Cuban, Larry. (2004). The Blackboard and the Bottom Line: Why Schools Can't Be Businesses. Reviewed by James J. Harrington, Nativity Preparatory School, Boston

Cuban, Larry. (2004). The Blackboard and the Bottom Line: Why Schools Can't Be Businesses. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press. Pp. 253     $24     ISBN 0-674-01523-1 Reviewed by James J. Harrington Nativity Preparatory School, Boston January 29, 2008 The Blackboard and The Bottom Line is a clear and comprehensive description of why schools cannot be businesses. The very idea seems self-evident. The logic of Cuban's presentation delivers the picture of what should have been immediately evident. The fact that the reverse has been accepted as truth―that schools will be saved by being more like business―makes the book even more vital. Larry Cuban is a living icon of school administration and reflective practice. He is a man who has lived the fight and researched the possibilities. He has analyzed and spoken of meaning and fact. He has taught and lobbied for better education and schools. Cuban possesses the practical experience and the academic credentials to support his writing. He has lived, studied, and written across the 'reform era' and has shown no inclination to retire from the field of battle. The Blackboard and the Bottom Line is part mystery and part lucid explanation. The mystery focuses on why business is so interested in education reform. In setting the stage for the explanation, Cuban describes the history of school reform in the United States reaching back into the last years of the 19th century. He details the history of school reform in the US, its successes and failures, what has been done, what has been good and bad. It is well-written and often amusing. Cuban holds unique credentials, having taught and administered at the various levels of public education, including running urban school systems. He is a respected researcher and theorist, and a popular professor at Stanford University. I have enjoyed a number of his books, but his study and model defining the complexity of roles in the modern school stands out in this context. The Managerial Imperative (1998) draws a portrait of the education mission as navigated by the professionals trained to teach and guide. Quite simply he explains the managerial, political, and teaching functions that are shared by the diverse staff populating a school and school district. For this community, education is a common task, and the division of labor is constructed from experience and tested theory. Each educator has some degree of function in each sector - some management, some political, some instruction-learning. The specific job determines the emphasis of roles, with some having greater or lesser demands in one or the other function. The school is an integrated, communication-based institution that is not readily driven from the outside-in. In explaining "why schools cannot be businesses," Cuban discusses and exemplifies the counter-intuitive quality of truth. In this, it is the intuitive perceptions of businessmen when viewing schools and their subsequent recommendations for change/reform. Their perceptions, ideas, and even data are skewed by the culture and reality in which they have been immersed, grown, and formed. The culture of schools is uniquely different. The signature example is a colorful and startlingly obvious case study presented in the introduction. Cuban narrates the experience of a former CEO sharing his wisdom and experience with a group of high school teachers. Jamie Vollmer was a successful and respected manager. He noted that he would have been out of business early on if he had run his business as the schools operated. Having championed 'Zero Defects', 'Total Quality Management', and 'Continuous Improvement' (among other buzzwords), he was trapped by the need to see apples as oranges. In his case it was blueberries. His company, he bragged, made the very best ice cream from finest ingredients - the blueberry flavor was its signature item. A teacher asked what he would do if an inferior shipment of blueberries arrived. He replied that he would ship them right back. The teacher closed the noose by stating, "and we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big and small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant .... We take them all! Every one! And that is why it's not a business. It's a school." (p. 4) From this startling anecdote, Cuban goes on to describe a number of questions that frame his data and writing in this book. The logic of business inspired reforms are framed in: how business leaders have influenced schools; why schools adopted business-inspired reforms, the limits of business influence; whether public schools are like business; and whether the influence of business actually improved the schools. It is these six questions that produce the structure of the book. They organize what Cuban presents as "a long-held belief in strong ties between the economy and education and from the recurring tendency to turn to public schools for help during national crises." (p. 7) This book challenges a number of accepted truths. The first is the belief that education will pay off in dollars. This faith in schooling as the path to individual success expanded to portray schools as the answer to national problems. Cuban's discussion shows that the politically charged domain of education and its competing interests make schools and school systems very different than business and business planning. Cuban uses computer technology as an example of flawed logic and of the counter-intuitive quality of self-evident truths. Everyone accepted the idea that increased