Cuban, Larry. (2008). Frogs into Princes: Writings on School Reform. Reviewed by Alexandra Rolfsmeyer, Michigan State University

Cuban, Larry. (2008). Frogs into Princes: Writings on School Reform. In J. A. Banks (Series Ed.), Multicultural Education Series. NY: Teachers College Press Pp. v + 204         ISBN 978-0-8077-4859-6 Reviewed by Alexandra Rolfsmeyer Michigan State University April 9, 2009 The United States is a diverse nation. The U.S. Census (2007) estimated that in 2000 people of color constituted 28% of the nation’s population; further, it predicted that they will constitute 38% and 50% of the population in 2025 and 2050, respectively (as cited in Cuban, 2008, p. vii). Language and religious diversity are, likewise, growing trends. As James Banks writes, “almost four million legal immigrants settled in the United States between 2000 and 2004,” and Islam is the “fastest-growing religion in the United States” (from Series Foreword in Cuban, 2008, p. vii). It follows, then, that U.S. schools are as diverse as the rest of the nation. According to the aforementioned U.S. Census (2007), roughly 20% of the school-aged population spoke a language other than English at home in 2000 (as cited in Cuban, 2008, p. vii). Moreover, Banks surmises from current trends that, within the next 20 years, it is likely that the percentage of students of color may equal or exceed the percentage of White students in public schools (from Series Foreword in Cuban, 2008, p. vii). For these reasons, multicultural education, which Banks describes as integrating content, values, and theories from history, the social and behavioral sciences, and ethnic and women’s studies with the hope of improving race relations, growing educational equity, and giving students the knowledge and skills they need to “participate in cross-cultural interactions and in personal, social, and civic action” (p. vii) to increase democracy and justice, is evermore imperative for both teachers and students, be they urban or rural. Thus, with the hope of compiling a “comprehensive set of books that summarize and analyze important research, theory, and practice related to the education of ethnic, racial, cultural, and language groups in the United States, and the education of mainstream students about diversity,” (p. viii) Banks gathered and edited 31 books in the Multicultural Education Series, published by Teachers College Press. (from Series Forward, in Cuban, 2008) In one of these books, Frogs Into Princes: Writings on School Reform, Larry Cuban details the lessons regarding educational equality he has learned in the nearly 50 years he has spent as an educator, administrator, reformer, and researcher. Cuban discusses of “the problem of student disengagement and low academic achievement in urban schools” (p. 1), the gap between “what policymakers say and what teachers do” (p. 7), questions that arise from repetitious reform, and suggestions for future reform based on research and experience. Though his work focuses more on the educationally disadvantaged population—the issues they face and several potential improvements that exist to address them—as well as persistent, often failing public school reform efforts, than on multicultural education, it holds important meaning for multicultural educators and those interested in global issues, in addition to individuals interested in the issues surrounding the improvement of traditional classroom practices. This book is composed of articles Cuban wrote over the course of his career and is organized into three sections. The two pieces in section one are written from the view of what Cuban calls an insider; that is, they were written during his years as a high school history teacher. In the first article, written in 1962, Cuban passionately discusses the Cleveland, Ohio school he was teaching in at the time. He outlines what he believes to be contributing factors to educational disadvantage, namely, pseudoscientific vernacular, as well as potential remedies for the current situation. Cuban feels that labels and stereotypes (other than the term "educationally disadvantaged," which he prefers) adversely impact effective teaching by ignoring individual students and creating a situation of self-fulfilling prophecy. He also believes, however, that schools and teachers can do much to alleviate the effects of educational disadvantage. According to Cuban, schools should offer education programs of the caliber necessary to meet the needs and capacities of their students and social services, and they also must take on some of the responsibilities customarily left to parents. Moreover, teachers must be adequately equipped for the urban environment, as both idealistic and prejudiced teachers are currently miserably unprepared for the circumstances facing them. Cuban focuses on this idea that schools and teachers can offer social services and participate in community life to resolve the current animosity between the underprivileged and their schools in the second article of section one, composed in 1969. He feels this task begins with effective teachers but strongly believes that teachers cannot be effective until they are given time to teach, develop curriculum, and liaise with the community. At length, he details a teacher-education model based on preparation