagan was collapsing. The kids were failing the standardized tests, failing on the basketball court, failing even to show up. Teenage pregnancy was endemic. If the test scores and attendance did not improve, the school was set to close at the end of the 2009-10 school year.
Anabel took the assignment. Her first work was triage. She cruised the malls for dropouts. She fired ten teachers, including one who produced a ruler to bemoan the distance from the parking lot to her classroom door. She listened to angry lectures from union officials and angrier ones from black ministers. She kept going. She tailored each student's tutoring to the standardized tests. The numbers started to come up.
But with the state education commissioner threatening to close the school, the real work began. Anabel set out to re-create the high school she remembered, with plays and dances, yearbooks and clubs, teachers who brought books alive and crowded bleachers to cheer on the basketball team. She reached out to the middle schools, the neighborhoods, and the churches. She gave good teachers free rein. She mixed love and expectations.
The circumstances facing Reagan High are playing out all over the country. The get-tough crowd of education reformers, led by Obama's secretary of education, are redoubling their efforts to replace public schools with charter companies. But what happens when the centerpiece of a community is threatened? And what happens when one person just won't quit?
For the first time, we can tally the costs of rankings and scores. In this powerful rejoinder to the prevailing winds of American education policy, Michael Brick examines the do-or-die year at Reagan High. Compelling, character-driven narrative journalism, Saving the School pays an overdue tribute to the great American high school and to the people inside.
Anabel Garza: No school board would have put her forward as a model principal. Pregnant and alone at sixteen, widowed by twenty-five, Anabel got along teaching English to Mexican immigrants, raising her son, and taking night school classes.
But then no model candidate would have taken the job at John H. Reagan High School. Once known to sports fans across Texas as the great champion Big Blue, Reagan was collapsing. The kids were failing the standardized tests, failing on the basketball court, failing even to show up. Teenage pregnancy was endemic. If the test scores and attendance did not improve, the school was set to close at the end of the 2009-10 school year.
Anabel took the assignment. Her first work was triage. She cruised the malls for dropouts. She fired ten teachers, including one who produced a ruler to bemoan the distance from the parking lot to her classroom door. She listened to angry lectures from union officials and angrier ones from black ministers. She kept going. She tailored each student's tutoring to the standardized tests. The numbers started to come up.
But with the state education commissioner threatening to close the school, the real work began. Anabel set out to re-create the high school she remembered, with plays and dances, yearbooks and clubs, teachers who brought books alive and crowded bleachers to cheer on the basketball team. She reached out to the middle schools, the neighborhoods, and the churches. She gave good teachers free rein. She mixed love and expectations.
The circumstances facing Reagan High are playing out all over the country. The get-tough crowd of education reformers, led by Obama's secretary of education, are redoubling their efforts to replace public schools with charter companies. But what happens when the centerpiece of a community is threatened? And what happens when one person just won't quit?
For the first time, we can tally the costs of rankings and scores. In this powerful rejoinder to the prevailing winds of American education policy, Michael Brick examines the do-or-die year at Reagan High. Compelling, character-driven narrative journalism, Saving the School pays an overdue tribute to the great American high school and to the people inside.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 16, 2012
1 person is currently reading
295 people want to read
About the author
Michael Brick
25 books1 followerMichael Brick, a former reporter and sportswriter for The New York Times, is the author of "Saving the School" and "The Big Race."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
November 18, 2012
I don’t like giving negative reviews. Anyone who follows my blog regularly may have figured that out. This time I’m making an exception for twofold reasons. One, because I received this specifically in order to review it, and secondly because the author here is purportedly a New York Times alum who should both be able to take a poor review with grace, and should damn well be expecting them over this.
This is the story of Reagan High School in Austin (no not that Reagan, another one), a ghetto high school in crisis, which manages the miracle of preventing a shutdown by nearly doubling test scores in a single academic year under its new (and current) principal, Anabel Garza.
I’m such a sucker for these stories. Seriously, it’s pathetic. I know.
But this is just… badly, badly done. First of all, the narrative is all over the damn place. Brick bounces us back and forth between a young male athlete, the principal, the basketball coach and bizarrely, a science teacher who finds Jesus with an evangelical group, institutes bible study for her students, at her home, and decides to take a bunch of students to East Africa.
To be honest, that last bit would be considered so incredibly inappropriate by parents and the New York Board of Ed that the teacher would probably have been removed immediately, with The Times being the first ones calling for her head. But this is Texas… which is, as I’ve often said, “a whole ‘nother planet”.