computer resources and technologically advanced schools would speed and improve education. This belief continues today, despite a lack of information/data to support the premise and even some negative data challenging it. The dominance of technology has proven true in business and at home, the faulty assumption is that it must be true at school. The truth is that schools and learning are different. Interspersing historical narrative describing the times that education was called upon to solve local and national economic problems, Cuban traces the partnership of schools and business from the late 19th century into the 21st century. This premise was based upon the idea that schools can provide the educated workforce and training needed for business growth and development. Reciprocally, when business and the economy became troubled, schools were blamed. As reforms became business-defined there was a turn to quantifiable measurement, a standardized process of assessment, and a carefully controlled management of schools. As is true of businesses generally during the 20th century, this culture had developed top-down as a data-driven operation. Schools on the other hand are described as dialogue based and adaptive. Individual teachers plan and implement programs for the individual needs of students. Given these facts, the cultural divergence of business and school could not be much clearer. Business and schools were not very much alike, except for some superficial aspects of management. In addition, the study of organizational behavior had determined over the past fifty years that real change develops through dialogue and open communication among the stakeholders involved in an issue. The business model did not move comfortably through the world of politics or the culture of negotiable solution. Throughout the book Cuban describes a history showing that schools were successful in facing national problems. They have retooled periodically to integrate waves of immigrants into society. They have created and recreated vocational education to face the changing needs of business and industry. The schools have also reorganized and expanded their objectives to feed students breakfast and lunch, to run after school programs, and provide nursing and medical care. None of these items are traditionally education/learning functions. Cuban details how the schools are challenged to be effective, to provide opportunity. Yet, much of the work and the expenditures of the schools is social not educational/learning. Urban schools are immersed in economic inequality with extreme health and welfare problems. These things have led others, notably Gary Orfield [ex-Harvard, now UCLA professor], to describe urban and rural poverty in the US as 'third-world' conditions. Even in these settings business and government expect to impose 'national standards' on places very unlike the national character. Over several chapters Larry Cuban describes the historical development of business and education partnership. It is a clear and well-documented story. The plans and desires were often driven by intuition and perceptions not appropriate to the reality. Having framed the history [his original field of training], Cuban suggests a correction to the plan, a new roadmap. As discovered by the CEO at the beginning of the story, schools are different. Cuban's conclusion suggests the following: that outside criticism of schools needs to be less rhetorical and more humble; that urban and rural schools need the most help; practitioners should be given ownership of reform -change; civic engagement must be restored as a primary role of public schools; revival of the ethic of community service in the business community; and to educate and train employees in a business setting (not in advance in the schools). My research dovetails with Cuban here. What created many of the problems afflicting school reform is the imposition of solutions from external sources. Often these are developed without consideration of and adaptation to the locality. Studying reform events we have learned that it is necessary to be culturally aware when connecting US policy with diverse locales such as Zimbabwe or Afghanistan. It should be no surprise to find that same attention to culture is necessary when trying to connect IBM or Bank of America with PS 103. While Cuban does not say so directly, I see the issue returning to questions of organizational theory. A half century of research says that the success of policy change and-or reform is found in the stakeholders involved in the change. The pattern of success is found in the dialogue and activity resulting from the involvement of a broad representation of groups impacted by the change. The presence of a charismatic leader who stands back from the discussion and moves it into action is greatly helpful, as are the commitment of resources. In any event, successful reform is not going to result from an imposed solution delivered by outside expertise - that history has shown! Larry Cuban suggests that a quest for better education be sought through collaboration based upon the values, perceptions, and expertise of those directly involved in the tasks. The reform of education will be accomplished by educators supported by those with a stake in its success. Reference Cuban, Larry. (1998) The Managerial Imperative and the Practice of Leadership in Schools. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. About the Reviewer James J. Harrington, PhD is principal of Nativity Prep, a scholarship middle school in Boston. An experienced educator, he researches and writes on education reform and education history, particularly the process of reform and urban schools.