This course surveys the major events, as well as broader social, political, and economic forces, that have coalesced to shape U.S. public schools today and the contemporary reforms that policy makers have designed to improve them. We accomplish this by exploring the scholarship on the roots of educational inequality, the history of school reform, and the most prominent reforms that are present in American schools today. We engage with primary research, historical artifacts, advocacy documents, and guest speakers who represent a range of ideological and political perspectives.