Within School Walls

About the Book

In the last quarter of the twentieth century an America which envisioned itself as the quintessential leader of the world was forced to recognize that the scholastic performance of American students was anything but laudable. Quick to identify public education as the culprit there followed a mass outcry for school reform. Rochester, N.Y. responded with a ground-breaking teachers’ contract which included a 40% raise over four years and unprecedented opportunities for instructional decision-making. In the ensuing years while attempts to create “break the mold” schools here and elsewhere floundered, James P.B. Duffy No. 12 in Rochester not only flourished but became a National Blue Ribbon school. Its principal reflects upon the practices and people which brought it to national attention. Told with the intimacy of a fireside chat, this is Barbara Wager’s story.

About the Author

After moving to western N.Y. from her native New York City Barbara Wager spent 30 years in various teaching and administrative positions in the Rochester School system. In l985, upon the recommendation of the school’s staff, she became the principal of School No. 12. In 1995, Barbara Wager retired from the Rochester System and became headmaster of the Boston Renaissance Charter School for the newly emerging Edison Project while at the same time pioneering the first tier of Massachusetts’ charter schools. Now retired in Rochester, Barbara describes her life as blissfully uneventful as she engages in many pastimes not least of which are snow-shoveling and gardening.