The Good High School: Portraits of Character and Culture

by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

What makes a good school? A prominent Harvard educator looks for the answers in six schools that have earned reputations for George Washington Carver High School in Atlanta; John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, New York; Highland Park High School near Chicago; Bookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts; St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire; and the Milton Academy, near Boston.

Genres: Education, Sociology

410 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 1985

About the author

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is an American sociologist who examines the culture of schools, the patterns and structures of classroom life, socialization within families and communities, and the relationships between culture and learning styles. She has been a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education since the 1970s.

Reviews

[Peaches · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I have loved reading about portraiture in other texts, I was disappointed with this one because art isn't actually used, which is misleading and far less interesting. The punctuation was spotty as well. Still, I appreciate her contributions to ABER.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading "The Good High School" by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot. It is an ethnographic portrait of six high schools - two urban, two suburban, two elite prep schools. The schools are widely considered "good", or were in 1982, and she uses a clear lens and a narrative voice to portray the contexts of these schools.

As someone who wasn't born yet in 1982, the book serves as a reminder that the formula for successful schools - and the debates about schooling - have largely stayed the same and the context hasn't changed very much at all. The "school reform" debates of today have a genesis in the exact same concerns and anxieties that were taking place in the early 80s (and led to the much-lauded and much-panned "A Nation At Risk" report by the Reagan administration.)

Not sure where I'm going with this. It's just a helpful reminder - as a new educator and someone who is considering academia - that "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Cliched? Perhaps - but important to remember in the contentious ed-reform landscape.

[Aryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this is a seminal piece of educational literature, but it seemed to me a little outdated (1983) and lacked the problem posing that I enjoy in more current and critical educational literature. The narrative is well written and engaging and the ideas presented about "what makes a good school" are thought provoking, but I would not have finished it if it wasn't required reading for class.