Former high school teacher, school leader, activist, consultant, and now professor of education James Nehring combines vivid case studies with practical suggestions to describe how the system works to thwart good schools and what educators can do to improve them. In this book he paints the big picture of school reform in the United States, deftly distilling broad cultural patterns into useful advice for reform-minded educators. Bringing history alive through the carefully rendered stories of five schools past and present that have successfully swum against the mainstream, Nehring shows how educators can overcome the lie of the quick fix through mindful adaptation. "The Practice of School Reform" is a highly readable diagnosis of some of education's deepest ills and provides practical prescriptions that can empower educators to remedy them. The table of contents presents the following chapters: (1) The Manufacturing Metaphor; (2) The Fear Factor; (3) The View from the Top; (4) The Grand Interlock; (5) The Politics of Appeasement; (6) The Failure of Generosity and Justice; and (7) The Mindful Practitioner. Also provides notes, and an index. [Foreword by Larry Cuban.]