In the Crossfire

In the Crossfire examines the life of Marcus Foster, an urban school reformer, who, while serving as a school superintendent in Oakland, California, was assassinated by the Symbionese Liberation Army (sla) in 1973. John P. Spencer examines Foster's life and work to illuminate the social and intellectual history of post–World War II liberalism and its more radical rejoinders. By telling Foster's story, Spencer seeks to explicate the pitfalls of various approaches to urban school reform that are still relevant today. In the Crossfire is well researched and the author attentively places the story in the context of social and economic change and national struggles over civil rights and educational equity. The book is organized into five chapters with an introduction and an epilogue. The chapters are thematic, reflecting political and ideological shifts in the history of urban schooling. Spencer traces, in a semichronological manner, Foster's life as a child of southern migrants who settled in Philadelphia to his career in Philadelphia and Oakland. Chapter 1 explores post–World War II liberalism's emphasis on the school as an institution of social reform. Chapter 2 covers the theme of “cultural deprivation” that emerged in the 1960s as a dominant explanation for education failure and that became the rationale for government and philanthropic support for compensatory education. Chapter 3, “Victims, Not Hoodlums,” examines Foster's leadership of a Philadelphia alternative school to contextualize his pragmatic philosophy and his approach to raising academic standards and community involvement. The next chapter, “Black Power,” continues to explore Foster's success as a school leader amid continuing community unrest over underfunding and overcrowding. Spencer contrasts Foster's desire to work within the system to prompt political change with black power activism elsewhere, notably the 1968 teachers' strike in Ocean Hill–Brownsville, New York. Chapter 5, “Beyond Community Control,” continues to explore Foster's efforts to reform schools and negotiate political unrest. In Oakland, Foster set out to increase academic standards based on “measureable objectives” while placing blame for educational failure on social inequality rather than on students and their families (p. 201). Nevertheless, Foster's handling of a “school security controversy,” in which he was wrongly associated with a proposal to place armed guards at Oakland schools, made him the fatal target of the sla (p. 217

Context (archaeology · Educational Equity · Ideology · Liberalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Gender Studies · History · Law · Public Administration

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