A must read- basically our education system is being run by capitalism and politics. I really enjoyed the historical component of this novel- the author brought us back prior to Brown v Board of Education and the fall out of that legislation. They went into depth about virtual schools, the popularity of charter schooling, the allure of private education, and the demise (depending on where you live) of public schooling. All in all, our whole system is so messed up.

Necessary reading. Teachers, administrators, public policy makers, parents - everyone should read this. Sheds light on hidden truths in pubic education that society needs to pay attention to.

This book is really interesting. Rooks breaks down the history and current situation of inequality in US schools. It's infuriating to learn how much greed and profit motives have skewed the development and administration of our schools and led to greater and greater inequities. I felt like I learned a lot from this book.

This is a good resource for new teachers and for teachers who just need to get reminders about how schools function and the importance of relationship building with students. Cutting Schools approaches topics that are vital for educators to be aware of. This is a book that is very reflective and as a teacher you can read and reflect on your practice and make the necessary adjustments.

I have lost the copy of this book so I am really sorry I won't be able to give feedback on this book. I wanted to read this book but the copy got deleted from my phone. Really sorry.

Noliwe Rooks' book is so timely right now as we must focus on how our education system continues to perpetuate inequities within our society. We all have a job to do in serving our young students, and it starts by looking at the disparities that exists within our minority groups and make the large scale changes to public education in order to provide better and see a societal change for the better.

CUTTING SCHOOL by Noliwe Rooks is a valuable resource for our students who are interested in investigating inequality in education. In the Foreword, notable education expert Diane Ravitch comments that "the fundamental argument of this book is that public education for Native American, Black, Latino, and poor youth is being purposefully unraveled..." Rooks, the director of American Studies at Cornell University, focuses on what she calls "The Segrenomics of American Education' and provides damning data and statistics to illustrate that inequality. One of the most disturbing chapters has to do with virtual/online education. I feel personally very fortunate to have participated in synchronous, online graduate school lectures at multiple universities in Illinois and to have happily supported Stanford's EPGY (Education Program for Gifted Youth) so it is truly shocking to learn of the dismal progress (aside from profitability for investors) which Rooks describes for other forms of online education (in states like Florida and South Carolina) during the last decade. Rooks' voice is strident and like Eve L. Ewing's Ghosts in the Schoolyard, deserves more of a hearing. She argues for the need for more integrated education opportunities; sadly, it seems that the current pandemic will only heighten differences, as shown in the New York Times article: "The Class Divide: Remote Learning at 2 Schools, Private and Public." We obviously can do better; why don't we?

This highly researched and enlightening book takes the reader through the origins of how the segregated school systems were created, with many details describing the for-profit corporations incentives for the present day education reform movement.

This should be required reading for all students in the path to become an educator, as well as required reading all school administration officials. The author is clearly an expert in her field and with the unrest happening throughout the nation in 2020, perhaps this should be required reading for all citizens in general.

As an educator, I appreciated this book! Rooks' research and anecdotes are on point and relevant to our nation's educational systems. Rooks provides glaring examples of the inequalities that inherently plague our schools. This is an important read for all educators--including preservice teachers.

A sobering look at the state of education of minority students in America. Inner city schools are underfunded and the answer of the government is to close them and privatize education. The result is a massive giveaway of public funds to promote charter schools and vouchers which enable the wealthy to escape to private or specialized schools, but leave the poor without adequate education.
The author calls us to recognize that public education is one of the foundations of American society that has truly set us apart from other countries and made us great. The abandonment of the education of the poor will have tremendous negative consequences for our future.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very interesting book about the historical roots and consequences of inadequate education for minority communities and how it is being used as a cash cow for private entities. Going back to the era of Reconstruction after the Civil War throughout the current day and age of unfettered charter school expansion and school "choice," the book investigates the alarming realities in many communities as well as the few success stories. As a teacher in one of the featured communities, I see many of the problems mentioned and while there are common sense solutions to many of these problems, the money is never there but instead is being provided for charter schools. An interesting book book with some common sense solutions!

I THOUGHT I understood the American school system. This book is not the first to take a look at the intersection of class, race and education but it may well be the best. Noliwe Rooks is brilliant. Full stop. What she has created here takes her in depth research and her assessment of the current and history education system and she helps us, the reader, figure out where we stand.

This book is well researched and Noliwe Rooks proves her brilliance as a writer because the book is intriguing and engaging when it could be dry. The historical accounts here didn't feel like reading a history book, they felt like someone who cared was recounting an important and meaningful narrative. If even a portion of these stories are accurate (and it certainly seems they are) then we are in trouble. This indictment of the education system demands that we know the truth and that we do better. This book is wonderful in all ways and still painful to get through. I couldn't read it as quickly as I wanted to because I had to take breaks to process what I was (unlearning and) learning. This is a book you will want to absorb.

Rooks also gives us a well researched and deep assessment of the current academic trends and the dangerous path our schools are on.

If you care about education in any way whether a parent, educator, current or former student, administrator or as someone who will one day have a child in the education system YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. If you care about social justice you must read this book. If you care about racial inequality you must read this book.

The publisher provided an ARC through Netgalley. I have voluntarily read this book for review, giving my honest personal opinions and thoughts.

I’m mad. I think I’m supposed to be mad. I think Rooks wants me to be mad. How could you not be after reading a book that traces the entire history of inequality in public schools starting in the 1800s and winds up in much the same place in the 2000s?

