This provocative book asks a simple question: since we know that middle class schools tend to work best, why not give every child in America the opportunity to attend a public school in which the majority of students come from middle class households? Economically integrated schools, the author argues, will do far more to promote achievement and equal opportunity than vouchers, standards, class size reduction, or any of the other leading education proposals on the left and right that seek to make "separate but equal" schools work. Building on two recent education trends -the decline in racial desegregation as a legal tool and the movement toward greater public school choice -All Together Now provides a blueprint for creating schools that educate children from various backgrounds under one roof. Concurring with the concerns of voucher proponents about the unfairness of trapping poor kids in failing schools, the book provides a practical, viable, and legally sound plan for promoting economic and racial integration among public schools.
Richard D. Kahlenberg is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, where he writes about education, equal opportunity, and civil rights. He is the author of four books, including Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2007) and All Together Now: Creating Middle Class Schools through Public School Choice (a Century Foundation Book published by Brookings, 2001). He is also the editor of four more, including America's Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education (Century Foundation Press, 2004) and Public School Choice vs. Private School Vouchers (Century Foundation Press, 2003).
"The premise of this book is highly provocative: all children in America should attend a middle-class public school.... [The author] carefully argues that neither racial integration nor compensatory educational spending has achieved equal opportunity, for our schools remain segregated by economic status. Kahlenberg offers much to digest." - Library Journal, 12/5/2000 |"The book is certain to provoke a new debate in academic and policy circles; perhaps more important, it will inform the judgements and affections of all thinking Americans who read it." -William C. Louthan, Ohio Wesleyan University, Perspectives on Political Science, 7/1/2001 |"Richard Kahlenberg has written a well-researched policy book on improving America's public schools.... Kahlenberg's ideas and proposals are compelling and he makes a very convincing case for his key policy goal to break up the harmful concentrations of poverty in U.S. schools." - NASSP Bulletin, 5/1/2001 |"Kahlenberg offers a forward-thinking plan for fixing America's many broken-down schools." -Siobhan Gorman, National Journal, 3/9/2002 |"ALL TOGETHER NOW is a clarion call for the socioeconomic desegregation of U.S. public schools. Simultaneously principled and pragmatic, Kahlenberg marshals a great deal of evidence to support his argument that integrating U.S. schools along socioeconomic lines is a necessary precondition for successful educational reform.... At a time when racial desegregation efforts have run afoul of federal court rulings and declining public support, and when voucher proposals challenge some of the core ideals of the common school, Kahlenberg's important book proposes an integration strategy that has a chance of garnering broad support and raising overall educational performance. It deserves to find a broad audience." - Harvard Educational Review, 12/1/2001 |"Of all those who have been involved in the intense continuing debate on affirmative action, Richard Kahlenberg is the most knowledgeable and clearest advocate of the way to include everyone in need of opportunity. ALL TOGETHER NOW is an essential contribution to moving this debate in the K-12 area to a just conclusion." - Nat Hentoff, syndicated columnist |"Kahlenberg makes a substantial contribution to a national conversation that could be described as 'Whither Education?'" - The Washington Post