I’m also amazed that such a vast amount of time is spent on Basketball and Bible Study instead of talking about teaching techniques, outreach programs, student aid… it’s mentioned almost as an afterthought that there’s a day care center in the school for teen parents. Hey, lets talk about that dammit, because that right there is a way to get those girls diplomas. Let’s also talk about the student I noticed being referred to merely as “the pregnant girl” three times (the lack of even a pseudonym for the young lady offended me, frankly) but not a single mention is made of anything done to help her stay in school; just a snide reference to her condition being a “hall pass”. ESL classes are barely touched on, although it’s mentioned several times that the school has a high head count of students born south of the Rio Grande.
Do I sense some personal bigotries, or are we just catering to the existing ones in our main target market here?
The writing itself is mediocre at best. Brick appears to be writing in the same voice he uses for news articles and sports commentary, and that just doesn’t work in a piece of this scope. It’s too jarring, and it assumes one has a certain level of background. That background isn’t there in this case; no reader outside of the state is going to have any real idea of how Texas’ school system works, and the sketchy lines describing it are inadequate.
In conclusion, I can only encourage Principal Garza to write her own book, and hope that someone else has done a better job than this, because it’s a story that should be told. In the meantime, for those who enjoy stories of this type as much as I do, I recommend Shut Up and Let the Lady Teach: A Teacher’s Year in a Public School by Emily Sacher as a much better choice.
This is the story of Reagan High School in Austin (no not that Reagan, another one), a ghetto high school in crisis, which manages the miracle of preventing a shutdown by nearly doubling test scores in a single academic year under its new (and current) principal, Anabel Garza.
I’m such a sucker for these stories. Seriously, it’s pathetic. I know.
But this is just… badly, badly done. First of all, the narrative is all over the damn place. Brick bounces us back and forth between a young male athlete, the principal, the basketball coach and bizarrely, a science teacher who finds Jesus with an evangelical group, institutes bible study for her students, at her home, and decides to take a bunch of students to East Africa.
To be honest, that last bit would be considered so incredibly inappropriate by parents and the New York Board of Ed that the teacher would probably have been removed immediately, with The Times being the first ones calling for her head. But this is Texas… which is, as I’ve often said, “a whole ‘nother planet”.
I’m also amazed that such a vast amount of time is spent on Basketball and Bible Study instead of talking about teaching techniques, outreach programs, student aid… it’s mentioned almost as an afterthought that there’s a day care center in the school for teen parents. Hey, lets talk about that dammit, because that right there is a way to get those girls diplomas. Let’s also talk about the student I noticed being referred to merely as “the pregnant girl” three times (the lack of even a pseudonym for the young lady offended me, frankly) but not a single mention is made of anything done to help her stay in school; just a snide reference to her condition being a “hall pass”. ESL classes are barely touched on, although it’s mentioned several times that the school has a high head count of students born south of the Rio Grande.
Do I sense some personal bigotries, or are we just catering to the existing ones in our main target market here?
The writing itself is mediocre at best. Brick appears to be writing in the same voice he uses for news articles and sports commentary, and that just doesn’t work in a piece of this scope. It’s too jarring, and it assumes one has a certain level of background. That background isn’t there in this case; no reader outside of the state is going to have any real idea of how Texas’ school system works, and the sketchy lines describing it are inadequate.
In conclusion, I can only encourage Principal Garza to write her own book, and hope that someone else has done a better job than this, because it’s a story that should be told. In the meantime, for those who enjoy stories of this type as much as I do, I recommend Shut Up and Let the Lady Teach: A Teacher’s Year in a Public School by Emily Sacher as a much better choice.
September 14, 2012
This is a great story, and even better because it is true. Michael Brick captures the reality of the Reagan story. As someone who lives in Austin, has seen the turnaround, and is acquainted with some of the folks involved in the community effort around the school I can say that this book adds depth to what we have all seen on the surface. If you want to understand the issues around minority and disadvantaged schools, and see people work within the system, imperfectly but passionately to turn it around, then there is no better book I know of. Highly, highly recommended.
August 26, 2012
Michael Brick gives us a riveting, well written account of the enormous challenges faced by a public high school about to be shut down by the state of Texas. The principal, Anabel Garza, with fierce determination and faith in her students and teachers, and with the help of hundreds of community volunteers, meets the state test standards and literally saves the school from closure. Along the way you meet the heroes: Candice, the Christian Chemistry teacher, and Derrick, the boys' basketball coach, and the school athlete/leader, JaQuarius. Brick is able to show the absurdity of the high stakes testing regime, how it drains involved families and good students from the school, making it ever harder to turn the school around, especially when the standards keep rising each year. You also see the enormous challenges students in a culture of poverty live with daily. You're rooting for Reagan High the entire books, and you are so almost crying with joy when they save the school!
