akingston5's review
Read this for a class in the spring and have revisited a few sections over the summer. Rooks does such a fantastic job tracing the history of segregation in American schooling, particularly as it is upheld by charter and private schools, philanthropic endeavors by the wealthy, and neoliberal policies that in no way support all people. Rooks also offers some pathways forward, and I cannot recommend this enough.
sponsler's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Most people are aware that school funding and school quality is far from equal; this book gave me a much better understanding of this problem. It identifies and explains quite a number of aspects I had not been aware of. It also gives the historical background, explaining how we got to our current situation. I think many believe that things are getting better and will continue to get better, but some of the current trends are actually in the wrong direction. Hopeful rhetoric and throwing money at the problem just serves to keep it going.
gigiinzim's review against another edition
5.0
I THOUGHT I understood the American school system. This book is not the first to take a look at the intersection of class, race and education but it may well be the best. Noliwe Rooks is brilliant. Full stop. What she has created here takes her in depth research and her assessment of the current and history education system and she helps us, the reader, figure out where we stand.
This book is well researched and Noliwe Rooks proves her brilliance as a writer because the book is intriguing and engaging when it could be dry. The historical accounts here didn't feel like reading a history book, they felt like someone who cared was recounting an important and meaningful narrative. If even a portion of these stories are accurate (and it certainly seems they are) then we are in trouble. This indictment of the education system demands that we know the truth and that we do better. This book is wonderful in all ways and still painful to get through. I couldn't read it as quickly as I wanted to because I had to take breaks to process what I was (unlearning and) learning. This is a book you will want to absorb.
Rooks also gives us a well researched and deep assessment of the current academic trends and the dangerous path our schools are on.
If you care about education in any way whether a parent, educator, current or former student, administrator or as someone who will one day have a child in the education system YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. If you care about social justice you must read this book. If you care about racial inequality you must read this book.
This book is well researched and Noliwe Rooks proves her brilliance as a writer because the book is intriguing and engaging when it could be dry. The historical accounts here didn't feel like reading a history book, they felt like someone who cared was recounting an important and meaningful narrative. If even a portion of these stories are accurate (and it certainly seems they are) then we are in trouble. This indictment of the education system demands that we know the truth and that we do better. This book is wonderful in all ways and still painful to get through. I couldn't read it as quickly as I wanted to because I had to take breaks to process what I was (unlearning and) learning. This is a book you will want to absorb.
Rooks also gives us a well researched and deep assessment of the current academic trends and the dangerous path our schools are on.
If you care about education in any way whether a parent, educator, current or former student, administrator or as someone who will one day have a child in the education system YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. If you care about social justice you must read this book. If you care about racial inequality you must read this book.
alisun's review
5.0
I read Cutting School for a class I'm teaching called Schools and Poverty.
Wowza. This is one of the best books I have read on education policy. Rooks integrates economics, educational history and policy (i.e. "segrenomics") to document how the education system perpetuates inequality, advances profit for corporate reformers, and reduces Black wealth.
Wowza. This is one of the best books I have read on education policy. Rooks integrates economics, educational history and policy (i.e. "segrenomics") to document how the education system perpetuates inequality, advances profit for corporate reformers, and reduces Black wealth.
leaton01's review
5.0
This book, in many ways, does the critical work for K-12 education that Michelle Alexander does for the criminal justice system. Rooks traces the history of "school choice" to its origins in the rise of segregation and shows how the United States has a consistent history of taking public dollars away from educational spaces where marginalized folks could benefit to spend on public schools of white students or in the case of school-choice, into the pockets of private entities. Some of her best work is illustrating the depths to which African Americans were denied public education throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, to the point that despite often having little wealth, African American communities would be the economic base to fund the creation of schools. In that way, Rooks' work reminds the reader of the long history of investment and determination in spite of outright legal and economic exploitation that African Americans faced well after slavery. From there, Rook illustrations how school choice has in recent decades still resonated with structural racism, draining cities of resources with often little to show for it besides more distressed communities and wealthier private interests. If you have any stake in education, this is a necessary read to understand that we are continually moving towards a privatized education system that will increasingly perpetuate racial inequality.
ninafroms's review
5.0
Read for class - Very accessibly written history of purposeful segregation and racist economic practices in US schools.
File under: accessible academic texts, depressing
Learned about: charter schools, virtual schools, segregation, education funding
File under: accessible academic texts, depressing
Learned about: charter schools, virtual schools, segregation, education funding
gabsalott13's review
3.0
This is a sweeping account of the various means by which hypocrisy, inefficiency, and greed have impacted our current wave of “educational reform,” and continued a legacy of inadequate public education for Black Americans. Through observations of alternative certification programs like Teach for America, and takedowns of alternative schooling options like charter and virtual schools, [a:Noliwe Rooks|4024409|Noliwe Rooks|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] shows how the powers that be have done everything to fix the wheel of educational inequity except break its axle—segregated schooling. Perhaps most controversially, she suggests this avoidance of the elephant in the room is by design; that is, educational inequity, and pretending to solve it via dubious outsider reforms, has become financially prudent for many privileged Americans.
