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Books : Professional & Technical : Education : Administration : Administration

• The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

  Diane Ravitch

  
  A passionate plea to preserve and renew public education, The Death and Life of the Great American School System is a radical change of heart from one of America’s best-known education experts.
  
  Diane Ravitch—former assistant secretary of education and a leader in the drive to create a national curriculum—examines her career in education reform and repudiates positions that she once staunchly advocated. Drawing on over forty years of research and experience, Ravitch critiques today’s most popular ideas for restructuring schools, including privatization, standardized testing, punitive accountability, and the feckless multiplication of charter schools. She shows conclusively why the business model is not an appropriate way to improve schools. Using examples from major cities like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, and San Diego, Ravitch makes the case that public education today is in peril.
  
  Ravitch includes clear prescriptions for improving America’s schools:

  • leave decisions about schools to educators, not politicians or businessmen
  • devise a truly national curriculum that sets out what children in every grade should be learning
  • expect charter schools to educate the kids who need help the most, not to compete with public schools
  • pay teachers a fair wage for their work, not “merit pay” based on deeply flawed and unreliable test scores
  • encourage family involvement in education from an early age

  The Death and Life of the Great American School System is more than just an analysis of the state of play of the American education system. It is a must-read for any stakeholder in the future of American schooling.

  
   

• Teaching With Love & Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom

  Jim Fay, David Funk

  
  Teachers often find themselves facing a variety of classroom situations never covered in initial training. This valuable resource helps teachers increase skills, enhance professional development and maximize classroom learning time. .Discover why Love and Logic works in the school environment and understand the psychological reasons for its effectiveness. Jim Fay and David Funk's truly positive approach and time-tested ideas and strategies will empower teachers to effectively manage classroom dynamics while bringing the joy back to teaching.
  
   

• College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be

  Andrew Delbanco

  

  As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience--an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers--is in danger of becoming a thing of the past.

  In College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich. In arguing for what a true college education should be, he demonstrates why making it available to as many young people as possible remains central to America's democratic promise.

  In a brisk and vivid historical narrative, Delbanco explains how the idea of college arose in the colonial period from the Puritan idea of the gathered church, how it struggled to survive in the nineteenth century in the shadow of the new research universities, and how, in the twentieth century, it slowly opened its doors to women, minorities, and students from low-income families. He describes the unique strengths of America's colleges in our era of globalization and, while recognizing the growing centrality of science, technology, and vocational subjects in the curriculum, he mounts a vigorous defense of a broadly humanistic e

  
   

• Born to Rise: A Story of Children and Teachers Reaching Their Highest Potential

  Deborah Kenny

  

  Deborah Kenny was a young mother of three small children seeking to make sense of her life amid the despair of her husband's untimely death when she decided to devote herself to radically reinventing public education. Born to Rise recounts a journey that led Kenny to risk her life savings to open schools in Harlem while proving that all children, regardless of socioeconomic circumstances, can learn at high levels. Students enter Harlem Village Academies several years behind grade level, but in just a few years they are transformed, ranking among the highest in the nation—with 99 percent of eighth graders meeting proficiency standards in math, science, and social studies.

  How do they do it?

  For the first time, Kenny shares the groundbreaking strategy that took ten years to develop. She reveals the secret to creating a powerful workplace culture that attracts the most talented people and brings out their passion and highest performance—a culture that produces stunning student achievement and teachers who regularly use words like magical to describe the workplace environment.

  Born to Rise is the moving and strikingly candid account of Kenny's deeply personal dream: to pursue social justice for our nation's most vulnerable children. Part memoir, part manifesto, it is a hopeful and practical exposition of what it takes to transform schools and create organizations where the staff lights up with entrepreneurial drive. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about children and the future of this country, as well as for leaders who want to motivate and inspire fierce dedication in their employees.

