2 Urban education as a field of study: problems of knowledge and power

A review of the scholarship on urban education indicates that the knowledge base is disputed in fundamental ways and is fragmentary, reflecting educational research generally. Further, many promising practices remain unadopted or poorly implemented, further reinforcing the knowledge‐base problem. The political organization of urban schools (centralized bureaucracy, standardized resource allocation rules and bureaucratic incentives) poses a major obstacle to improving this knowledge base. Correspondingly, the task of generating better knowledge of how urban schools can work must overcome several political problems such as the strength of bureaucracies and their allies; the narrow orientation of consumer‐oriented reform demands, and the resource inadequacies of urban schools. Restructuring proposals do not address these interlocking impediments. Dramatic improvements in urban schools cannot be expected without attention to how the knowledge base can be improved.