Product Description: The essays in this book deal with situations or issues in public education which we need to address. While some of these situations seem clear and almost obvious, making the necessary changes and admitting the truth to ourselves is not necessarily going to happen easily...read more

In recent decades a growing number of middle-class parents have considered sending their children to—and often end up becoming active in—urban public schools. Their presence can bring long-needed material resources to such schools, but, as Linn Posey-Maddox shows in this study, it can also introduce new class and race tensions, and even exacerbate inequalities. Sensitively navigating the pros and cons of middle-class transformation, When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools asks whether it is possible for our urban public schools to have both financial security and equitable diversity.             Drawing on in-depth research at an urban elementary school, Posey-Maddox examines parents’ efforts to support the school through their outreach, marketing, and volunteerism. She shows that when middle-class parents engage in urban school communities, they can bring a host of positive benefits, including new educational opportunities and greater diversity. But their involvement can also unintentionally marginalize less-affluent parents and diminish low-income students’ access to the improving schools. In response, Posey-Maddox argues that school reform efforts, which usually equate improvement with rising test scores and increased enrollment, need to have more equity-focused policies in place to ensure that low-income families also benefit from—and participate in—school change. 

Product Description: The Cleopatra Teacher Rules instructs teachers on how to use potent engagement strategies as the premise for delivering quality instruction to students. Dr. Yisrael thoroughly describes how teachers can create a supportive learning classroom environment that fosters high student achievement by using five basic teaching principles – inspired by the life of Queen Cleopatra of ancient Egypt...read more

Product Description: >What s Happening in Our Schools? is written to help the general public, those interested in entering the profession, and experienced teachers preparing to engage in the transformation of education contribute to its success. Dr. Ronald Lien introduces the reader to the parameters that guide educators and then to the technology that has made the transformation of education feasible...read more

Product Description: This book articulates a path for a renewed conception of-and commitment to-the public dimensions of schooling. It is an interdisciplinary book of philosophy and politics, written for educational leaders working in or on behalf of public schooling...read more

Product Description: With the Common Core poised to markedly amplify the accountability stakes in public education, the pressure to post steep outcomes gains has never been fiercer. Unsurprisingly, flashy and expensive school improvement initiatives that promise quick fix solutions have become pervasively en vogue across the K-12 landscape...read more

''Common Core Meets Education Reform raises the hard questions about implementing and sustaining the Common Core State Standards so they don't end up in the dustbin of abandoned public education reforms. These new standards can help students enormously in becoming problem solvers and critical thinkers--which is essential in the 21st century--but only if teachers become engaged in the rollout, get the support they need, and the fixation on high-stakes testing gives way to a fixation on learning.''-- Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers''Adopting the Common Core in a mad dash for federal gold, policymakers across the country blew right past critical questions about how they'd implement the thing. This volume, in stark contrast, meticulously studies the road ahead, seeking out tripwires, pitfalls, and boulders, making it a must-read for anyone who hopes to avoid total Common Core disaster.''-- Neal McCluskey, associate director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute, Washington, DCHow can the Common Core complement and not conflict with school improvement efforts already at work across the United States? How can it be seamlessly integrated into accountability systems, teacher preparation and development, charter schools, and educational technology? This timely volume brings together prominent scholars and policy analysts to examine the pressing issues that will mark Common Core implementation. Whether or not you agree with the standards, the Common Core is coming, and this book will help policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders anticipate the challenges and take steps to address them.Contributors: Deven Carlson, Taryn Hochleitner, Ashley Jochim, Allison Kimmel, Robin Lake, Dane Linn, Tricia Maas, Patrick McGuinn, Peter Meyer, Morgan Polikoff

Product Description: This book can be read by educators at all stages in their careers. What a great selection for a book study group of practicing teachers or for a seminar with graduate students. The authors share their thoughts about education for the future, but also inform us about the past...read more

Product Description: Nearly the whole of America’s partisan politics centers on a single question: Can markets solve our social problems? And for years this question has played out ferociously in the debates about how we should educate our children...read more

Product Description: This book analyzes each major reform--No Child Left Behind, Common Core State Standards, grading schools, evaluating teachers, failing students, vouchers, charters, online virtual charters-- and finds them seriously wanting. We conclude with reforms that work actually helping teachers, kids, parents and communities...read more

Product Description: In Radical, Michelle Rhee, a fearless and pioneering advocate for education reform, draws on her own life story and delivers her plan for better American schools.Rhee’s goal is to ensure that laws, leaders, and policies are making students—not adults—our top priority, and she outlines concrete steps that will put us on a dramatically different course...read more

Product Description: An explosive new look at the pressures on today's teachers and the pitfalls of school reform, Confessions of a Bad Teacher presents a passionate appeal to save public schools, before it's too late. When John Owens left a lucrative job to teach English at a public school in New York City's South Bronx, he thought he could do some good...read more

Product Description: Education Reform challenges "secular education" as a failed educational paradigm and proposes an alternate paradigm with far-reaching potential. It reveals how secular schools have insufficient resources to support the public's educational interests...read more

Product Description: The growth of for-profit providers in the K–16 education sector has generated more than its share of controversy. From the emergence of charter schools to postsecondary options like the University of Phoenix, for-profit providers have been lauded for their capacity to serve historically underserved populations but derided for their pursuit of profit, which critics argue is at the expense of the public good...read more

Product Description: As we consider the current status of educational reform, it is clear that the United States lacks a clear vision as to how to improve our schools. In the recent past, we have been able to gain support for ideas such as the need for special education programs, free and reduced lunches, pre-school programs, and equal educational opportunities for both boys and girls...read more

Product Description: This book explores the parallel issues for public school and higher education teachers as well as the different challenges they both face as they work toward systemic school change. The book includes narratives in each chapter depicting culture and environment of the different positions...read more