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Creamer, Chris & King, Matt. (2008). Ownership, Leadership, and Management: A Mindset for Transforming American Public Education. Woodinville, WA: Shalie Press Pp. 96 ISBN 978-1438254005
Reviewed by Linda R. Vogel
University of Northern ColoradoAugust 1, 2009
In a perfect world, all stakeholders of public education in American would embrace Creamer and King’s roles as owners, leaders, and managers. The world is not, however, perfect and individual and cultural views of the value and the role of students, parents, teachers, specialists and support staff, principals, superintendents, school board members, and community members vary widely. While the ideal mindsets for each of these stakeholder groups set forth by the authors would certainly be supported by those who work in schools, the more difficult questions of how to elicit such support and instill a shared ownership in education by all members of American society are left unanswered in this book and limit its usefulness, except as an initial starting point for dialogue to explore the actual rather than described ideal mindsets that exist.
The book is organized into three chapters with each chapter devoted to outlining the role of students, parents, teachers, specialists and support staff, principals, superintendents, school board members, and community members in each area that constitutes the proposed transformational mindset—ownership, leadership, and management. The sequence of stakeholder role descriptions is not explained but it can be inferred that it ranges from the student who is the learner and most intimate actor in the educational process to the community member who is the most removed from the learner and classroom. The “advice” given in each chapter includes a rationale for each group’s involvement and bulleted lists of what individual’s in that group should do to successfully support public education. The book concludes with a brief section that asks the reader if he or she is upholding the responsibility to be an owner, leader, and manager of American public education. No supporting sources are cited in the text leaving the reader to surmise that the ideas presented are purely the opinions of King, a high school English teacher, and Creamer, a businessman.
The descriptions of what a student, parent, teacher, or other stakeholder should do to support education are sound. Student-owners are advised to value education for their future success, work hard, develop relationships with teachers and classmates, participate in extracurriculars, show pride in their school, take responsibility for continuous learning, and believe that effort will pay off in achievement. Parent-owners are directed to instill a strong work ethic in their child, foster a love of learning, help set high educational goals for their child, take responsibility for the school, get to know the school’s staff, and actively participate in school and district events and meetings to influence the long-term excellence of education in their community. Teacher-owners care deeply about student success; strive to provide a world-class education; develop relationships with students, staff and, parents; use diverse pedagogies to meet individual learning needs; model a classroom work ethic; participate in school and district events; believe in the mission and vision of the school; and represent their school with pride at all times. The list for each group in the three mindset areas continue in the same manner to explicate the ideal, committed, involved individuals that every member of American society should be.
As stated at the outset of this review, it would be difficult to find an educator that would not agree with the points identified in this book. Stating something does not make it so, obviously, and the difficult work comes in convincing an individual that a thing is of value to him or her and is worthy of effort amid a sea of conflicting and complex social, personal, and economic realities. While it seems self evident to most people that students should believe that “a good education is pivotal to their future success” (p. 14), the challenge of educators it to instill that belief in the students who come to school hungry and inadequately clothed, dodging gang territories on their way, worried about family issues, and who has not seen the efforts of others like them rewarded with even a portion of the American dream. Authors such as Fullan (2001) and Rothstein (2004) and many others describe the complexity of issues facing society in the drive to improve American public education. These authors do not only articulate a desired description of American education but also attempt to shed light on how improvement might be made, whereas Creamer and King just describe the ideal without dealing with the messiness of how things are.
Despite the simplistic focus on prescribing the ideal beliefs and actions for each group impacted by the American educational process, this book might be useful in starting conversations with stakeholders regarding their personal role definitions in relation to improving student achievement. This might be possible in public schools but participants in the discussion would probably be those students, parents, educators, and community members who already demonstrate a committed belief in their role in public education and would not yield any transformation of the beliefs and actions of those not participating in the discussion. For that reason, this book might be more effectively used in outlining expectations of stakeholders in charter and private schools where attendance is a demonstrated commitment to education by students and parents and frequently must be supported by a larger community network, as well as educators serving in these schools. While the authors present the ideas in this book as a means for transforming public education in American and, indeed, if each person supported public education as described it would enact a vast transformation in the achievement of all children, what is needed is a greater understanding of why these views are not universally held or demonstrated and the complex challenges that shape the reality of American public education system that discourage people from supporting schools as Creamer and King describe.
References
Fullan, M. (2001). The new meaning of educational change, 3rd ed. NY: Teacher College Press.
Rothstein, R. (2004). Class and schooling: Using social, economic, and educational reform to close the Black-White achievement gap. Washington, D. C.: Economic Policy Institute.
About the Reviewer
Linda R. Vogel is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Northern Colorado.
Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.
Editors: Gene V Glass, Gustavo Fischman, Melissa Cast-Brede
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