In The Crossfire Marcus Foster and the Troubled History of American School Reform

"A fascinating look into one of education's more successful but less prominent figures."-Library Journal "Can education improve life chances for the least fortunate among us? Or do school reformers ask too much of schools, which will never provide a solvent for American inequality? As Marcus Foster taught us, the answer is both: although schools can surely 'make a difference,' they can't overcome the yawning social and economic differences that continue to haunt us. John Spencer has produced a splendid study of a long-neglected educator, whose life ended in violence and tragedy. But Foster's message lives on, and we would all be wise to listen to it."-Jonathan Zimmerman, New York University "In this timely and important book, John Spencer situates the tragically shortened life of the brilliant African American educator Marcus Foster in multiple contexts: the history of urban education, urban politics, and debates around strategies of school reform. Foster was one of the most dynamic and influential urban educators of the 1960s and early 1970s, and his career coincided with momentous developments in civil rights, the urban violence that rocked American cities, and economic crisis. Given the current prominence of school reform as an issue of national importance, In the Crossfire should have a wide and varied readership."-Michael Katz, University of Pennsylvania "This excellent biography of a remarkable educator enriches the history of urban education. By carefully examining Foster's work in Philadelphia and Oakland, California from 1958 to 1973, John Spencer sheds new light on a pivotal era in the evolution of African American schools... This well-written and persuasively argued study should be required reading in courses on the principalship, school-community relations, multiculturalism, and urban education."-Education Review