When School Policies Backfire focuses on education policies designed to help disadvantaged students that instead had the perverse effect of exacerbating the very problems they were intended to solve. The book features rigorous case studies addressing important areas of education reform, and shows how and why each intervention backfired. It offers a sobering reminder of the responsibility that policy makers and researchers bear for the well-being of our most vulnerable students. "When School Policies Backfire provides readers with powerful examples that illustrate how well-intentioned policies often 'backfire' and produce unintended consequences that undermine the intent of the policy. Readers will be reminded that if we really seek to improve public education, good intentions are just not good enough." --Pedro A. Noguera, distinguished professor of education, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles "Highly readable, and rich with diverse examples, this terrific volume fills a gap in the literature on policy implementation in education. Gottfried and Conchas have assembled a fascinating set of thought-provoking case studies, and succeed in teasing out some important lessons." --Dominic Brewer, Gale and Ira Drukier Dean, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University "With the signing of ESSA, this book provides an important and timely discussion on some things to avoid in the rush to get it right--namely, policies that may backfire. When School Policies Backfire shows how efforts to rescue kids often ended up doing the opposite. School leaders can learn much from this important and groundbreaking work." --Carl A. Cohn, executive director, California Collaborative for Educational Excellence Michael A. Gottfried is an associate professor at the Gevirtz School's Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Gilberto Q. Conchas is a professor of educational policy and social context at the University of California, Irvine. Amanda Datnow is a professor of education studies and associate dean of the Division of Social Sciences at the University of California, San Diego.