in urban schools and communities and enhanced through university support. Cuban provides report excerpts from such a model (the Cardozo Project in Urban Teaching), which he directed from 1965 to 1967. Spanning the years 1984-2001, the four pieces in section two portray Cuban’s move from insider to outsider, that is, from educator to administrator. The first article details what Cuban purports are problems with research on and practices in successful schools, such as there being no outline for growing effective schools, a lack of agreement on definitions for effectiveness, leadership, and climate, a limited concept of effectiveness (it is restrictively linked to test scores), undesirable research methodologies (most research is limited to primary schools), and little attention paid to the role of district leadership. He then discusses district-level policies aimed at improving productivity, implementation strategies, and several unanticipated consequences. In the second article in section two, Cuban considers the at-risk label and framing problems involving schools. For the past two centuries, Cuban believes that compulsory education and, specifically, the graded school have been offered as solutions to the problem of at-risk children, and he contends that this strategy has perpetuated “lies that harm children, rather than help them” (p. 70). Moreover, Cuban feels that espousing a view that places responsibility for conditions that propagate academic failure and substandard student performance on the uncompromising organization of schools, instead of on children and their families, is a more productive, albeit less popular, way of framing this issue. He goes on to describe problems with the graded school, past efforts toward and difficulties in redesigning schools, as well as incremental change based on practitioner and researcher wisdom that may bring about considerable progress in educating at-risk students. Cuban discusses reasons for the reappearance of planned changes in article three of section two. He provides examples of teacher-centered instruction, academic versus practical curriculum, and centralizing and decentralizing authority to prove that reforms do really reappear; he explores scholars’ accounts for these reoccurrences (the pendulum and the cycle); and he offers two alternative explanations that support the counterevidence. One of Cuban’s explanations is that economic, social, and demographic changes shift public opinion to (re)focus on particular values, and this places pressure on schools to (re)align with public attitudes. The other explanation is that schools, as tax-supported institutions under lay governance, must retain both the support of their practitioners as well as the confidence of the public. Thus, there exists a decoupling between instruction and administration/policymaking, whereby teachers are allotted a satisfying autonomy, yet administrators can claim to have responded to the public’s behest by creating and implementing various policies. In the final piece of section two, Cuban reports on urban school leadership. He details the dangers of “fusing fears over particular urban schools with pervasive criticism of the entire public school system” (p. 112), the leadership reform trends of the 20th century, urban legends regarding district leadership, and an “initial agenda for civic, business, and educational leaders committed to urban school improvement” (p. 122). The three myths Cuban discusses are, the impossibility of governing big-city school districts, the revolving door of superintendency, and the belief that schools are single-handedly able to improve the life chances of poor children. Cuban’s agenda includes: increasing the quantity of resources allotted to urban schools and spending these resources more wisely; broadening the curriculum base beyond vocational preparation; providing special programs that attend to the intricacies of teaching and learning in cities; reframing urban school reform to include a variety of civic services rooted in child development; and concentrating on growing teacher and administrator recruitment and training. Section three contains three articles that follow Cuban’s return to the classroom, at Stanford University. In the first chapter in this section, Cuban details a 1993 study he conducted of teaching practices in various city and rural school districts (over 1,200 classrooms in all) between 1890 and 1990. Cuban’s goals in enacting this research were to determine if, in the course and wake of reform movements targeting the launch of student-centered instruction, teacher-centered instruction persisted; if so, to what extent and why, and if no, to what extent instructional change took place and why? He feels that investigation of classroom practices can guide policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to “reasonable expectations about what teachers can and cannot do, what schools can be held accountable for, and what is beyond their reach” (p. 138). The results of Cuban’s historical investigation led him to conclude that there is a general stability in both teaching techniques and occurrences of teacher-adopted alterations. The explanations he considers regarding this phenomenon are: (1) cultural beliefs about knowledge, teaching, and children are widespread and