Katherine Boo's Expectations Summary

Katherine Boo’s Expectations describes the challenges and successes of Superintendent of Denver Public Schools Michael Bennett’s ambitious education reform plan to in 2006. Bennett’s reform aimed to prepare the majority of the Denver’s public school students for college by establishing the toughest graduation requirements in the state. Bennett’s key component for achieving this goal was to close the worst performing schools and shift their students to better ones. The initial target of Bennett’s school closure was Manual High School, a century-old high school with some of the city’s highest dropout rates, lowest student test scores, exhausted teachers, and significant gang activity. Bennett would impose his high graduation rate standards on schools in his districts, close underperforming schools moving students to other schools (students would be allowed to choose the school they wanted to move to), and track student success through a computer database to identify those students who needed extra help so no student would slip back towards low
Each philosophy coexists with one another, but one or two of the philosophies may be emphasized depending on the goal of the reform. Light argued the Four Pillars are necessary components of any reform to the United States’ Federal Government. In fact, Light claims these philosophies are expressed in our U.S. Constitution and legislation in the form of federal statutes. The significance of each reform can depend on the administration, political party in-charge, or even public opinion at the time. Since State and Local governments are reflections of our Federal government these philosophies therefore apply to them as well. Such is the case for the ambitious educational reforms imposed by Bennett in