October 7, 2012
I quit this book after the first chapter. It was too all over the place. He jumps from education policies to how the principal never thought she was pretty. Why is that last point important in a book that supposedly is going to focus on her accomplishments as an adult? Also the school system was not well explained in the first chapter so that I was just confused. For those reasons I quit.
March 30, 2016
Great concept...confusing narrative with the jumping back and forth. Seemed very disjointed. Kind of like this review. :)
March 27, 2013
In the age of No Child Left Behind and exurbanization, it’s inevitable that the city schools are taking a hit. Having student taught in a Minneapolis school, I saw first hand the low moral that can ensue when you mix together low SES students with either exhausted tenured teachers just biding their time until retirement or brand new “cheaper” teachers who can barely make it through a lesson plan because babysitting has become the number one priority for each and every day. I was fortunate enough to have many students who cared about their education and were on the higher achieving side (two of my classes were Precalculus, an optional math class). But that’s not to say I didn’t witness first-hand the chaos of other classrooms and I had my own students with stories of poor attendance because of having to help the family out during the day.
I was excited to read Saving the School because I have a special fondness in my heart for the teachers in a school who can make a difference. (Stand and Deliver, anyone?) But I watch these movies, read these books with a wary eye. Although in Stand and Deliver, Jaime Escalante’s story is one chalk full of miracles, the movie version leaves out the cost of his marriage he paid to help his students be AP success-stories. As if most teachers don’t work enough hours during the school year, adding extra tutoring, home Bible studies, study groups and backyard concerts (as one of the teachers in Saving the School did) leaves little to no room for a personal life. And now that that particular teacher is married, I would hope for the sake of her family that she has cut back. But we don’t read about any pitfalls with the extra work piled on top of the already daunting task of teaching/coaching/principalling a group of students throughout the year. And I can assure you there are consequences.
All the stories that were gathered were slightly two-dimensional, solely focusing on the end result of making adequate yearly progress. The author at one point snuck in a bit about the principal being on a diet, but this hardly qualifies as a side-plot, which I think would have benefitted the book. We only get a glimpse into the efforts of one teacher, one coach and the principal, so I can’t help but wonder the role the greater staff/faculty played. Was everyone being a team player that year? What about the teachers who didn’t help in saving the school? There was a much greater story that could have been touched on without sacrificing the main three stories.
Even though the story-telling aspect of the book could have used some beefing up, the story itself was rather fascinating. How do you band together to keep a school from closing? Help students pass state testing? Keep them from skipping, despite the lack of parental guidance? I appreciate the faculty and students who allowed the author to tell their story because it was definitely one worth telling.
I was excited to read Saving the School because I have a special fondness in my heart for the teachers in a school who can make a difference. (Stand and Deliver, anyone?) But I watch these movies, read these books with a wary eye. Although in Stand and Deliver, Jaime Escalante’s story is one chalk full of miracles, the movie version leaves out the cost of his marriage he paid to help his students be AP success-stories. As if most teachers don’t work enough hours during the school year, adding extra tutoring, home Bible studies, study groups and backyard concerts (as one of the teachers in Saving the School did) leaves little to no room for a personal life. And now that that particular teacher is married, I would hope for the sake of her family that she has cut back. But we don’t read about any pitfalls with the extra work piled on top of the already daunting task of teaching/coaching/principalling a group of students throughout the year. And I can assure you there are consequences.
All the stories that were gathered were slightly two-dimensional, solely focusing on the end result of making adequate yearly progress. The author at one point snuck in a bit about the principal being on a diet, but this hardly qualifies as a side-plot, which I think would have benefitted the book. We only get a glimpse into the efforts of one teacher, one coach and the principal, so I can’t help but wonder the role the greater staff/faculty played. Was everyone being a team player that year? What about the teachers who didn’t help in saving the school? There was a much greater story that could have been touched on without sacrificing the main three stories.
Even though the story-telling aspect of the book could have used some beefing up, the story itself was rather fascinating. How do you band together to keep a school from closing? Help students pass state testing? Keep them from skipping, despite the lack of parental guidance? I appreciate the faculty and students who allowed the author to tell their story because it was definitely one worth telling.
March 16, 2016
What was I thinking, reading this book during the school year? I already live and breathe Education. Must my personal reading time be dominated, too, by books that are inevitably depressing?
