EDUC 250: Owen

A revolutionary reappraisal of how to educate our children and young people by Ken Robinson, the New York Times bestselling author of The Element and Finding Your Element   Ken Robinson is one of the world's most influential voices in education, and his 2006 TED Talk on the subject is the most viewed in the organization's history. Now, the internationally recognized leader on creativity and human potential focuses on one of the most critical issues of our time: how to transform the nation's troubled educational system. At a time when standardized testing businesses are raking in huge profits, when many schools are struggling, and students and educators everywhere are suffering under the strain, Robinson points the way forward. He argues for an end to our outmoded industrial educational system and proposes a highly personalized, organic approach that draws on today's unprecedented technological and professional resources to engage all students, develop their love of learning, and enable them to face the real challenges of the twenty-first century. Filled with anecdotes, observations and recommendations from professionals on the front line of transformative education, case histories, and groundbreaking research--and written with Robinson's trademark wit and engaging style--Creative Schools will inspire teachers, parents, and policy makers alike to rethink the real nature and purpose of education.

Forget everything you think you know about school reform. Cutting through the cant, sentiment, and obfuscation characterizing the current school reform debate, Frederick M. Hess lacerates the conventional "status quo" reform efforts and exposes the naivete underlying reform strategies that rest on solutions like class size reduction, small schools, and enhanced professional development. He explains that real improvement requires a bracing regime of common sense reforms that create a culture of competence by rewarding excellence, punishing failure, and giving educators the freedom and flexibility to do their work. He documents the scope of the challenges we face and then provides concrete recommendations for addressing them through reforms to promote accountability, competition, a 21st-century workforce, effective school leadership, and sensible reinvention. Engagingly written and drawing on real world experiences and examples,Common Sense School Reform will generate debate and help set the agenda for the future.

A book that explores the problematic connection between education policy and practice while pointing in the direction of a more fruitful relationship, Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice is a provocative culminating statement from one of America's most insightful education scholars and leaders. Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice takes as its starting point a strikingly blunt question: "With so many major structural changes in U.S. public schools over the past century, why have classroom practices been largely stable, with a modest blending of new and old teaching practices, leaving contemporary classroom lessons familiar to earlier generations of school-goers?" It is a question that ought to be of paramount interest to all who are interested in school reform in the United States. It is also a question that comes naturally to Larry Cuban, whose much-admired books have focused on various aspects of school reform--their promises, wrong turns, partial successes, and troubling failures. In this book, he returns to this territory, but trains his focus on the still baffling fact that policy reforms--no matter how ambitious or determined--have generally had little effect on classroom conduct and practice. Cuban explores this problem from a variety of angles. Several chapters look at how teachers, in responding to major policy initiatives, persistently adopt changes and alter particular routine practices while leaving dominant ways of teaching largely undisturbed. Other chapters contrast recent changes in clinical medical practice with those in classroom teaching, comparing the practical effects of varying medical and education policies. The book's concluding chapter distills important insights from these various explorations, taking us inside the "black box" of the book's title: those workings that have repeatedly transformed dramatic policy initiatives into familiar--and largely unchanged--classroom practices.

What can organizations do to create changes that are both profound and enduring? This anthology explores why traditional change strategies have failed and examines constructive alternatives. International experts prove successful change can be a realistic goal. Real examples of pilot projects, model schools, and other groundbreaking endeavors illustrate precisely how theory translates into practice.

This book is guaranteed to spark lively debates and critical thinking in any classroom. Two of the most respected voices in education identify 50 myths and lies that threaten America's public schools. Berliner and Glass argue that many citizens' conception of K - 12 public education in the U.S. is more myth than reality. Warped opinions about U.S. public schools include: they are inferior to private schools; teachers should be fired if their students don't score at the national average, and on and on. With more than a little humour, Berliner and Glass separate fact from fiction in this comprehensive look at modern education reform. They explain how the mythical failure of public education has been created and perpetuated in large part by political and economic interests who stand to gain from its destruction. They expose a rapidly expanding variety of organizations and media that intentionally misrepresent facts. Where appropriate, they name the promoters of the hoax and point out how their interests are served by encouraging false beliefs. Their methods of debunking these falsehoods is to argue against their logic, criticize the data supporting them, and present more credible contradictory data. This dynamic book features short essays on important topics to provide every teacher, administrator, school board member, and concerned parent with reliable knowledge from authoritative sources.