deeply rooted, and thus steer beliefs toward particular forms of instruction, (2) formal schooling socializes and arranges students into socioeconomic positions, which is accomplished through specific teaching practices that focus on explicit content and skills to be learned and by student attitudes toward conformity, productivity, and other traits that are the basis for minimal involvement in social, bureaucratic, and industrial groups, (3) reforms are not effectively implemented, or else they would have resulted in change, (4) instructional practices are molded by the structures of districts, schools, and classrooms, which, along with the culture surrounding teaching, lead to consistency in instruction, and (6) teachers’ content knowledge and personal beliefs regarding stereotypes, the role of the school in society, and classroom authority shape what they do in their classrooms. Cuban’s 2006 article (the second in section three) summarizes past and present use of computers in classrooms. Cuban’s stance is that the introduction of computers was a positive thing for student learning (“a small victory for common sense about schooling” (p. 149)); however, he questions the trusting welcome of 1:1 laptops, asking how this technological advance is used daily for teaching and learning and what the outcomes are for teachers and students. Based on his research, and that of others, Cuban concludes that while teachers and students do frequently use information and communications technology (ITC) at home and in school to complete assignments, write, prepare lessons, conduct Internet searches, and e-mail, ITC is not routinely utilized in classroom instruction, it has led to few significant changes in pedagogy, and a causal link has yet to be found between profuse ITC access, small returns in teacher use, and academic achievement. The third piece in section three is connected to the first piece; in this chapter, Cuban describes a follow-up study (of the aforementioned study) he conducted between 2004 and 2005. In this investigation, Cuban examines three districts (Denver, Colorado, Arlington, Virginia, and Oakland, California) to determine if previous patterns in classroom practice continued into the early 21st century, a time when the claim is repeatedly made that state and federal policies, like No Child Left Behind, unfavorably contour both content and classroom practice. The same design, framework, and methods were used from Cuban’s previous study. Several of Cuban’s findings are as follows: classrooms continue to be organized in a socially informal manner; student-centered teaching activities have increased in comparison with earlier periods in each district; and there has been a boom in progressive, teacher-centered pedagogical hybrids. In closing, Cuban offers seven “essential questions that must be asked (and answered) by change-driven civic and business leaders, policymakers, administrator, teachers, and parents when decision makers seek school improvement” (p. 194). A few of these include: How are assumptions about connections between schools and their communities, change, school organization, leadership, teaching, and learning built into policies, and are the goals for improved schools restricted to what schools can do? Are reforms fully implemented as intended, do they change the content and practice of teaching, and does this lead to desired student learning? And finally, do state tests capture student learning, and do proficient students go on to graduate college, enter the workforce, and contribute to their communities? With the articles he gathered for Frogs Into Princes: Writings on School Reform, Larry Cuban offers questions and suggestions based on his extensive experience and research in the field of education. While the overall tone and messages he offers are invaluable to today’s parents, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, there are also parts that are repetitive. That is, ideas he presented in early articles are often discussed again in later pieces. This is no surprise, given that the book is comprised of pieces Cuban wrote over a 20-year period. Additionally, although Cuban discusses, at length, questions for future research as well as propositions for improvement, he admits that, as of yet, there is no solution for our educationally disadvantaged students, and he acknowledges that the problems before us are immense. This may leave readers somewhat dissatisfied and without hope, but Cuban confronts this concern by saying he is neither disgruntled nor despondent; instead, he describes his stance as slightly battered but still optimistic. Furthermore, he believes that continued work to improve the state of affairs in our schools is a valuable endeavor, even while faith in victory is slight. About the Reviewer Alexandra Rolfsmeyer is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University and a part-time substitute teacher in several local school districts. Her research interests include the achievement gap--specifically, how the time children spend outside of school with various people and resources contribute to it--analyzing relationships between parents, schools, and communities, and how the processes that go into formulating, enacting, and evaluating policy function in culturally diverse, urban settings.