Not that this book doesn't have a happy ending. (Please stop reading now if you don't want to know how the school fares.) At the heart of this story is an old, once-proud high school, a school where fabulous athletes once-upon-a-time won all their games and where promising scholars rose to become doctors and lawyers and Indian chiefs. Key phrase is once-upon-a-time, though. Now the school sits amid a neighborhood that is worn down by time and poverty, with students who miss class to work to help out their families and have babies themselves too-soon. Students who, in the key educational buzz phrase of our time are Left Behind.
To the rescue comes new superhero principal Anabel Garza. She is on fire for these students and for her teachers and for this school. Well she should be. If scores on tests and attendance figures don't come up, it's the end for this high school. What a superhero Anabel Garza is. She flies around the school, class to class, urging students to show up and learn and go to tutorials. She drives to students' homes and pulls them out of bed and gets them to school. She strategizes with key student leaders to keep the school focused. She ends up now and then in the emergency room with high blood pressure troubles, but all ends well when scores go through the roof and the school is saved. At least for this year.
I live in Texas where education reform has been underway for decades now and which basically consists of cutting everything at schools (except, of course, football) and moaning loudly and publicly when students do poorly on more and more tests which are made more and more difficult every year.
Yes, there is a happy ending for this story. But at what cost? Sigh.
Not that this book doesn't have a happy ending. (Please stop reading now if you don't want to know how the school fares.) At the heart of this story is an old, once-proud high school, a school where fabulous athletes once-upon-a-time won all their games and where promising scholars rose to become doctors and lawyers and Indian chiefs. Key phrase is once-upon-a-time, though. Now the school sits amid a neighborhood that is worn down by time and poverty, with students who miss class to work to help out their families and have babies themselves too-soon. Students who, in the key educational buzz phrase of our time are Left Behind.
To the rescue comes new superhero principal Anabel Garza. She is on fire for these students and for her teachers and for this school. Well she should be. If scores on tests and attendance figures don't come up, it's the end for this high school. What a superhero Anabel Garza is. She flies around the school, class to class, urging students to show up and learn and go to tutorials. She drives to students' homes and pulls them out of bed and gets them to school. She strategizes with key student leaders to keep the school focused. She ends up now and then in the emergency room with high blood pressure troubles, but all ends well when scores go through the roof and the school is saved. At least for this year.
I live in Texas where education reform has been underway for decades now and which basically consists of cutting everything at schools (except, of course, football) and moaning loudly and publicly when students do poorly on more and more tests which are made more and more difficult every year.
Yes, there is a happy ending for this story. But at what cost? Sigh.
April 13, 2013
I was actually sad when I finished reading this book. I was sad because I wanted to keep reading and find out what happened even past the book. I felt like I knew those in the story and found myself rooting for them and the school that everyone had written off. To see everyone--students, staff, administrators, parents--come together for a common goal may have been one of the most beautiful true stories I've read in awhile. It also shows why it's so important that we put value back into education and give everyone the opportunity to shine and believe they're worth something.
Read
October 2, 2012I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even though I have some quibbles (pet peeve: calling Peace Corps "The Corps", ugh) and questions (would this author who lives here in Austin, send his own kids to Reagan?), I'd recommend it to anyone interested in public education generally or AISD/Reagan HS in particular.
September 15, 2012
I was expecting something way different than this book was, not a lot of tips and tricks.
August 6, 2020
This story is true. This story mirrors so much of my own life as a public school teacher. God is not allowed in today's public schools, yet this book consistently demonstrates the love of God, the desire to be what He intends one to be. "You can go your own way, you can choose your own life, but if you are a child of God, He will come after you. He will do whatever it takes. Break your legs" (85). A teacher prays for her students, "Lord, let me not be angry at my children, for they know not what they are doing" (89).
As a teacher, I see Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs play out in the classroom. "...physiological needs come first: food, water, air, and sleep. Until those are fulfilled, you can't move on to the next level, safety and security. Next come social needs like love and affection, then self-esteem, and eventually personal growth, if you have the time" (111). This Texan school comprised of parents "...hovering somewhere around level two" (111). "Give them food and shelter and security and they'll flourish...because everything else is built on that" (111). Sometimes our school systems are more worried about test scores...data, data, data...but children cannot learn and will not learn if their most basic needs are not met. This is the reality teachers face in the public school system every single day.
This Texas school was failing and being threatened of closure. "...the teachers had been trying for four years to make the academically acceptable numbers and yet here they were" (129).
"When you're ready to learn, a teacher will show up" (136).