Born to Rise is the inspiring account of Deborah Kenny’s pursuit of social justice for our nation’s most vulnerable children. Students enter Harlem Village Academies, the network of charter schools Kenny founded, several years behind grade level, but in just a few years they are transformed, ranking among the highest in the nation. How did they do it? For the first time, Kenny 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 results and teachers who regularly use words like “magical” to describe the workplace environment. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about children and the future of this country and for leaders who want to inspire fierce dedication in their employees.

This title is written by an esteemed cognitive psychologist who has conducted basic research on brain function, but who also understands the daily challenges faced by classroom teachers.

In the past decade, the number of students enrolled in private school choice programs has grown tenfold. But granting students access to public financing for their private education has not led to the vibrant marketplace of school options many of its supporters envisioned. If school choice policy is to improve the American education landscape, careful thought must be put in to understanding how it can expand existing high-quality schools and create new high-quality schools to serve more children. New and Better Schools attacks this problem from the perspective of both researchers and practitioners, documenting the hurdles entrepreneurial school leaders face, and offering a way forward. Book jacket.

Improving Struggling Schools draws on a blend of case studies and the emerging body of research on failing schools to identify patterns in the challenges they face.

Over the last few years, state accountability systems across the country have directed an increasingly bright light at the problem of chronically underperforming schools. The problem is hardly new, but the sheer number of failing schools facing takeover and restructuring is unprecedented. This crisis is rapidly becoming the leading concern of the accountability movement.

Arguing that school improvement is a developmental process, Stephens points out that "struggling schools look very different and need very different kinds of support as they move from stage to stage." He outlines a new approach that takes into account the patterns of growth and change in troubled schools, the foundational dilemmas schools face as they navigate this trajectory, and the overarching need to overcome the isolation and confusion that so often thwart schools' efforts to move forward.

This guide helps educators implement a continuous school improvement system through application of the seven correlates of effective schools. The authors discuss each correlate, update the knowledge base, and incorporate practical ideas from practitioners in the field. A comprehensive description of practices enables educators to build and sustain a school culture that accommodates the learning expectations and needs of all students.

Learning by Doing is a guide to help educators take ACTION. After working with schools throughout the U.S. and Canada, the authors discovered that schools that take the plunge and actually begin doing the work of a PLC develop their capacity to help all students learn at high levels far more effectively than schools that spend years preparing to become PLCs through reading or even training.

Based on the latest research about how children learn, this book helps elementary school teachers make their classrooms into creative spaces that facilitate teaching and learning. It also delves into specific areas of classroom design such as use of color and plants, room arrangement, learning centers, and the impact of clutter. With before and after photos of real classrooms, teachers can examine each area and determine their own classroom's need for improvement.

Discover a fundamentally different way to improve schools. Learn best practices from successful schools that use next-generation school-improvement methods. Focused chapters guide you through the modified planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation cycle at the core of this school-improvement model. Specific strategies empower you to put the knowledge to use.

Professional experience is central in teacher preparation. In Teaching and Communicating, your students are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to make the most of this experience. This user-friendly guide demonstrates how pre-service teachers, supervisors, mentors, and academics involved in school and field placement can be collectively engaged in professional experience contexts that are both dynamic and diverse. It provides opportunities for participants in the professional experience process to consider the complex nature of communication, to develop skills on how communication processes should be enacted, and to consider the broader education community. It also provides your students with practical advice on how to improve assessment by offering ideas about report writing, journal keeping and assignment delivery.

Is great teaching a gift that only a few of us are born with, or is it a skill that can be learned? In Never Work Harder Than Your Students, Robyn Jackson makes a radical assertion: Any teacher can become a master teacher by developing a master teacher mindset. The master teacher mindset can be achieved by rigorously applying seven principles to your teaching until they become your automatic response to students in the classroom. The more you practice these seven principles, the more you begin to think like a master teacher: 1. Start where your students are. 2. Know where your students are going. 3. Expect to get your students to their goal. 4. Support your students along the way. 5. Use feedback to help you and your students get better. 6. Focus on quality rather than quantity. 7. Never work harder than your students. Using these principles, Jackson shows you how to become a master teacher no matter where you are in your practice. Each chapter provides a detailed explanation of one of the mastery principles, the steps you need to take to apply them to your own practice, and suggestions for how you can begin practicing the principle in your classroom right away. Jackson offers stories from her own teaching practice, as well as from other teachers she has helped, to show you how each principle works. Teaching is a hard job, but using Jackson's principles will help you and your students reap the rich rewards of that hard work.