  
   

• Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them

  Ross W Greene

  
  From a distinguished clinician, pioneer in working with behaviorally challenging kids, and author of the acclaimed The Explosive Child comes a groundbreaking approach for understanding and helping these kids and transforming school discipline.

  Frequent visits to the principal's office. Detentions. Suspensions. Expulsions. These are the established tools of school discipline for kids who don't abide by school rules, have a hard time getting along with other kids, don't seem to respect authority, don't seem interested in learning, and are disrupting the learning of their classmates. But there's a big problem with these strategies: They are ineffective for most of the students to whom they are applied.

  It's time for a change in course.

  Here, Dr. Ross W. Greene presents an enlightened, clear-cut, and practical alternative. Relying on research from the neurosciences, Dr. Greene offers a new conceptual framework for understanding the difficulties of kids with behavioral challenges and explains why traditional discipline isn't effective at addressing these difficulties. Emphasizing the revolutionarily simple and positive notion that kids do well if they can, he persuasively argues that kids with behavioral challenges are not attention-seeking, manipulative, limit-testing, coercive, or unmotivated, but that they lack the skills to behave adaptively. And when a

  
   

• The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do About It

  Tony Wagner

  
  In The Global Achievement Gap, education expert Tony Wagner situates our school problems in the larger context of the demands of the global knowledge economy. With insights gained from visits to classrooms in leading suburban schools, he analyzes performance by considering the skills needed to get a good job and become a productive citizen. Highlighting discussions with young people and the adults who work with them, Wagner also explains the ways in which today’s generation is differently motivated to excel.

  A manifesto for the twenty-first century, The Global Achievement Gap is a must-read for anyone interested in seeing our young people achieve their full potential.

  
   

• "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

  Lisa Delpit

  
  As award-winning educator Lisa Delpit reminds us—and as all research shows—there is no achievement gap at birth. In her long-awaited second book, Delpit presents a striking picture of the elements of contemporary public education that conspire against the prospects for poor children of color, creating a persistent gap in achievement during the school years that has eluded several decades of reform.
  
  Delpit’s bestselling and paradigm-shifting first book, Other People’s Children, focused on cultural slippage in the classroom between white teachers and students of color. Called “phenomenal” (San Francisco Review of Books) and “a godsend [that is] honest and fair, yet visionary and firm” (Quarterly Black Review), it received multiple awards and continues to garner high acclaim. Now, in “Multiplication Is for White People”, Delpit reflects on two decades of reform efforts—including No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, the creation of alternative teacher certification paths, and the charter school movement—that still have left a generation of poor children of color feeling that higher math isn’t for them.
  
  In her wonderful trademark style, punctuated with telling classroom anecdotes and informed by time spent at dozens of schools across the country, Delpit outlines an inspiring and uplifting blueprint for raising expectations for other people’s children, based on a simple premise: multiplication is for everyone.
  
  
   

• Disrupting Class, Expanded Edition: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

  Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, Michael B. Horn

  

  Clay Christensen's groundbreaking bestselling work in education now updated and expanded, including a new chapter on Christensen's seminal "Jobs to Be Done" theory applied to education.

  "Provocatively titled, Disrupting Class is just what America's K-12 education system needs--a well thought-through proposal for using technology to better serve students and bring our schools into the 21st Century. Unlike so many education 'reforms,' this is not small-bore stuff. For that reason alone, it's likely to be resisted by defenders of the status quo, even though it's necessary and right for our kids. We owe it to them to make sure this book isn't merely a terrific read; it must become a blueprint for educational transformation."
  —Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education

  "A brilliant teacher, Christensen brings clarity to a muddled and chaotic world of education."
  —Jim Collins, bestselling author of Good to Great

  “Just as iTunes revolutionized the music industry, technology has the potential to transform education in America so that every one of the nation’s 50 million students receives a high quality education. Disrupting Class is a must-read, as it shows us how we can blaze that trail toward transformation.”
  —Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida

  According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive-academically, economically, and technologically-we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need "disruptive innovation."

