Everything I Know About School Reform I Learned in Prison
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Prologue
This book is not a scholarly book about school reform. It is instead a story about the power of ideas in school. It begins in The Concord State Prison, a maximum-security Prison in Concord NH. in 1973. This was the time following the tragic uprising at the Attica State Prison in Upstate NY. This was a time of turmoil politically, chaos in prisons, and the beginnings of upheaval in American education.
The big idea here is the question, “Can you create public schools that work for all kids and really mean it?”. This book follows my career as a school leader and describes the challenges, barriers and occasional breakthroughs along the way. Starting in prison where I began to worry about the role of schools and their impact on kids at the low end of the economic spectrum. Do sorting and exclusionary practices that still exist in schools contribute to a subset of kids who give up on themselves?
This book is about facing these practices with the power of shared ideas. It is about using unorthodox and sometimes bold strategies to eliminate negative practices and widely accepted myths about kids and learning. The story describes openly my mistakes, sometimes “guerilla tactics”, very public confrontations, and some frightening forays into the National Media.
Most of this book is about the success story of King Middle School in Portland Me. that took over 20 years to accomplish. The book highlights the importance of shared ideas among a faculty for school change and of relentless and consistent leadership.
King Middle School is a Grade 6-8 regular public school with some unique demographic challenges. Portland is a refugee resettlement city where people from all over the world come from impoverished war- ravaged countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. King has 30% of its students who are refugees and at time speak up to as many as 26 languages. Additionally, about 56% of King’s kids live at the poverty level.
Twenty-Eight years ago, King students scored significantly below State and local averages on standardized tests. The status of King has changed dramatically. Despite demographic challenges, King students now exceed State averages in every curriculum area at every grade level.
The book is written in first person with a side commentary on the absurdity of bureaucracy. I try to provide in a transparent way the moves and processes used in the journey.
This is the King story. This is our story.
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About the Book
This story begins in the Concord State Prison a maximum-security facility in New Hampshire, in 1973, following the tragic uprising at the Attica State Prison in Upstate New York. It was a time of political turmoil, chaos in prisons, and the beginnings of upheaval in American education. The story ends at a successful middle school.
Telling a story of bold and relentless leadership in schools, Everything I Know About School Reform I Learned in Prison follows author Michael McCarthy’s career as a school leader and describes the challenges, barriers, and occasional breakthroughs he dealt with and experienced along the way. It shares how he tackled the question: Can you create a school that works for all kids and really mean it?
Offering an unvarnished look at the absurdities and outdated structures and practices which limit student success in schools, Everything I Know About School Reform I Learned in Prison journeys from the discouraging and depressing school stories of prisoners in a maximum- security facility to the hopeful stories of kids in a “school for all.” It narrates a story of teamwork and leadership while describing the complicated ride of risks, guerilla tactics, and skirmishes with both bureaucracy and the national media. It offers an honest and humorous inside look at what it takes to change a school.
About the Author
Michael McCarthy spent thirty-six years as a successful middle school principal. During the last twenty-eight of those years, he led King Middle School in Portland, Maine, from a school parents avoided to a school parents celebrated. Despite making radical and unpopular decisions, he was twice named Maine’s Principal of the Year. He was also awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the University of New England.