Both research and common sense verify that teachers make a difference not only in what students learn about content but in what students learn about life. Grounded in theory and research on adolescent growth and development and teacher-student interactions, this important new book gives classroom teachers guidelines, strategies, and real-life examples of how to build and enrich close and trusting teacher-student relationships based on dignity and respect. Key topics include setting high expectations for students, conveying confidence in student capabilities, creating classroom rituals and traditions, networking with family and community, developing strong interpersonal skills, identifying relational resources, and communicating appropriate caring and respect in the classroom in ways that elicit positive student response. Features teacher quotes, conversations, profiles, resources, and an inventory for assessing teacher-student relationships

Why is it so critical that school leaders embrace social media? And when you're ready to start, what's the best first step? Here's everything you need to know to begin building a social media platform that nurtures relationships and garners support from your key stakeholders, including step-by-step instructions on how to use three of today's most popular tools for social media: Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.

Words Matter: Teacher Language and Student Learning enables teachers to observe their actions and ask, Do I know how children perceive my behaviors?" It also helps them to understand reasons for children s responses to their words and actions. Teachers behaviors are categorized in vignettes, and readers determine where they fit and what changes ought to be made for their teaching practices to be more effective."

In The School Reform Landscape: Fear, Mythologies, and Lies, the authors take an in-depth and controversial look at school reform since the launch of Sputnik. They scrutinize school reform events, proposals, and policies from the last 60 years through the lens of critical social theory and examine the ongoing tensions between the need to keep a vibrant unitary system of public education and the ongoing assault by corporate and elite interests in creating a dual system. Some of events, proposals, and policies critiqued include the Sputnik myth, A Nation At Risk, No Child Left Behind, the lies of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and other common reform schemes. The authors provide an evidence-based contrarian view of the free-market reform ideas and pierce the veil of the new reform policies to find that they are built not upon empirical evidence, but instead rest solidly on foundations of myth, fear, and lies. Ideas for a new set of reform policies, based on empirical evidence and supportive of a unitary, democratic system of education are presented.

If you want to actually do something about providing excellent education for every child in America , this book is for you. Using insights from cognitive science, educational research, and the social sciences, the authors examine the compelling nature of four "dumb ideas" at the center of current education policy and practice: (1) simplifying knowledge helps students learn more and faster, (2) teaching and learning are a matter of proper transmission of good content, (3) homogenous environments ease learning, and (4) more standardized data and rigorous controls of our schooling will solve all our problems. The authors then present research that consistently shows why smart K - 12 education will not be achieved by current policies and practices, such as high-stakes standardized tests, homogenous grouping, and abbreviated teacher preparation. This lively book offers solutions for changing the harmful disconnect between our goals and the means we employ to get there, including key "smart ideas" and a set of how-to actions that will lead to great schools for every child.

Engaged teaching recognizes that educators need to offer more than lesson plans and assessments for students to thrive in the 21st century. Equip your students to be resilient individuals, able to communicate effectively and work with diverse people. The authors contend that students must develop their emotional and social skills as thoroughly as their academic skills, and that teachers must cultivate this growth.

In this provocative book, "America's Superintendent," John Kuhn lays bare the scare tactics at the root of the modern school reform movement. Kuhn conveys a deeply held passion for the mission and promise of public education through his own experience as a school administrator in Texas. When his "Alamo Letter" first appeared in the Washington Post, it galvanised the educational community in a call to action that was impossible to ignore. This powerful book requires us to question whether the current education crisis will be judged by history as a legitimate national emergency or an agenda-driven panic, spurred on by a media that is, for the most part, uninterested in anything but useless soundbites.

The rules of the world are changing. It is time for the rules of teaching and teachers' work to change with them. This is the challenge which Andy Hargreaves sets out in his new book on teachers' work and culture in the postmodern world. Drawing on his current research with teachers at all levels, Hargreaves shows through their own vivid words what teaching is really like, how it is already changing, and why. He argues that the structures and cultures of teaching need to change even more if teachers are not to be trapped by guilt, pressed by time and overburdened by decisions imposed upon them. Provocative yet practical, this book is written for teachers and those who work with teachers, and for researchers who want to understand teaching better in the postmodern age.

