This is an important book. As the subtitle – "A Revolutionary Plan to Get Your Children the Education They Need," – indicates, it proposes a restructuring of public education that will, in time, fix most complaints about schools. Making Schools Work contains a plethora of interesting examples of successful schools, and each illustrates key issues leading to success. The book has a research base, but since it is written for parents, only some information about that research is presented. Click to read the full review (PDF, 38K)
—Barry McGhan, Center for Public School Renewal

“UCLA management professor William G. Ouchi has written an important book. Though dressed up as a ‘how to do it’ handbook, it's the result of a careful study of six big-city school districts (five U.S., one Canadian) to determine which ones work best and why. After extensive analysis, he has distilled the essential elements of district-level success into ‘seven keys.’ To wit: Every principal is an entrepreneur. Every school controls its own budget. Everyone is accountable for student performance and for budgets. Everyone delegates authority to those below. There is a burning focus on student achievement. Every school is a community of learners. And families have real choices among a variety of unique schools. The rest of the book explains the seven keys in depth, suggests how he reached these conclusions, and what ‘you’ can do with them to ‘improve your school.’ A most insightful and important piece of work that holds out real hope for urban school reform at the system level. But, of course, the changes implied by Ouchi's seven keys would, for many communities, be wrenching and politically difficult.
—Chester E. Finn, Jr., Editor, The Education Gadfly and Former Assistant Secretary of Education

Point your student in the right direction
—Review by Amy Scribner

Plato said, "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life." With so much at stake, it's no wonder that helping students succeed is a daunting task for all involved. Just in time for a new school year, several new books offer parents ideas for cultivating a prosperous environment that yields better results for their children.

School reform

In Making Schools Work: A Revolutionary Plan to Get Your Children the Education They Need UCLA professor William Ouchi advocates bold, unconventional methods for turning around low-performing schools. Wondering, for example, how much your school district really spends on its students? Ouchi proposes attending a school board meeting to ask board members in public.

An intensive study of the management systems in six metropolitan areas, Making Schools Work examines an array of public and private schools. Through interviews with superintendents, principals and teachers, Ouchi gleans a complete picture of what works. He finds that the keys are an entrepreneurial spirit and parents who arm themselves with information.

“Once the principal and teachers in your school realize that you know what questions to ask . . . they'll come up with answers for you,” Ouchi writes. “If you don't ask, though, they're likely to continue business as usual, with the same results as before.”

Ouchi concludes that bureaucratic, top-heavy school districts collapse under their own weight, while districts that allow all parties to participate in decision-making thrive.

Arriving on the heels of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a stringent federal education law that demands academic improvement, Making Schools Work is a pragmatic, meticulously researched and engaging glimpse at what happens—and what should happen—behind schoolhouse doors.