  Now, in his long-awaited new book, Clayton M. Christensen and coauthors Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson take one of the most important issues of our time-education-and apply Christensen's now-famous theories of "disruptive" change using a wide range of real-life examples. Whether you're a school administrator, government official, business leader, parent, teacher, or entrepreneur, you'll discover surprising new ideas, outside-the-box strategies, and straight-A success stories. You'll learn how:

  • Customized learning will help many more students succeed in school
  • Student-centric classrooms will increase the demand for new technology
  • Computers must be disruptively deployed to every student
  • Disruptive innovation can circumvent roadblocks that have prevented other attempts at school reform
  • We can compete in the global classroom-and get ahead in the global market

  Filled with fascinating case studies, scientific findings, and unprecedented insights on how innovation must be managed, Disrupting Class will open your eyes to new possibilities, unlock hidden potential, and get you to think differently. Professor Christensen and his coauthors provide a bold new lesson in innovation that will help you make the grade for years to come.

  The future is now. Class is in session.

  
   

• School Leadership That Works: From Research to Results

  Robert J. Marzano, Timothy Waters, Brian A. McNulty

  
  What does research tell us about the effects of school leadership on student achievement? What specific leadership practices make a real difference in school effectiveness? How should school leaders use these practices in their day-to-day management of schools and during the stressful times that accompany major change initiatives? Robert J. Marzano, Timothy Waters, and Brian A. McNulty provide answers to these and other questions in School Leadership That Works.

  Based on their analysis of 69 studies conducted since 1970 that met their selection criteria and a recent survey of more than 650 building principals, the authors have developed a list of 21 leadership responsibilities that have a significant effect on student achievement. Readers will learn
  * the specific behaviors associated with the 21 leadership responsibilities;
  * the difference between first-order change and second-order change and the leadership responsibilities that are most important for each;
  * how to work smart by choosing the right work that improves student achievement;
  * the advantages and disadvantages of comprehensive school reform models for improving student achievement;
  * how to develop a site-specific approach to improving student achievement, using a framework of 11 factors and 39 action steps; and
  * a 5-step plan for effective school leadership.

  Combining rigoro

  
   

• Leaders of Learning: How District, School, and Classroom Leaders Improve Student Achievement

  Richard DuFour, Robert J. Marzano

  
  For many years, coauthors Rick DuFour and Bob Marzano have been co-travelers on the journey to help educators improve their schools. As Rick has focused on bringing the professional learning community process to life in schools, he has relied heavily on Bob s vast research on effective teaching and effective leadership. Bob has come to the conclusion that the best environment for great teaching and leading is a powerful PLC. In Leaders of Learning: How District, School, and Classroom Leaders Improve Student Achievement, the authors have combined their passions into one book to articulate how effective leaders foster continuous improvement at the district, school, and classroom levels.

  Rick and Bob argue that no single person has all the knowledge, skills, and talent to lead a district, improve a school, or meet all the needs of every child in his or her classroom. They assert that it will take a collaborative effort and widely dispersed leadership to meet the challenges confronting schools. Leaders of Learning focuses on district leadership, principal leadership, and team leadership, as well as addressing how individual teachers can be most effective in leading their students by learning with their colleagues how to implement the most promising pedagogy in their classrooms.

  The first part of the book focuses on how district and school leaders create the conditions to support the coll

  
   

• The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future (Multicultural Education)

  Linda Darling-Hammond

  
  The Flat World and Education offers an eye-opening wakeup call concerning America's future and vividly illustrates what the United States needs to do to build a system of high-achieving and equitable schools that ensures every child the right to learn.
  
   

• The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America

  Jonathan Kozol

  
  Over the last 15 years, the state of inner-city public schools has been in a steep and continuing decline. Since the federal courts began dismantling the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, segregation of black children has reverted to its highest level since 1968. In many inner-city schools, a stick-and-carrot method of behavioral control traditionally used in prisons is now used with students. Meanwhile, as high-stakes testing takes on pathological and punitive dimensions, liberal education has been increasingly replaced by culturally barren and robotic methods of instruction that would be rejected out of hand by schools that serve the mainstream of society.
  