Reagan High "...ended up spending $1.6 million a year on special education, compared with $3.4 million on regular education and the sum of $443 on gifted and talented education" (145). I have seen students flock to county or private schools, opposed to city, because the majority of resources goes to bring students up to grade level opposed to enrichment. These numbers are astonishing but not surprising. Public schools cater to the lower babies, oftentimes neglecting those who are excelling, those who will become our doctors and lawyers and engineers...
The high school basketball team prays before each game, without their coach. The coach "...walked out and closed the door to let the boys pray" (182). Prayer in schools...it can always find a way.
Reagan High had "...big abstract problems: attendance, parent participation, teen pregnancy, and 'students are supporting families, can't make it to school.' None of that stuff was going away, not in the real world. The Reagan High School PTSA might as well have decided to address the wealth gap, say, or global warming, or mean people, or the tides" (191-192).
This book contains a lot about basketball from the program to the coach and the players and the games. I don't think so much basketball talk was necessary, but maybe it was needed as filler.
One teacher felt, "You just can't take the kids home forever, you can't adopt them all, you can't really save anybody...'We're supposed to teach math and science and social studies...but you have to teach the kids how to be resilient. It's very hard to teach how to come back from a defeat, but that's become our responsibility" (202).
"In America we sometimes think things make us" (238).
"All things are political, and if you don't recognize that, you won't get anything done" (250).
Public education loves to reinvent the wheel. "In Texas, the whole structure would be replaced within a year, when a set of tests called STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) would replace TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills), which in 2002 had replaced TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills), which in 1990 had replaced TEAMS (Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills), which in 1986 had replaced TABS (Texas Assessment of Basic Skills)" (261). Is your head spinning yet?
I would like to say this book will leave you feeling inspired and optimistic about the future, but it is filled with so much in-your-face truth. I see it. I relate. So many teachers feel like they are playing a game they can never win. So, it can leave you feeling helpless and hopeless. Even being in education 20 years, I don't have the answers. I don't know how to "fix" our public schools, but I do know it takes more than just the teachers. It takes parents. It takes families. It takes students. It takes churches. It takes God, so quit shutting Him out of schools! It takes communities. It takes administration. We are all in this together, yet, it only works when every single person pulls their own weight. I can teach and teach and teach, but I can't make a student learn. My husband can teach and demonstrate and model for me how to take out the garbage, yet I am NEVER going to take out the garbage. While Reagan High was not closed, this is the reality all over the country: under-performance, apathy, teenage pregnancy, truancy, dysfunctional families...it's overwhelming to little old me.
As a teacher, I see Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs play out in the classroom. "...physiological needs come first: food, water, air, and sleep. Until those are fulfilled, you can't move on to the next level, safety and security. Next come social needs like love and affection, then self-esteem, and eventually personal growth, if you have the time" (111). This Texan school comprised of parents "...hovering somewhere around level two" (111). "Give them food and shelter and security and they'll flourish...because everything else is built on that" (111). Sometimes our school systems are more worried about test scores...data, data, data...but children cannot learn and will not learn if their most basic needs are not met. This is the reality teachers face in the public school system every single day.
This Texas school was failing and being threatened of closure. "...the teachers had been trying for four years to make the academically acceptable numbers and yet here they were" (129).
"When you're ready to learn, a teacher will show up" (136).
Reagan High "...ended up spending $1.6 million a year on special education, compared with $3.4 million on regular education and the sum of $443 on gifted and talented education" (145). I have seen students flock to county or private schools, opposed to city, because the majority of resources goes to bring students up to grade level opposed to enrichment. These numbers are astonishing but not surprising. Public schools cater to the lower babies, oftentimes neglecting those who are excelling, those who will become our doctors and lawyers and engineers...
The high school basketball team prays before each game, without their coach. The coach "...walked out and closed the door to let the boys pray" (182). Prayer in schools...it can always find a way.
Reagan High had "...big abstract problems: attendance, parent participation, teen pregnancy, and 'students are supporting families, can't make it to school.' None of that stuff was going away, not in the real world. The Reagan High School PTSA might as well have decided to address the wealth gap, say, or global warming, or mean people, or the tides" (191-192).
This book contains a lot about basketball from the program to the coach and the players and the games. I don't think so much basketball talk was necessary, but maybe it was needed as filler.
One teacher felt, "You just can't take the kids home forever, you can't adopt them all, you can't really save anybody...'We're supposed to teach math and science and social studies...but you have to teach the kids how to be resilient. It's very hard to teach how to come back from a defeat, but that's become our responsibility" (202).