For too long so-called education reformers, mostly billionaires, politicians, and others with little or no background in teaching, have gotten away with using standardized testing to punish our nation’s youth and educators. Now, across the country, students are walking out, parents are opting their children out, and teachers are refusing to administer these detrimental exams. In fact, the "reformers” today find themselves facing the largest revolt in US history against high-stakes, standardized testing. More Than a Score is a collection of essays, poems, speeches, and interviews--accounts of personal courage and trenchant insights--from frontline fighters who are defying the corporate education reformers, often at great personal and professional risk, and fueling a national movement to reclaim and transform public education. Along with the voices of students, parents, teachers, administrators, and grassroots education activists, the book features renowned education researchers and advocates, including Diane Ravitch, Alfie Kohn, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Karen Lewis, Carol Burris, and Mark Naison.

No school district can be all charismatic leaders and super-teachers. It can't start from scratch, and it can't fire all its teachers and principals when students do poorly. Great charter schools can only serve a tiny minority of students. Whether we like it or not, most of our youngsters willcontinue to be educated in mainstream public schools.The good news, as David L. Kirp reveals in Improbable Scholars, is that there's a sensible way to rebuild public education and close the achievement gap for all students. Indeed, this is precisely what's happening in a most unlikely place: Union City, New Jersey, a poor, crowded Latino communityjust across the Hudson from Manhattan. The school district - once one of the worst in the state - has ignored trendy reforms in favor of proven game-changers like quality early education, a word-soaked curriculum, and hands-on help for teachers. When beneficial new strategies have emerged, likeusing sophisticated data-crunching to generate pinpoint assessments to help individual students, they have been folded into the mix.The results demand that we take notice - from third grade through high school, Union City scores on the high-stakes state tests approximate the statewide average. In other words, these inner-city kids are achieving just as much as their suburban cousins in reading, writing, and math. What's evenmore impressive, nearly ninety percent of high school students are earning their diplomas and sixty percent of them are going to college. Top students are winning national science awards and full rides at Ivy League universities. These schools are not just good places for poor kids. They are goodplaces for kids, period. Improbable Scholars offers a playbook - not a prayer book - for reform that will dramatically change our approach to reviving public education.

The majority of states have charter school legislation, but too many charter schools could fail unless school reformers consider the pitfalls in creating new settings. This text provides a conceptual road map for educators and legislators to prepare and overcome predictable problems.

Shows educators and administrators how they can fill their classrooms with students who are eager for success and motivated to learn. The learner-centered approach focuses on designing instruction that is sensitive to the individual students needs, abilities, and interests rather than rigidly tied to the subject matter.

This book assesses the changes that have occurred in the twenty years since A Nation at Risk, which urged major reforms in American education, was issued by the National Education Commission. It offers recommendations based on three core principles--accountability, choice, and transparency--that can reinvigorate the system and rekindle America's confidence in public education.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.

How did the country that invented the moderm public school end up embracing policies that weaken it? What alternatives are there to current corporate reform policies? How can we give America's children an education that will truly prepare them and our nation for the challenges of tomorrow? In Race to the Bottom McGill successfully traces the emergence of corporate reform and describes how its tenets run counter to what he believes are the key elements of a high-quality education. McGill draws from a wealth of experience as a school superintendent for over 40 years, including his tenure in Scarsdale during the 2001 district-wide boycott of New York State standardized tests. Showing how strong leaders working with teachers and the community have been able to strengthen schools, the author offers a model of school reform that will prepare students for the 21st Century.

Merging cognitive science with educational agenda, Gardner shows how ill-suited our minds and natural patterns of learning are to current educational materials, practices, and institutions, and makes an eloquent case for restructuring our schools. This reissue includes a new introduction by the author.

The digital revolution has hit education, with more and more classrooms plugged into the whole wired world. But are schools making the most of new technologies? Are they tapping into the learning potential of today's Firefox/Facebook/cell phone generation? Have schools fallen through the crack of the digital divide? In Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology, Allan Collins and Richard Halverson argue that the knowledge revolution has transformed our jobs, our homes, our lives, and therefore must also transform our schools. Much like after the school-reform movement of the industrial revolution, our society is again poised at the edge of radical change. To keep pace with a globalized technological culture, we must rethink how we educate the next generation or America will be "left behind." This groundbreaking book offers a vision for the future of American education that goes well beyond the walls of the classroom to include online social networks, distance learning with "anytime, anywhere" access, digital home schooling models, video-game learning environments, and more.

