In The Fight for America's Schools, Barbara Ferman brings together a diverse group of contributors to investigate how parents, communities, teachers, unions, and students are mobilizing to oppose market-based reforms in education. Drawing on a series of rich case studies, the book illustrates how disparate groups can forge new alliances to work together toward common goals.

The Fight for America's Schools tackles recent changes in the landscape of education policy that have prompted significant alterations in the politics of education. Collectively, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the Common Core State Standards, and now the Every Student Succeeds Act have chipped away at the traditional center of community control--a trend reinforced by the charter movement, school closures, and state takeovers of some urban schools. At the same time, market-based reforms have sparked resistance from teachers, parents, students, and community groups.

The book explores grassroots organizing campaigns in mid-Atlantic cities and suburbs, describing the reconfiguration of historical alliances, the mobilization of new organizations, and the potential for new coalitions that provide a countervailing force to established political configurations and strive to preserve education as a public good.

About the Author: Barbara Ferman is a professor of political science at Temple University and founder and executive director of the University Community Collaborative, a social justice initiative that provides media-based leadership development programming for high school and college students. She is the author of Governing the Ungovernable City: Political Skill, Leadership, and the Modern Mayor (Temple University Press, 1985) and Challenging the Growth Machine: Neighborhood Politics in Chicago and Pittsburgh (University of Kansas Press, 1996) and coauthor of The Political Hand: Policy Implementation and Youth Employment Programs (Pergamon Press, 1985). She has published journal articles and book chapters on community development, racial integration, civic engagement, youth media, community-based research, and pedagogy. She also directs the Philadelphia node of the Urban Based Research Action Network (URBAN), a community of scholars and change makers committed to exploring the intersections of education policy and social justice in order to improve public policy.