"In America we sometimes think things make us" (238).
"All things are political, and if you don't recognize that, you won't get anything done" (250).
Public education loves to reinvent the wheel. "In Texas, the whole structure would be replaced within a year, when a set of tests called STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) would replace TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills), which in 2002 had replaced TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills), which in 1990 had replaced TEAMS (Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills), which in 1986 had replaced TABS (Texas Assessment of Basic Skills)" (261). Is your head spinning yet?
I would like to say this book will leave you feeling inspired and optimistic about the future, but it is filled with so much in-your-face truth. I see it. I relate. So many teachers feel like they are playing a game they can never win. So, it can leave you feeling helpless and hopeless. Even being in education 20 years, I don't have the answers. I don't know how to "fix" our public schools, but I do know it takes more than just the teachers. It takes parents. It takes families. It takes students. It takes churches. It takes God, so quit shutting Him out of schools! It takes communities. It takes administration. We are all in this together, yet, it only works when every single person pulls their own weight. I can teach and teach and teach, but I can't make a student learn. My husband can teach and demonstrate and model for me how to take out the garbage, yet I am NEVER going to take out the garbage. While Reagan High was not closed, this is the reality all over the country: under-performance, apathy, teenage pregnancy, truancy, dysfunctional families...it's overwhelming to little old me.
November 28, 2018
Reagan High School used to be a model to other schools in the area. It it had been going down an unfavorable path. They are not given a fair chance to get back up to the standards in such a short amount of time. The vast majority if this text agrees with what I believe to be right and wrong, even with simple things like students cutting class or cheating on tests. Brick says, “Back to school is tough: even the president said so” (Brick 70). There is a lot of pressure on educators today because they are teaching the doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, and everything else of tomorrow.
Michael Brick does a really good job of going into all of the issues he brings up in detail. By doing this he portrays a much deeper understanding of what he is talking about, and brings a certain relatability factor to the reader. By being brutally honest, for this is a true story, Brick achieves a credible status, which leads to the reader trusting his opinion when he so carefully weaves that in there. This book was interesting, and genuinely broadened my perspective of the public education system in general. The way Brick told the story of what happened to a Garza and many others that were mentioned makes the reader become invested in the characters, and the results of the school and it’s success. Unlike other non fiction books, this one was bearable because of the way Brick writes, and how he formatted the chapters and the book as a whole. One of the critiques that Michael Brick is making in this book is that there is injustice everywhere, whether it is noticed or not. Some people have to work a lot harder than others to achieve the same result. Though circumstances are not the same for everyone, we can all achieve the same results. Brick also makes the argument that, although this is cheesy, with determination, passion, and drive you can achieve what you are aiming to. I liked this book, because it was interesting and taught a strong lesson.
Michael Brick does a really good job of going into all of the issues he brings up in detail. By doing this he portrays a much deeper understanding of what he is talking about, and brings a certain relatability factor to the reader. By being brutally honest, for this is a true story, Brick achieves a credible status, which leads to the reader trusting his opinion when he so carefully weaves that in there. This book was interesting, and genuinely broadened my perspective of the public education system in general. The way Brick told the story of what happened to a Garza and many others that were mentioned makes the reader become invested in the characters, and the results of the school and it’s success. Unlike other non fiction books, this one was bearable because of the way Brick writes, and how he formatted the chapters and the book as a whole. One of the critiques that Michael Brick is making in this book is that there is injustice everywhere, whether it is noticed or not. Some people have to work a lot harder than others to achieve the same result. Though circumstances are not the same for everyone, we can all achieve the same results. Brick also makes the argument that, although this is cheesy, with determination, passion, and drive you can achieve what you are aiming to. I liked this book, because it was interesting and taught a strong lesson.
August 6, 2018
I really enjoyed this book about a struggling Texas school and the small but dedicated group who fought to save it.
May 8, 2013
This book started off as rather disjointed, so it took me a while to get into it. The chapters jumped from the point of view of the principal, science teachers, basketball coach initially with little transition. The opening also started off with a lot of railing against current school reform measures. Although I happen to agree with a lot of the author's opinions on this, the statements with little to back them up felt one-sided.
There wasn't as much discussion of the "Crosshairs of Reform" that is in the subtitle as I would have liked. We know that the school is in danger of closing due to reforms, and we certainly see the extreme focus on the state tests in the school, but there wasn't much additional discussion of the details or pros and cons of the reform efforts. Instead, there was a lot of discussion of the characters, but none of it in-depth enough to draw the readers in.
