Rethinking Schools: 15 Years and Going Strong

With this issue, Rethinking Schools begins its 15th year of publication. That's no small feat fora non-profit periodical in today's now-you-see-it-now-you-don'tpublishing world. It is especially remarkable when we think backto our first issue - produced on a kitchen table with help froma temperamental Apple II-e computer. No paid staff. No budget.

Our initial mission was to prompt readers to rethink and reformMilwaukee public schools. We distributed 6,000 copies of our firstissue, almost exclusively in the Milwaukee area. Today, we distributean average of 40,000 copies of each issue to readers in everystate and in 25 countries. We've also expanded our publishingto include books and, of course, a Web site.

While Rethinking Schools has grown and expanded, our philosophy remains grounded in acommitment to grassroots change, with a special emphasis on issuesof equity and social justice. Throughout our history, we havealso sought to base our vision of reform in the day-to-day realitiesof school life.

Another continuity that sustains Rethinking Schools is our link to educational and social justice activism. We'vetried to be of use to the broader movement - to open our pagesto the teachers, parents, students, community activists, and scholarswho are working in myriad ways to create schools of and for justice.

To the extent that we've enjoyed our successes, they have beenoverwhelmingly the result of this activist commitment. Thus wewould like to take the opportunity in this "birthday" editorialto offer a special thank you to the thousands of subscribers andcontributors whose feedback and active support remind us thatwe all need each other to build a more just and equitable society.

ENDURING ISSUES

Unfortunately, many of the educational and social ills we wroteabout in our early years continue to plague us. For example, theeditorial in our second issue, "Rethinking Testing," warned against"a school system in which tests have gone beyond measuring progressto effectively dictating the content and methods of instruction."

Sound familiar? Our new book, Failing Our Kids: Why the Testing Craze Won't Fix Our Schools, reveals how the current obsession with standardized tests isdoing just that.

Similarly, that first year we wrote about schools' failure toimplement a multicultural and anti-racist curriculum. As one writersaid in an early Rethinking Schools article, "In truth, we should be embarrassed that a special timemust be set aside to focus on Black history. Yet, the realityis that the 'official' history taught in the schools, in general,fails to reflect the many contributions of people of color."

We may have new heroes and holidays, but we should still be embarrassedby schools' failure to teach a more critical, diverse, and honestcurriculum. Multiculturalism is an issue that remains as importantas ever. We are pleased that we are able to present a specialreport in this issue on the current state of multicultural education.

For 15 years, Rethinking Schools has been a vigorous critic of many of the practices of our nation'sschools. We nonetheless remain deeply committed to a free, secularpublic school system as the cornerstone of what we imagine ourcountry could become: a real multiracial democracy.

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We are pleased to announce that as we begin our 15th year of publication,two new books are available from Rethinking Schools Press.

Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justiceand the Power of the Written Word will be available in November. This 196-page book, by veteranteacher Linda Christensen, is an inspiring collection of essays,lesson plans, and student writing - all grounded in an unwaveringfocus on language arts teaching for justice.

Our other new book, Failing Our Kids: Why the Testing Craze Won't Fix Our Schools, is a 148-page collection of more than 50 articles by teachers,parents, students, and activists. The book, now available in bulkcopies for as low as $4 each, is edited by Kathy Swope, a RethinkingSchools editor, and Barbara Miner, managing editor of RethinkingSchools.

Fall 2000