Almost every major American city is experimenting with school choice, a deeply controversial idea that is dramatically reshaping public education. Will the wider array of school options help parents and educators identify better strategies for helping all children learn? Or will the high stakes of the marketplace end up privatizing this most public of institutions? Education activist Sam Chaltain believes that before we can answer these questions, we must put a human face on the modern landscape of teaching and learning. Our School documents a year in the life of two schools in the nation's capital, one a new charter school just opening its doors, the other a neighborhood school that first opened in 1924. Chaltain weaves together the observations and emotions of the people whose lives intersect there, and the triumphs and the challenges they experience. The result is an unsettling, complex portrayal of American public education. Our School is important reading for educational policymakers, administrators, parents, the media, and anyone who aspires to be a teacher.

In this timely volume, acclaimed educational scholars and experts who share a critical view of the standards and testing movement, explore the major reform issues currently facing American educational institutions. The collective wisdom they provide is sound and never strays far from a consideration for the difficulty of implementing educational reforms in the face of structural and ideological limitations. Aspects of school reform such as the role states play, the results of reform efforts in the urban enclaves of New York and Boston, and the position of unions in school system reform, represent just some of the comprehensive analyses presented here. Particular attention is given to the challenges faced by new, smaller, and more independent schools. This volume is laden with balanced advice for anyone seeking to understand or inspire educational reform.

"Teaching Toward Democracy" examines the contested space of schooling and school reform with a focus on the unique challenges and opportunities that teaching in a democratic society provides. Teaching in and for democracy involves developing particular qualities of mind that teachers explore and work to develop as they become more effective educators. Some chapters open with familiar experiences in the lives of teachers in schools (working with parents and communities, or dealing with classroom discipline and management) and illuminate that commonplace in new, helpful, and sometimes startling, ways. Other chapters present possible interventions any teacher might make in any classroom for example, using the arts as an organizing center and metaphor for teaching more generally, or rethinking the press of politics on our every day practice. This book foregrounds the central idea that democratic ideals are a necessary starting point and context in which to enact our teaching here and now."

For nearly fifteen years students and teachers have suffocated under the oppressive regime of high-stakes testing spawned by the No Child Left Behind Act. Returning Sanity to the Classroom: Eliminating the Testing Mania uses the engaging pedagogy of Forgiving Learning to give new life and hope to the education landscape. Over the millennia humans have employed a natural method of learning from their mistakes to achieve success. They address these faulted situations repeatedly, making appropriate changes along the way. This practice is the heart and soul of our creativity and inventiveness. Returning Sanity to the Classroom presents a classroom method of codifying this natural process of student learning centered on their freedom to readdress academic mistakes without penalty. It includes techniques in developing a relational classroom complete with the intensive use of oral and written language as well as academic coaching. Returning Sanity to the Classroom employs brain compatible strategies advanced by Leslie Hart, Paul Maclean, Karl Jung, Katherine Briggs, Isabel Myers, and Abraham Maslow. It is an answer to the question of how to appropriately stimulate and evaluate student learning."

This book shares the compelling story of how a team of visionary educators turned the traditional education system inside out and created a dramatically different approach to schooling that would serve every child. The result is the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition (RISC) Approach to Schooling, a new paradigm in education that can be replicated anywhere, by anyone, for any student, under any set of circumstances.

Empower your teachers as partners in professional learning--and see student achievement soar!   Are you ready for a professional learning program that makes a lasting difference in the quality of teaching within your organization? This breakthrough book enables education leaders to: Work collaboratively with faculty to develop and implement a five-part plan for professional learning designed to meet your school's unique needs Connect professional learning with practices that have the greatest positive effect in the classroom Link professional development to teacher evaluation in a manner that builds trust Learn best practices from schools that implemented the author's methodology, and benefit from user-friendly strategies and tools

Eminent educational philosopher Nel Noddings draws on John Dewey's foundational work to reimagine educations aims and curriculum for the 21st century. Noddings looks at education as a multi-aim enterprise in which schools must address needs in all three domains of life: home and family, occupational, and civic. She raises critical questions about the current enthusiasm for standardization, the search for "one-best-way" solutions, and the practice of maintaining a sharp separation between the disciplines. Comprehensive in its scope, chapters examine the liberal arts curriculum, vocational education, restructuring secondary school, extracurricular activities, national and global citizenship, critical thinking, and moral education. Noddings argues that we must find ways to preserve our commitment to democratic values while adapting to the societal changes that have occurred since Dewey wrote Democracy and Education almost a century ago. She urges not only a critical appraisal of current practice but also a cooperative and imaginative exploration of the future.

