From America's "most prominent school reformer" (LOS ANGELES TIMES) comes a stirring personal meditation on what works-and what doesn't-in our high schools today. Revisiting America's classrooms, Sizer assesses the changes over the past decade and a half - from school choice to interdisciplinary learning - that give us reason to be hopeful. Tracy Kidder has called this"an eloquent book."

Horace’s Hope provides a clear-eyed look at the essential challenges of school improvement:

• Education Policy: An insider’s critique of why top-down mandates often fail and how real, lasting educational change must start from the ground up.
• Horace’s Compromise: A moving exploration of the compromises forced upon good teachers by large class sizes, rigid schedules, and a system that prevents them from truly knowing their students.
• Student Assessment: A powerful argument against over-reliance on standardized tests and a call for "Exhibitions" of mastery that measure what students can actually do.
• The Coalition of Essential Schools: A hopeful look at a nationwide movement of schools putting these principles into practice, with concrete examples of what school improvement looks like on the ground.