A few years ago I wrote a book entitled Spinning Wheels: The Politics of Urban School Reform. The volume caused something of a stir and contributed to a broader effort to focus reform efforts on the causes-rather than merely the symptoms-of urban school failure. For those in the charter school movement seeking to more fully understand the trouble with the status quo and how to avoid the pitfalls therein, it might be worth revisiting the thrust of that argument. On a brighter note, larger changes in accountability and choice may be starting to help address the plight of urban school systems.

Critiques of urban schooling almost invariably end with calls for more change and new "solutions." Critics call for new curricula, different pedagogy, longer school days, altered classroom schedules, smaller classes or schools, refined professional development, and so on. Advocates of each proposal traditionally suggest that nothing more radical is necessary. They suggest that all we need to do is listen to the education professors and the consultants and adopt the right combination of these measures (although there is the problem that the professors and consultants settle upon new solutions almost as fast as districts catch onto the old ones).