If you are even slightly familiar with the public debates around urban education, you won’t find any new ideas in this book (besides the one I just covered, which, if you think about it, is a logical conclusion.) I think Rooks’ contribution is namely that of organizing all of the controversies into one place, providing specific examples (helpful if, like me, you forget the details of one-off articles), and tying current travesties into a larger American history of unequal education. I think there are authors who do this in much more engaging ways, such as Nikole Hannah-Jones, who Rooks often references in this work, but Cutting School may be more appealing/useful in an academic context.
Rooks, like Hannah-Jones, definitely seems to be one of those writers who believes that the moral arc of our universe, or at least the educational arc, does not bend towards justice. With the exception of a few outdated examples, she fails to mention the reform stemming not from Ivy League dropouts and hedge funds, but from “the black community” she so frequently (and often abstractly) refers to. She mentions the failure of Zuckerberg and Booker’s project in Newark,
but not the work Ras Baraka and community residents have since put in to rebuild their schools. She mentions the vast problems with charter schools, but barely notes the quality charters that are accessible, accountable, and helping to provide the academic options black students so desperately need. As someone who currently works at one of those responsibly run, neighborhood charters, I felt like her prognosis was both incomplete and underdeveloped—wouldn’t it be most helpful to discuss not just the disease, but the treatment plan?
While she jarringly ends with a lackluster pat on the back to black communities fighting for educational equity, and two random reflections from TFA alums, I didn’t really feel like she adequately captured the progress black communities have been making on their own terms. One of my grievances with many Africana Studies scholars is that they are quick to detail what everyone else has done wrong, but reluctant to enact solutions themselves, or even cover them in their scholarly work. I think this is ridiculously unfair to our community, given that everyone already knows the problems, and we are more wanting of the solutions. In this specific case, Rooks could’ve written a couple more chapters about where we go from here .
I get that there is no single bullet solution to our problems with education, and I think it’s important to address these issues, but we must even more rigorously pursue their answers. The families and students Rooks describes, after being so terribly slighted by our country’s educational system, oftentimes for generations, at least deserve this from her work.
If you are even slightly familiar with the public debates around urban education, you won’t find any new ideas in this book (besides the one I just covered, which, if you think about it, is a logical conclusion.) I think Rooks’ contribution is namely that of organizing all of the controversies into one place, providing specific examples (helpful if, like me, you forget the details of one-off articles), and tying current travesties into a larger American history of unequal education. I think there are authors who do this in much more engaging ways, such as Nikole Hannah-Jones, who Rooks often references in this work, but Cutting School may be more appealing/useful in an academic context.
Rooks, like Hannah-Jones, definitely seems to be one of those writers who believes that the moral arc of our universe, or at least the educational arc, does not bend towards justice. With the exception of a few outdated examples, she fails to mention the reform stemming not from Ivy League dropouts and hedge funds, but from “the black community” she so frequently (and often abstractly) refers to. She mentions the failure of Zuckerberg and Booker’s project in Newark,
but not the work Ras Baraka and community residents have since put in to rebuild their schools. She mentions the vast problems with charter schools, but barely notes the quality charters that are accessible, accountable, and helping to provide the academic options black students so desperately need. As someone who currently works at one of those responsibly run, neighborhood charters, I felt like her prognosis was both incomplete and underdeveloped—wouldn’t it be most helpful to discuss not just the disease, but the treatment plan?
While she jarringly ends with a lackluster pat on the back to black communities fighting for educational equity, and two random reflections from TFA alums, I didn’t really feel like she adequately captured the progress black communities have been making on their own terms. One of my grievances with many Africana Studies scholars is that they are quick to detail what everyone else has done wrong, but reluctant to enact solutions themselves, or even cover them in their scholarly work. I think this is ridiculously unfair to our community, given that everyone already knows the problems, and we are more wanting of the solutions. In this specific case, Rooks could’ve written a couple more chapters about where we go from here .
I get that there is no single bullet solution to our problems with education, and I think it’s important to address these issues, but we must even more rigorously pursue their answers. The families and students Rooks describes, after being so terribly slighted by our country’s educational system, oftentimes for generations, at least deserve this from her work.
kxtekss's review
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.25
I read it for English class, and it inspired some of the best discussions I've had over a book ever. Rooks is a very intelligent woman and she crafted her argument very well. My only complaint was that it dragged on for quite a while and was hard to get through at times. I feel like if she was more concise, it would have made the book a much easier read.