My interest and the writing definitely picked up as the book went on. I appreciated all the matter-of-fact description of the faculty and staff taking kids to doctors' appointments, inviting them to their homes for dinner, going to kids' houses when they are absent, etc. I know from experience that this kind of above-and-beyond work of teachers in urban schools is not unusual. The average teacher in a "failing school" works much harder than one in a non-failing school, but the public tends to think they just sit around twiddling their thumbs, and that's why the kids are failing. I have been amazed at the work and dedication of some of my kids' teachers, and I have noted that the worse the school is perceived the more caring and hard-working the teachers tend to be. So I'm glad Brick gave the teachers their due.
I would have liked to learn more about how well the students did after their successful year of testing. Their scores went up, but how much did they learn. On the one hand, it sounds like the testing gave the teachers a lot of data to help the students. They were able to individualize each student's tutoring and extra help in the areas they had been lacking before. On the other hand, did this approach do anything to give students the big picture and help them be better prepared for the next level? I feel like we are constantly changing approaches to education and our reform efforts are just flailing around in the dark, and I would like more longitudinal information about what really works.
There wasn't as much discussion of the "Crosshairs of Reform" that is in the subtitle as I would have liked. We know that the school is in danger of closing due to reforms, and we certainly see the extreme focus on the state tests in the school, but there wasn't much additional discussion of the details or pros and cons of the reform efforts. Instead, there was a lot of discussion of the characters, but none of it in-depth enough to draw the readers in.
My interest and the writing definitely picked up as the book went on. I appreciated all the matter-of-fact description of the faculty and staff taking kids to doctors' appointments, inviting them to their homes for dinner, going to kids' houses when they are absent, etc. I know from experience that this kind of above-and-beyond work of teachers in urban schools is not unusual. The average teacher in a "failing school" works much harder than one in a non-failing school, but the public tends to think they just sit around twiddling their thumbs, and that's why the kids are failing. I have been amazed at the work and dedication of some of my kids' teachers, and I have noted that the worse the school is perceived the more caring and hard-working the teachers tend to be. So I'm glad Brick gave the teachers their due.
I would have liked to learn more about how well the students did after their successful year of testing. Their scores went up, but how much did they learn. On the one hand, it sounds like the testing gave the teachers a lot of data to help the students. They were able to individualize each student's tutoring and extra help in the areas they had been lacking before. On the other hand, did this approach do anything to give students the big picture and help them be better prepared for the next level? I feel like we are constantly changing approaches to education and our reform efforts are just flailing around in the dark, and I would like more longitudinal information about what really works.
December 22, 2014
This book, a true story written by journalist Michael Brick, is about a high school in Austin that is struggling to meet academic benchmarks and stay open. I really wanted to like this book. I have a passion for education (my Bachelor’s degree is in education), and since this book was written only a few years ago (published in 2012), I hoped it would be full of information on how schools today are dealing with No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Common Core, and so on. Well, there’s a little bit of that, but it was almost boring to read. There were no teachers working to overcome and transcend the testing atmosphere in schools, only teachers teaching to the test. The principal Anabel, who I gathered was supposed to be the main character/protagonist (is that what you call it in a nonfiction book? Not sure…), was baffling to me. She seemed to truly care about her students, but at the same time, she cared more about keeping the school open. She scoured the mall for students playing hooky, but she only brought back the students who were good at passing the TAKS test (Texas’s state-wide standardized test). The book also skims the surface of race and socioeconomic status as contributing factors to academic failure, but stops well short of giving any possible solutions, or even reasons why these are factors in academic problems. The book only talks about how the teachers set aside students who were doing well on tests and focused only on those who were failing the tests, and especially African-American math. I’m not sure that’s the best way to approach education, but the teachers and administration at this high school were too preoccupied with keeping the school open at any cost to focus on students who were already doing enough to get by. I can understand this stance–who wouldn’t want to make sure they would have a job to come back to next year?–but from an educational standpoint, it makes me a little angry.
*Read more on my blog: http://newberyandbeyond.com/book-revi...
*Read more on my blog: http://newberyandbeyond.com/book-revi...
February 19, 2017
I really wanted to be uplifted by this. So disjointed. The focus starts on the educational reforms of the past 50 or so years, interspersed with key figures in the saving of the Austin school, several detailed basketball games, the principal's heartburn, and a handful of kids with dreams that never are achieved.
