Mike Klonsky...: March 2013

Our latest book

Small Schools: Public School Reform Meets the Ownership Society

By Michael Klonsky, Susan Klonsky

ISBN: 978-0-415-96123-3
Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
Published by: Routledge
Publication Date: 27th February 2008
Pages: 224

About the Book

When education activists in New York, Chicago, and other urban school districts in the 1980s began the small-schools movement, they envisioned a new kind of public school system that was fair and equitable and that encouraged new relationships between teachers and students. When that movement for school reform ran head-on into the neo-conservative takeover of the Department of Education and its No Child Left Behind strategy for school change, a new model of federal power bent on the erosion of public space and the privatization of public schooling emerged. Michael and Susan Klonsky, educators who were among the early leaders of the small-schools movement, tell the story of how a once-promising model of creating new small and charter schools has been used by the neocons to reproduce many of the old inequities. Small Schools is the engaging story of what happens when the small-schools movement meets the Ownership Society.

Reviews

"For all those in America and elsewhere concerned about not simply giving into the models of education that have been imposed from above by a decidedly right-wing government, this is an informative and useful book." -- Teachers College Record, June 30, 2008

Intro: Two Trains Running 1. The Small Schools Movement Meets the Ownership Society 2. The Ownership Society—Not Just A Bumper Sticker 3. Chartering Private Management 4.The Two Faces of Philanthropy: Small Schools Along the Fault Lines of Wealth and Class 5.Think Tanks: The Brains of the Ownership Society 6. Alternatives to Top-Down Reform

About the Author(s)

Michael Klonsky, PhD. is a professor of education and Director of the Center for Innovative Schools.

Susan Klonsky is the Director of the Small Schools Workshop.

Speaches and presentation

Keynote speech at NCTE Pre-Conference, Whole Language Umbrella. St. Louis, MO. "The Politics of Literacy" July 19, 2012
"Chicago School Reform: No Miracles Here." Speech at 2009 Public Interest Law Symposium at Loyola Univ. Law School
Small Schools Workshop Michael Klonsky/Don Jacobs/Mara Huber/Pedro Noguera Through our partnership with the Small Schools Workshop, GSE provided support to the Buffalo Public Schools Smaller Learning Communities planning grant, and their efforts toward obtaining a Smaller Learning Communities implementation grant. This support included professional development activities and presentations by experts affiliated with the Small Schools Workshop. In addition to Buffalo, GSE has also provided ongoing support to the Amherst School District. Specifically, GSE brought Dr. Pedro Noguera, national expert on school reform, and Dr. Michael Klonsky, of the Small Schools Workshop, to speak to Amherst teachers and administrators on two separate occasions. GSE also supported the attendance of Windermere school principals at the national Small Schools Summer Institute in Tampa, FL. Currently, Dr. Scott Meier is working with McKinley High School as their external evaluator for the Smaller Learning Communities implementation grant.
Education Writers Assoc. national meeting. Small Schools and High School Reform: Shrinking Size, Diminishing Returns? Nov. 8-10, 2009 San Diego, California
:Prospects for Change in the Obama Years" : A Panel discussion with Mike Klonsky, Deborah Meier and Jose Rico, Feb. 10, 2009 at DePaul Univrsity.
"Separate and Unequal? The Socio-Economic Realities of Public Education in America" February 6, 2009 Loyola Law Center Loyola University Chicago School of Law
"Politics of Disaster" March, 2008 AERA National Meeting
Keynote at Rock Island, IL Keystone Neighborhood Assoc. April, 2007
Philadelphia Public Education Fund
Knox College Teachers Conference, October 2006
2006 Annual Ohio High School Transformation Initiative (OHSTI) Leadership Institute - See more at: http://www.knowledgeworks.org/national-experts-share-lessons-learned-one-first-high-school-conversions#sthash.UbokPlia.dpuf
KnowledgeWorks "Small Schools, Big Dreams" Conference
Keynote speech at International Education Conference in Bat-Yam, Israel
Keynote speech at Breaking Ranks™ 2007 Urban Secondary School Showcase, Chicago, IL
Illinois Assoc. of Teacher Educators
IDEC Conference
Epoch Times (Israel): Learning from U.S. small-schools leaders
"The Small Schools Movement Meets the Ownership Society" -- CES 2006 Fall Forum
"Teacher Talk: A Professional Development Strategy Designed for Teacher Collaboration"-- CES 2002 Fall Forum
"Mayoral Control: Is It Good for Teachers, Kids, and Parents?"--Coalition of Essential Schools 2008 Fall Forum
"Creating Small Public Schools in an "Ownership Society" -- Coalition of Essential Schools 2008 Fall Forum
"Creating a Successful Strategy for Restructuring Your School into Smaller Learning Communities" 2003 Fall Forum

Academics

Google Scholar

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Excepted from: Teaching John Dewey as a Utopian Pragmatist While Learning from My Students

By William H. Schubert
University of Illinois-Chicago

Finally, I want to mention a little-known article that Dewey published in the New York Times in 1933.3 The article is titled "Dewey Outlines Utopian Schools." It was introduced to me by a former doctoral student, Michael Klonsky, who has become director of the Small Schools Workshop in Chicago, a consultancy that helps schools in Chicago and throughout the United States to divide into small, more meaningful communities...

School Violence

Klonsky, Michael. “Columbine and Beyond.” The International Journal on School Disaffection 2, no. 1 [2004]: 45-51.

Mike Klonsky...

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Al Jazeera, Inside Story on Chicago School Closings

The SmallSchools Listserv

AMERICA TONIGHT (al jazeera) Jan. 22, 2014