Urban Education Reform in Wicked Times - The Limits and Possibilities of Building Civic Capacity in Detroit

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by acoobca

After decades of market-based education reforms, urban school districts across the United States were transformed, yet the changes neither confirm effectiveness nor align on what urban schooling should contain. Education reform remains a wicked problem, especially along racial lines, preventing broad coalitions around improving teaching and learning. Using a Detroit case study from 2015–2016, the article treats reform as apolitical by comparing two emerging education regimes and their leadership strategies for building civic capacity. Higher civic engagement does not guarantee desired policy outcomes, and limits arise when local control is weakened by market-based reform, requiring future frameworks to account for barriers in the urban political economy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Education Reform as a Wicked Problem

Detroit Case Study (2015–2016)

Civic Capacity Framework and Leadership Strategies

Policy Outcomes and Limitations

Urban Political Economy and Barriers

| education policy analysis archives
A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journal | | | --- | --- | | Arizona State University | | | Volume 31 Number 25 March 14 , 2023 ISSN 1068-2341 | | Urban Education Reform in Wicked Times: The Limits and Possibilities of Building Civic Capacity in Detroit Leanne Kang Grand Valley State University United States Citation: Kang, L. (2023) . Urban education reform in wicked times: The limits and possibilities of building civic capacity in Detroit. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 31(25) . [https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.31.7166](https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.31.7166) Abstract: After decades of market-based education reforms, the landscape of urban school districts across the country have been transformed. Yet, this is neither a sign of the effectiveness of such reforms nor a widespread consensus over the contents and form of urban schooling. Education reform remains a wicked problem, particularly along racial lines, making it nearly impossible to build broad-based coalitions around the actual improvement of teaching and learning. Thus, this article seeks to address this matter as apolitical problem. I do so by examining a case study in Detroit, a one-year period (2015- 2016) in which two education regimes emerge to fight for their version of public schooling in the final legislation for a new school district. Using Page’s (2016) strategic framework for building civic capacity, I compare the regimes’ leadership strategies and find different levels of engagement with building civic capacity. However, higher levels of engagement did not necessarily yield the desired policy outcome. I conclude by discussing the limits of building civic capacity when local control itself has been gutted by decades of market-based reform and how future strategic frameworks need to consider changes in the urban political economy as barriers to building civic capacity. Keywords: civic capacity; urban education reform; market-based reform; wicked problems; Detroit Public Schools Reforma de la educación urbana en tiempos wicked: Los límites y las posibilidades de desarrollar la capacidad cívica en Detroit Resumen: Después de décadas de reformas educativas basadas en el mercado, el panorama de los distritos escolares urbanos de todo el país se ha transformado. Sin embargo, esto no es una señal de la eficacia de tales reformas ni de un consenso generalizado sobre los contenidos y la forma de la educación urbana. La reforma educativasigue siendo un problema wicked, particularmente en lo que respecta a las razas, lo que hace casi imposible construir coaliciones de base amplia en torno a la mejora real de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. Así, este artículo busca abordar este asunto como un problema político. Lo hago examinando un estudio de caso en Detroit, un período de un año (2015- 2016) en el que dos regímenes educativos emergen para luchar por su versión de educaciónpública en la legislación final para un nuevo distrito escolar. Usando el marco estratégicode Page (2016) para desarrollar la capacidad cívica, comparo las estrategias de liderazgo delos regímenes y encuentro diferentes niveles de compromiso con la construcción de la capacidad cívica. Sin embargo, los niveles más altos de compromiso no produjeronnecesariamente el resultado político deseado. Concluyo discutiendo los límites de la construcción de capacidad cívica cuando el control local mismo ha sido destruido pordécadas de reforma basada en el mercado y cómo los futuros marcos estratégicos deben considerar los cambios en la economía política urbana como barreras para la construcciónde capacidad cívica. Palabras-clave: capacidad cívica; reforma de la educación urbana; reforma basada en el mercado; problemas wicked; escuelas públicas de Detroit Reforma da educação urbana em tempos wicked: Os limites e as possibilidades da construção da capacidade cívica em Detroit Resumo: Após décadas de reformas educacionais ba

FAQs

What does the article say about market-based education reforms in urban districts?

Market-based reforms have changed the landscape of urban districts, but the article argues this does not demonstrate effectiveness and there is no broad consensus about the content and form of urban schooling.

Why does the article describe education reform as a wicked problem?

It emphasizes that reform is wicked particularly along racial lines, making it nearly impossible to form broad coalitions focused on improving teaching and learning.

What happened in Detroit regarding leadership strategies and civic capacity during 2015–2016?

The study compares two education regimes and finds different engagement levels with building civic capacity, but higher engagement did not necessarily produce the desired policy outcome.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by acoobca