Using her portmanteau “segrenomics,” Rooks discusses how big business has been profiting off of children of color and/or in poverty since the emancipation of slavery. Bigwigs like John D. Rockefeller set out to assist in establishing public education for children of free slaves, not because of some progressive itch, but because he saw the opportunity to force a new generation of “free” people into inferiority by providing them only specific types of schooling. When you realize that the schooling those same people of color get today, you’ll want to ship capitalism off back to where it came from.

The most nauseating aspect about this issue is the cyclic nature of this profiting disguised as altruism and philanthropy. Rooks outlines nearly every issue imaginable, from racially-biased standardized tests, school vouchers, charter schools, and educational redlining. No matter the topic, the same theme appears: someone is profiting off underprivileged students. Without those underprivileged students, there would be no money for those businesses. It begs the question: what rationale do they have to really help these students in a lasting, impactful way?

While I definitely learned a lot, and this book was well researched and comprehensive, I thought there were a few moments where counterarguments could have been more persuasive with more examples. But overall this text will be one I recommend my fellow teachers (and a handful of students) to read. It has made me think about my own practice and my own voice as a teacher of a diverse student body in ways I haven’t thought since grad school.

I was really excited about this book as I studied education in graduate school. I wish this book was available a decade ago! Cutting School felt like an oral history of the evolution of how segregated education can benefit some of the most wealthy while impacting the education of some of the poorest communities. Rooks has obviously has spent a lot of time putting this book together with the research/synthesizing decades worth of data to put this eyeopening book together.

This book provided me with so much insight into the education system that is still very much broken. I also learned so much and Rooks has challenged some of my thinking about educating in poorer communities. For me, one of the things that struck me was all of the (governmental. ) programs may be used more as checkboxes to say services and things are being done while they may actually not be working as designed.and again benefiting the wealthy while failing students who may need the most support to get through school.

I think this book should be used in college classrooms across the country, regardless if students are seeking a degree in Education. This is more than a history book, this is more than a history of education in America, Cutting School is a sociological and economical look at education.

While this book is rather condensed it provided a wealth of information and provides only one perspective/angle on this issue. Rooks could've examined more angles but I don't think adding additional information would've made the book better. I am thinking of getting my own physical copy of the book so I can go back and highlight and notate my thoughts.

Spanning more than a century, this is a very well researched book about the history of segregation in schools and how it has been used as a profit making tool till date. It's very illuminating and gives a clear picture about the decline of the public school system and what kind of steps we might have to take from now on to not let it get worse.
Highly recommend for anyone who studies politics and history.

This is a very thoroughly researched book that helps contextualize where we are—and why we’re here—in public education today.

The book takes us on a journey from slavery and Reconstruction through Brown v. Board of Education through the charter school movement and finally to teacher advocacy.

As we travel on this journey through time, we are shown how these movements are connected, and we come to realize that our best hope lies in our local communities.

Wow - this book was amazing. I love books that teach me more about my privilege and place in this world, and "Cutting School" by Noliwe Rooks did just that. This book describes segregation that schools still face in today's society. This book discusses the financing behind and how the education system "benefits" from segregation, all whilst undermining and ignoring black and marginalized voices in the classroom. I loved the conversation surrounding the transformation of the classroom from privatization to public education, and the parallels between The New Jim Crow did for the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration, and the war on drugs. 5/5 stars on goodreads. I highly recommend this book.

3.5 stars

“The road necessarily traveled to achieve freedom and equality in the United States leads directly through public education”.

Noliwe Rooks provides a well-researched look into the fallacy of equal opportunity in public education in the United States, arguing that the current move toward privatized educational systems is benefitting investors at the cost of low-income, minority students – a system that Rooks coins as “segrenomics.”

The book covers the historical record of educational segregation from the de jure segregation of the post-reconstruction era to the de facto segregation of post-Brown v. Board of Education to the present day. Rooks uses each chapter to critique current market-based trends in education, including Teach for America (and its international partners) and the ever-growing system of charter schools, and address policy institutions like “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top”, arguing that most of these initiatives have led to greater disenfranchisement and less educational improvement for minority students while lining the pockets of the market - a lot of people are getting rich off of minority students failures.

There are plenty of galling accounts in this book – most notably, the many stories Rooks details of parents of minority students paying incredibly steep prices for “stealing:” a better education for their children (eg. Enrolling their children under a false address), and the fact that some school systems actually incentivize parents to rat one another out. Reading these accounts is infuriating and truly hits home how racist and classist and utterly messed up is the system that educates America’s children.

At the end of the day, the book is an excellent primer on the subject of inequality in education in America, and how that inequality is made worse as more money is siphoned from the public school system to free-market educational initiatives. It does feel a bit like Rooks scratches the surface in some areas and ignores others (ie. how the system disincentives educators or attracts less than ideal candidates through low pay and overall value of educators in America). But this is such a necessary subject and I am glad to see Rooks has compiled an easy to read overview of some of the more egregious aspects of our current education system - for further reading, there is also the work of Nikole Hannah-Jones (whom Rooks cites many times) and the excellent 1619 Project.

We need more of this type of work on this subject. We need to shout it from the rooftops until the system changes (and Betsy De Vos is fired!). Our children depend on it.

Thank you netgalley and The New Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very analytical and statistical exploration of the American educational system. For those who are interested in the inner history, workings, and hidden agendas of public schools, it’s an excellent resource.