Cronin provides us with a complete and compelling version of historical developments in the Boston Public Schools through most of the 20th century. While much ink has been spent on 'busing in Boston' and the history of the schools through the desegregation era of the 1970s, Cronin places this and other developments in the long history of the civil rights and education reform movements in Boston and the nation. Anyone concerned with the difficult work of reforming urban public education should read this book. - James W. Fraser, Professor of History and Education at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Reforming Boston Schools is a compelling history of an urban public school district's struggle to provide a quality education for its students in a context of changing demographics, disparate views about race, class and equity, contentious politics, patronage and periods of rapid turnover in leadership. The lessons of history are clear and the hopes and aspirations for reaching a new standard of achievement are documented. - Thomas W. Payzant, Boston Superintendent of Schools 1995-2006; Senior Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education
One of Cronin's valuable contributions is comparing the minimal rights of Boston teachers before 1965 with the strength of collective union action in recent decades. He also evaluates the impact of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act, which I co-authored in 1992-93. To our great satisfaction this statute helped raise Boston student achievement while reducing union-management conflict over wages and educational innovation. Every urban educator should read about how Boston schools have improved. - Thomas Birmingham, Esq., Former President of the Massachusetts State Senate Senior Counsel; Edwards Angell Palmer and Dodge, Boston
