Geology of School Reform

A Geology of School Reform provides a rare look at how successive waves of reform have interacted within a single school district. Among the questions raised are: Which practices proved destructive to the learning of students and the morale of teachers? What innovations have practitioners kept despite changes in educational fashion? The Cottonwood School District, which began as two rural schoolhouses in the early 1950s, is followed through the experiments of the 1960s; the back-to-basics movements of the 1970s; and the innovations of the 1980s. The successive waves of reform had different meanings for various professional and community groups within this culturally diverse district. Educators, enmeshed in the priorities of previous reforms, often resisted subsequent changes. Although the differences that arose between them and their communities sometimes required facilitators to assist communication, collaborative decision making has helped Cottonwood to deal with these changes.