Penn GSE News
Does Citizenship Matter?
Are Americans committed to educating students to be both workers and citizens, as we have long proclaimed? Or have we lost sight of the need to prepare students to be contributing members of a democratic society? What might schools look like if citizenship mattered as much as reading and math?
In "Leonard Covello... etc.", Michael Johanek and Penn GSE Professor John Puckett argue compellingly that the democratic goals of civic education can be reconciled with the academic performance demands of contemporary school reform movements.
An examination of one of the country's most notable experiments in "community-centered schooling," this enlightening book uses the 20-year history of Benjamin Franklin High School, in East Harlem, as a case study of community schooling. Starting in the 1930s, Covello served as principal, working with teachers, parents, and students to create a vital school that integrated academic and community programs.
Authors Puckett and Johanek outline such 20th-century efforts to educate students as citizens and make a compelling argument that community schooling can be reconciled with the current NCLB-inspired reform movement and its intense focus on academic performance. Their enlightening book points to new approaches for educating today's students to be better "public work citizens."
David Labaree, a professor at Stanford's School of Education and author of The Trouble with Ed Schools, describes the book as "first-rate historical writing about a compelling case." Labaree continues, "Leonard Covello is one of the great characters in the history of American education and surprisingly few people know about him these days. Add to this the fact that the story of community-centered schooling is exactly what the doctor ordered for the test-driven and market-oriented mode of schooling that is on the march today."
CONTACT: Jill DiSanto-Haines, jdisanto@pobox.upenn.edu, 215-898-4820
In "Leonard Covello... etc.", Michael Johanek and Penn GSE Professor John Puckett argue compellingly that the democratic goals of civic education can be reconciled with the academic performance demands of contemporary school reform movements.
An examination of one of the country's most notable experiments in "community-centered schooling," this enlightening book uses the 20-year history of Benjamin Franklin High School, in East Harlem, as a case study of community schooling. Starting in the 1930s, Covello served as principal, working with teachers, parents, and students to create a vital school that integrated academic and community programs.
Authors Puckett and Johanek outline such 20th-century efforts to educate students as citizens and make a compelling argument that community schooling can be reconciled with the current NCLB-inspired reform movement and its intense focus on academic performance. Their enlightening book points to new approaches for educating today's students to be better "public work citizens."
David Labaree, a professor at Stanford's School of Education and author of The Trouble with Ed Schools, describes the book as "first-rate historical writing about a compelling case." Labaree continues, "Leonard Covello is one of the great characters in the history of American education and surprisingly few people know about him these days. Add to this the fact that the story of community-centered schooling is exactly what the doctor ordered for the test-driven and market-oriented mode of schooling that is on the march today."
CONTACT: Jill DiSanto-Haines, jdisanto@pobox.upenn.edu, 215-898-4820