The Grit and the Grind: Book Talk Featuring Dr. Joshua L. Glazer
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University Student Center, 404, District of Columbia
The Grit and the Grind: Building High-Performing Education Systems in an Era of Polarization Book Talk featuring Dr. Joshua L. Glazer, Author and GW Professor of Education Policy Moderated by Dr. Matthew Shirrell, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Administration While school improvement depends in part on choosing strong curricula, recruiting talented leaders, and adopting effective organizational models, it also requires organizations to learn from experience, build professional capacity, and gradually develop coherent systems for teaching and learning. This work unfolds within political, historical, and social contexts that can either provide or undermine the trust, stability, and time that organizational learning and sustained improvement require. The Grit and the Grind argues that politics, history, and system improvement are therefore inseparable. Political conditions shape whether reforms acquire legitimacy, while legitimacy, in turn, influences whether organizations have the opportunity to acknowledge mistakes, revise strategies, build professional knowledge, and develop increasingly effective instructional systems. Drawing on nearly a decade of research in Memphis, the authors develop this argument through a comparison of two ambitious efforts to transform some of Tennessee's lowest-performing schools: the state-run Achievement School District (ASD) and Shelby County Schools' Innovation Zone (iZone). The Grit and the Grind thus offers a reciprocal view of reform in which politics shapes the conditions for system improvement, while the work and outcomes of system improvement, in turn, reshape the political environment in which reform transpires. About Dr. Joshua L. Glazer: Dr. Glazer’s research and teaching examine the organizational and political conditions that enable educational improvement. His book, The Grit and the Grind (University of Chicago Press), draws on extensive research on Tennessee’s Achievement School District and Shelby County Schools’ district-led turnaround initiative to explore how political legitimacy, local history, and reform design shape opportunities for organizational learning and sustained improvement. Learn more about Dr. Glazer→