  Filled with the passionate voices of children, principals, and teachers, and some of the most revered leaders in the black community, The Shame of the Nation pays tribute to those undefeated educators who persist against the odds, but directly challenges the chilling practices now being forced upon our urban systems by the Bush administration. In their place, Kozol offers a humane, dramatic challenge to our nation to fulfill at last the promise made some 50 years ago to all our youngest citizens.
  
   

• School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders (5th Edition) (Allyn & Bacon Educational Leadership)

  Nathan L. Essex

  

  School Law and the Public Schools is a practical, easy to read, comprehensive guide to the legal issues facing public schools in the U.S. today. An essential reference for all teachers, educational leaders, and policymakers at all levels, the book is organized and written in a style that is accessible to all, even those with little or no knowledge of the legal issues in education.

  
   

• Hands Are Not for Hitting (Best Behavior)

  Martine Agassi Ph.D.

  
  This fresh edition of a Free Spirit classic presents charming new illustrations along with the familiar encouraging message of the original. Children learn that violence is never okay, that they can manage their anger and other strong feelings, and that they’re capable of positive, loving actions—like playing, making music, learning, counting, helping, taking care, and much more. Includes a special section for adults with activities and discussion starters.
  
   

• Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know

  W. James Popham

  

  Written with energy and wit, this reader-friendly text discusses practical ways in which teachers can use well-written tests to improve their effectiveness in the classroom.

   

  Exploring a wide range of classroom assessments as well as how these assessments can benefit student learning, the thoroughly revised sixth edition of Classroom Assessment retains its humorous tone and unique practice exercises while adding new research, new material, and new features. This edition covers both contemporary classroom assessment issues, including No Child Left Behind, instructor accountability, and formative assessments, while also covering traditional assessment topics such as assessment validity and assessment reliability.

   

  Three new chapters include fresh and expanded material on formative assessments, the evaluation of instruction, and properly grading assessments. In addition, a new section at the end of the book provides students with critical thinking exercises that involve real-world assessment issues and that cover central topics from each chapter. Another new feature teaches readers how to best communicate with parents about assessments and assessment results.
  
   

• Assessing Learners with Special Needs: An Applied Approach (6th Edition)

  Terry Overton

  

  This most recent revision of Assessing Learners with Special Needs: An Applied Approach includes thorough explanations of the IDEA 2004 Regulations including RTI (response to intervention) and Early Intervening Services. Moreover, this text includes more applied exercises within the textbook. To address the increasing importance of accurate assessment of students with pervasive developmental disorders such as autism, the most widely researched diagnostic instruments are included.

   

  Students using this textbook will be able to understand progress monitoring through applied exercises in which they monitor their own progress in the course, plot a goal line, and chart their progress across the semester. Students and instructors are provided with chapter-by-chapter CEC Knowledge and Skills Standards. This allows students to see the skills they are expected to master when they complete coursework that is aligned for CEC Accreditation and provides the students with an understanding of the knowledge base expected of today’s highly qualified teachers.

   

  All complex concepts are included in the culminating chapter exercises on educational assessment report writing. In these exercises, students will apply their knowledge and skills needed for understanding and making data-based decisions for educational planning using both formal and informal assessment methods.

   

  Highlights of the New Edition:

• Emphasis on progress monitoring, including progress monitoring applied to the acquisition of knowledge and skills presented in this text.
• Changes within the assessment process according to the regulations of IDEA 2004.
• Increased number of case studies throughout the text and inclusion of exercises in the text.
• Expanded chapter on special considerations including assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorders.
• Increased emphasis and coverage of curriculum-based assessment.
• Increased consideration of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in the assessment process.