Literacies of Power illustrates the many ways American schools, media, and other social institutions perpetuate ignorance. In this new, expanded edition, Donaldo Macedo shows why so-called common culture literacy is a form of dominant cultural reproduction that undermines independent thought and goes against the best interests of our students. Offering a wide-ranging counterargument, Macedo shows why cultural literacy cannot be restricted to the acquisition of Western heritage values, which sustain an ideologythat systematically negates the cultural experiences of many members of society-not only minorities but also anyone who is poor or disenfranchised. Macedo calls on his own experience as a Cape Verdean immigrant from West Africa who had to surmount the barriers imposed by the world’s most entrenched monolingual system of higher education. His eloquence in this book is testimony to the very idea that critical thinking and good education are not and must not be culturally or linguistically bounded.A new concluding chapter by the author critically challenges the crucial role of schools in "the manufacture of consent” for the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act, and the "charitable racism” that is too often evident in the field of ESL. In essays new to this edition, well-known and respected educators Joe Kincheloe, Peter McLaren, and Shirley Steinberg share their insights on Macedo’s message, complementing Paulo Freire’s Foreword to the original edition.

Can charter schools save public education? This radical question has unleashed a flood of opinions from Americans struggling with the contentious challenges of education reform. There has been plenty of heat over charter schools and their implications, but, until now, not much light. This important new book supplies plenty of illumination. Charter schools--independently operated public schools of choice--have existed in the United States only since 1992, yet there are already over 1,500 of them. How are they doing? Here prominent education analysts Chester Finn, Bruno Manno, and Gregg Vanourek offer the richest data available on the successes and failures of this exciting but controversial approach to education reform. After studying one hundred schools, interviewing hundreds of participants, surveying thousands more, and analyzing the most current data, they have compiled today's most authoritative, comprehensive explanation and appraisal of the charter phenomenon. Fact-filled, clear-eyed, and hard-hitting, this is the book for anyone concerned about public education and interested in the role of charter schools in its renewal. Can charter schools boost student achievement, drive educational innovation, and develop a new model of accountability for public schools? Where did the idea of charter schools come from? What would the future hold if this phenomenon spreads? These are some of the questions that this book answers. It addresses pupil performance, enrollment patterns, school start-up problems, charges of inequity, and smoldering political battles. It features close-up looks at five real--and very different--charter schools and two school districts that have been deeply affected by the charter movement, including their setbacks and triumphs. After outlining a new model of education accountability and describing how charter schools often lead to community renewal, the authors take the reader on an imaginary tour of a charter-based school system. Charter schools are the most vibrant force in education today. This book suggests that their legacy will consist not only of helping millions of families obtain a better education for their children but also in renewing American public education itself.

This powerful collection from the groundbreaking Rethinking Schools magazine takes high-stakes standardized tests to task. Despite overwhelming evidence that the tests are invalid ways to measure teaching and learning-and continuing signs of their unjust effects on students and teachers-"reformers" and policy makers continue to force high-stakes tests into the public schools. Through articles that provide thoughtful and emotional critiques from the frontlines of education, Pencils Down deconstructs the damage that standardized tests wreak on our education system and the human beings that populate it. Better yet, it offers visionary forms of assessment that are not only more authentic, but also more democratic, fair, and accurate. Book jacket.

This is an exploration of Deweyan pedagogy in an actual classroom since studies of Dewey's Laboratory School began at the turn of the century. The authors discuss his educational theory in the context of his ideology and philosophy, and they examine his own Introduction to Philosophy class.

In Education Myths, Jay Greene takes on the conventional wisdom and closely examines eighteen myths advanced by the special interest groups dominating public education. In addition to the money myth, the class size myth, and the teacher pay myth, Greene debunks the special education myth (special ed programs burden public schools), the certification myth (certified or more experienced teachers are more effective in the classroom), the graduation myth (nearly all students graduate from high school), the draining myth (choice harms public schools), the segregation myth (private schools are more racially segregated), and several more.

Updated with both a new introduction and a series of interviews, the second edition of Education and the Crisis of Public Values examines American society’s shift away from democratic public values, the ensuing move toward a market-driven mode of education, and the last decade’s growing social disinvestment in youth. The book discusses the number of ways that the ideal of public education as a democratic public sphere has been under siege, including full-fledged attacks by corporate interests on public school teachers, schools of education, and teacher unions. It also reveals how a business culture cloaked in the guise of generosity and reform has supported a charter school movement that aims to dismantle public schools in favor of a corporate-friendly privatized system. The book encourages educators to become public intellectuals, willing to engage in creating a formative culture of learning that can nurture the ability to defend public and higher education as a general good - one crucial to sustaining a critical citizenry and a democratic society.

