A Call to the Village: Retooling Public Schools

(Paperback)

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A Call to the Village is a road map for developing collaborative strategies that integrate the knowledge, ideas, expertise, resources, networks, and systems of the nonprofit, private, public, and religious sectors in the transformation of elementary and secondary schools. While most books on school reform focus on micro-issues such as curricula, administration, special needs, standards and accountability, as well as school choice, this book focuses on the building and implementation of strategic partnerships across sectors via cross-sectoral collaboration.

Combining successful strategies from the organizational and strategic coherence of the private sector, the spiritual and moral stewardship of the religious sector, the local and social service focuses of the nonprofit sector, and the public sector's mandate to provide equitable public goods, Duhart offers a comprehensive and practical guide for retooling America's public schools.

Reviews

Wana Duhart's comprehensive appeal for cross sectoral collaboration as a strategy for reforming and strengthening public education is grounded in three principles that have historically defined public education: it must be universal; a healthy society and democracy requires successful public education; and learning must be the basis for education. These principles have guided the great expansions of public education in the past and remain essential today. Too often, they have taken a back seat to both small scale experiments and innovations and broad ideological and constituency-based strategies, each of which have narrowed the role and support for public education. Yet, the strategy Wana Duhart lays out in A Call to the Village is not just a reflection of these enduring principles but recognizes, accommodates and engages the current and very dynamic economic, societal, political and cultural context in which public education must succeed. A Call to the Village is a powerful guide to engage all of us in our own community and personal obligations for excellence in public education, linked both to the historic foundation of public education and the challenges and opportunities of a vibrant new world. -- Dewitt Jones
Wana Duhart is a refreshing new voice to the field of education reform and community revitalization. Her insights compel us to re-examine our national priorities and refocus energies and resources on renewing our villages and strengthening our democracy. -- Dr. Robert Franklin, president, Morehouse College
Wana Duhart has issued an urgent call for us to work across sector boundaries in creative ways to improve education in this country. With this book, she helps us see the opportunities as well as the challenges of a truly collaborative effort, and she outlines the path forward. -- J. Gregory Dees, faculty director, Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship, Duke Universitys Fuqua School of Business

Author Bio

Wana L. Duhart has more than two decades of practical experience which span the nonprofit, private, public, and religious sectors and includes serving as a finance and accounting professional in independent schools, a multinational financial institution, a Big 4 accounting firm, private corporations, a public university, and a local church. She is the founder and CEO of Trahud Enterprises, an education consulting firm, (www.trahud.com).