July 10, 2013
I had real problems with this book. It completely disparages the school reform movement, sometimes with incorrect facts. It also offers no real solutions to the problems faced in inner-city, failing schools, other than panicked, stop gap measures (tutoring, driving to homes to pick students up). It outlines the heroic steps of a few teachers. But, it never addresses the real reasons why the school is failing, nor does it address the root causes. Generally, it makes the argument that we should keep the school open because of community history and school pride, which is all well and good, but you must fix the problems!
January 2, 2013
A non-fiction account of an Austin, Texas high school that is classified as "Academically Unacceptable" by the state. The author relates the efforts of a driven principal, basketball coach, chemistry teacher and some of the students putting forth special efforts to make sure that the school raises TAKS test scores in 2010. Much of the book spends time bashing standards.
I believe there must be a middle ground holding schools and teachers accountable and keeping the focus on learning, not test taking.
I believe there must be a middle ground holding schools and teachers accountable and keeping the focus on learning, not test taking.
February 26, 2014
Not the most organized book about education reform but unusual and wonderfully so in that the protagonist is a Chicana principal. I could relate to her on so many levels; she was funny, real, and relatable. I also liked the basketball coach and the students featured in this nonfiction look at a struggling Austin high school.
I admit I look askance at books about underdog schools especially since the New York Times Best-Seller List and Hollywood would have us believe it takes a plucky gringa to save the day. Real life is much more interesting.
I admit I look askance at books about underdog schools especially since the New York Times Best-Seller List and Hollywood would have us believe it takes a plucky gringa to save the day. Real life is much more interesting.
March 27, 2016
Strange soft-hearted racism. Typical stereotypes? Check. Easy answers? Check. No understanding of the underlying problems of schools? Check. A real disappointment. Might as well publish Stand and Deliver and replace the pronouns.
I agree with others who wonder if Brick carried some deep-seated bigotry. Or just a desire to shoehorn people into his own liberal narrative. For those of us who know Reagan and AISD, this is a real disappointment.
I agree with others who wonder if Brick carried some deep-seated bigotry. Or just a desire to shoehorn people into his own liberal narrative. For those of us who know Reagan and AISD, this is a real disappointment.
September 17, 2012
If anyone doubts that education of children and young people has to be owned by the community where the schools reside, this book will remove that doubt. Variations of the story have been written. The strength of this book is the true portrayal of the school as a living, growing resident of the community. If parents of students are the only supporters of the school, the children have little hope. Community residents have to care and act to have more children aspire for careers, not jobs.
November 8, 2012
While this is certainly an inspiring story, Brick doesn't create a strong characterization for the people who star in this book. If you're looking for a book to show the downside to standardized testing (and is there an upside?) Brick articulates well the challenges teachers and administrators face everyday.
November 8, 2012
Alternatively inspiring and depressing. Truly makes you understand the herculean efforts required principals and teachers to be successful in an increasing number of today's struggling public schools. The lack of support to our schools from federal and state education agencies and taxpayers is appalling.
January 6, 2013
It was a story told very well, minus the jumping around that seems to worsen as the book progresses. I thought it would be a bit more political, educating about current education system and it definitely starts that way but morphs from poorly supported soapbox complaining about standardized testing to a feel good story. As far as a feel good story goes though, this one is pretty darn good.
September 14, 2013
It reads like a long New Yorker article; stylized and discursive. It takes place in my city: a shocker at the level of urban poverty so close to my cushy existence. I am startled at the number of hard choices so many must make in the field of education due to No Child Left Behind. And very discouraged at the current state of public schooling.
April 14, 2015
Read for my book club which is in the '23'. At the beginning, I felt like some of the paragraphs were disjointed. Maybe I got used to the style but I noticed it less by the end of the book.
Friends of mine are in this book. That made it so much more interesting.
The feel of it reminds me of the TV show "Friday Night Lights".
Friends of mine are in this book. That made it so much more interesting.
The feel of it reminds me of the TV show "Friday Night Lights".
November 25, 2012
This story is a page-turner and inspiring reading. It is a "must read" for anyone who cares about educating our children, now and in the future. The people in this story come to life and you are there, rooting for them.
November 11, 2012
I was disappointed in the handling of this important subject. I'm not sure if it was the writer's style or the substance of his reporting. This book felt to me like a missed opportunity to address the issues.
September 23, 2013
I found the writing to be incongruous and therefore a little hard to follow. I may be wrong, but I think he referred to some people by more than one name/title. That was also confusing. The story was not well summed up in the end. I felt no closure, just left hanging.
May 14, 2014
Interesting story of an high school in Austin, Texas that is labeled academically unaccceptable but the teachers and principal encourage the students and succeed in saving the school from being taken from them. The principal loves the students and tells them so!
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