This book provides an in-depth examination of educational policy surrounding charter schools, primarily in Michigan.Michigan has one of the oldest and most robust charter school laws in the country, providing important insights into how a large scale and national charter school movement might affect public education.This book offers important insights to educators in states with no charter school law, in states considering strengthening existing laws, and national policy-makers seeking to influence state-level education reform.

Lee and Budzisz blazed the trail of reform by developing the Milwaukee Village School, a Milwaukee Wisconsin Public School. In this book, they provide a road map to develop a new school or change an existing one to allow educators the capability to reach all children. Quashing the Rhetoric of Reform gives real examples of what the authors did and what they tried to do, while they also express their dreams for the future.

Ted Kennedy and George W. Bush agreed on little, but united behind the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Passed in late 2001, it was hailed as a dramatic new departure in school reform. It would make the states set high standards, measure student progress, and hold failing schools accountable. A decade later, NCLB has been repudiated on both sides of the aisle. According to Jal Mehta, we should have seen it coming. Far from new, it was the same approach to school reform that Americans have tried before. In The Allure of Order, Mehta recounts a century of attempts at revitalizing public education, and puts forward a truly new agenda to reach this elusive goal. Not once, not twice, but three separate times-in the Progressive Era, the 1960s and '70s, and NCLB-reformers have hit upon the same idea for remaking schools. Over and over again, outsiders have been fascinated by the promise of scientific management and have attempted to apply principles of rational administration from above. Each of these movements started with high hopes and ambitious promises, but each gradually discovered that schooling is not easy to "order" from afar: policymakers are too far from schools to know what they need; teachers are resistant to top-down mandates; and the practice of good teaching is too complex for simple external standardization. The larger problem, Mehta argues, is that reformers have it backwards: they are trying to do on the back-end, through external accountability, what they should have done on the front-end: build a strong, skilled and expert profession. Our current pattern is to draw less than our most talented people into teaching, equip them with little relevant knowledge, train them minimally, put them in a weak welfare state, and then hold them accountable when they predictably do not achieve what we seek. What we want, Mehta argues, is the opposite approach which characterizes top-performing educational nations: attract strong candidates into teaching, develop relevant and usable knowledge, train teachers extensively in that knowledge, and support these efforts through a strong welfare state. The Allure of Order boldly challenges conventional wisdom with a sweeping, empirically rich account of the last century of education reform, and offers a new path forward for the century to come.

'A wonderful resource for novice or experienced administrators who are ready to jump into the 21st century with their students and schools. The text handles all key aspects of understanding the role and relevance of technology in today's schools as well as planning for future integration. What better way to usher in a 21st-century schools initiative than with sharing this valuable resource' - Jill M. Gildea, Superintendent, Harrison School District £36, Wonder Lake, IL Today's schools have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to help students achieve academically and prepare for their futures in the 21st century. Written for school leaders, administrators, and technology directors, this user-friendly guide describes how to develop and lead effective schools that meet the needs of 21st-century learners, integrate new technology into teaching and learning, and realize measurable performance improvement. Aligned to the newly updated National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators ( NETS.A), this resource helps educators develop an actionable plan for introducing new technology, managing change, and building support across the school community and beyond. The authors emphasize 21st-century skills such as collaboration, communication, and creationeativity and provide: - Descriptions of Web 2.0 tools - including wikis, blogs, social networks, and many others - and their applications for creative, innovative instruction - Strategies for effective use of technology within and across pre-school to Sixth form content areas - Personal stories from leaders of technologically advanced and nationally recognized schools - An overview of relevant legal, ethical, and safety considerations - Recommended activities and resources within every chapter Lead your team in developing a true 21st-century school that opens up new avenues for teacher-student collaboration and achievement.

