The Enduring Promise of America’s Great City Schools

A sober yet encouraging look at how urban public schools have confronted challenges, defied expectations, and continued to improve

In The Enduring Promise of America’s Great City Schools, Michael Casserly presents a forthright assessment of the past performance and future potential of large urban PreK-12 school districts in the United States. From a vantage of nearly five decades of work within the Council of the Great City Schools, which now represents seventy-eight of the nation’s largest urban public school districts, Casserly expertly distills data on student performance, school enrollment, and the impact of strategic reforms to draw a balanced picture of progress and setbacks in urban schools.

Casserly contends that America’s urban public schools have played a critical role in expanding democracy, advancing equity, and enhancing opportunities, especially for students from historically underserved groups. He illustrates how urban school leaders have proven themselves adept at handling crises, including the global pandemic. The book outlines the many strengths of large urban districts: they were early adopters of the college and career-ready standards, stalwart supporters of reforms that raised expectations for their students, and engineers of instructional and systems improvements that have led to landmark gains in both math and reading achievement.

Casserly leaves readers with thoughts on organizational change in the wake of declining enrollment and funding, among other challenges in education, confident that urban districts will continue to be architects of their own improvement.

Michael Casserly served for thirty years as the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, the nation’s primary coalition of large urban school districts. Over the decades, he worked directly with the nation’s urban school leaders on many of their most difficult challenges.