Gerald Bracey knows there are three kinds of lies in education policy: lies, damned lies, and the statistics that reactionary reformers tout as evidence in favor of dismantling our public schools. In this second and substantially updated edition of the hard-hitting Setting the Record Straight, Bracey, whom Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews called "one of this country's most authoritative defenders of the work of public school teachers," goes toe-to-toe with the opponents of quality public education. You'll learn how to discredit them in your own discussions by using the very logic and statistical analyses they purport to have on their side. In this series of smart, forceful analyses, Bracey homes in on specific topics like vouchers, school funding, and comparisons to international test scores, themes around which agitators have created a host of mythological American school failures from the flimsiest of evidence. In fact, each essay begins with a question you might commonly hear in conversation about these alleged shortcomings, to which Bracey provides a brief, sound- byte-ready rebuttal. Then he follows it up with a full-length explanation, replete with statistical data and talking points that fully support his assertions-and silence those who would undermine education with disinformation. Beginning in his introduction with the seed that germinated in Ronald Reagan's "Nation at Risk" sloganeering and quickly fast-forwarding to the present-day federal intrusion into schools that has propelled so many political careers, Bracey stamps out the weeds of anti-public education advocacy and leaves no threat to quality teaching and learning behind. With Gerald Bracey and the truth behind you, you'll confidently take on the foes of public education in your own community and never again be cowed by the insidious arguments of education "reformers."

"contrarian" "professional outsider" "a sore loser" "another member of the Flat Earth Society" "a national treasure" "a modern Don Quixote" "a skeptic's joy!" No matter what he's called, Gerald Bracey IS public schools' best defender. And in this book, he uses his considerable writing and research skills on their behalf. With authority, sensitivity, and a good sense of humor, he dismantles the negative PR our public education system has endured and does it with hardcore data, not phony "science." Bracey delivers the statistics and skillful analysis needed to win the numbers game that plays out daily in the popular press. Drawing on data from a variety of reputable sources, he proves that public schools are doing much better than critics claim, some indicators even showing record highs. He takes on the testing movement in numerous chapters, offers data that provide different perspectives than usually seen, and reviews the history of public schools, showing how they have included more and more students while raising achievement levels, too. He questions the so-called "failing schools," discusses the phenomenon of "summer loss," provides international comparisons, and presents data to argue that investing in universal quality preschool pays off in the long run. He even attempts to enter the mind of the father of American public education, Horace Mann, to see what he might think about the "nuttiness of today's policies." Bracey believes that our only hope to save the public school system is for teachers, teacher educators, and administrators to help speed up the needed perspective transformation. And they can begin to do it by reading this book and resuming their rightful position in educating students.

Bracey is a research psychologist who has worked in the areas of childhood education, testing, and educational policy analysis. A previous book, The War Against America's Public Schools was aimed at educators; the current volume is directed toward parents. Bracey examines various sources of increas

Award-winning teacher Linda Alston strives to help educators generate their own joy, passion, creativity, and love of their profession. The readers will find peace and inspiration as Alston helps them realize what a difference their teaching makes for children and their families. Each chapter includes a remarkable story from the author's classroom, a brief reflection on its significance, and an affirmation that others can use to transform their own teaching and the lives of their student. For use with Grades K-12.

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.

From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, former U.S. assistant secretary of education, "whistle-blower extraordinaire" (The Wall Street Journal), author of the best-selling The Death and Life of the Great American School System ("Important and riveting"--Library Journal), The Language Police ("Impassioned . . . Fiercely argued . . . Every bit as alarming as it is illuminating"--The New York Times), and other notable books on education history and policy--an incisive, comprehensive look at today's American school system that argues against those who claim it is broken and beyond repair; an impassioned but reasoned call to stop the privatization movement that is draining students and funding from our public schools. ​In Reign of Error, Diane Ravitch argues that the crisis in American education is not a crisis of academic achievement but a concerted effort to destroy public schools in this country. She makes clear that, contrary to the claims being made, public school test scores and graduation rates are the highest they've ever been, and dropout rates are at their lowest point. ​She argues that federal programs such as George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind and Barack Obama's Race to the Top set unreasonable targets for American students, punish schools, and result in teachers being fired if their students underperform, unfairly branding those educators as failures. She warns that major foundations, individual billionaires, and Wall Street hedge fund managers are encouraging the privatization of public education, some for idealistic reasons, others for profit. Many who work with equity funds are eyeing public education as an emerging market for investors. ​Reign of Error begins where The Death and Life of the Great American School System left off, providing a deeper argument against privatization and for public education, and in a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, putting forth a plan for what can be done to preserve and improve it. She makes clear what is right about U.S. education, how policy makers are failing to address the root causes of educational failure, and how we can fix it. ​For Ravitch, public school education is about knowledge, about learning, about developing character, and about creating citizens for our society. It's about helping to inspire independent thinkers, not just honing job skills or preparing people for college. Public school education is essential to our democracy, and its aim, since the founding of this country, has been to educate citizens who will help carry democracy into the future.