General

Despite widespread recognition that school systems need to do profoundly better, those seeking improvement have been persistently frustrated by the mediocre results of popular reforms. School and system leaders, policy-makers, and funders lack clear...

The public education system has the capacity to slowly and quietly resist all attempts at systemic change or reform; this resistance has become even more tangible and definable over the past fifteen years as reforms to bring schools up-to-date are...

On these pages is a call to action for teachers who have been shackled by the self-serving motives of agenda driven politicians. Here we present a new innovative process designed to prepare children to be productive members of their community. Students...

The Importance of Average calls attention to the policies and practices that discriminate against the silent majority of students in the American educational system. Arguments presented emphasize the collateral damage caused to average students by...

At this moment, schools are doing everything they can to win the Race to the Top. They are allocating their funding to test preparation, riffing beloved teachers, and transferring students who "drag down" their grade average on the state report card...

At this moment, schools are doing everything they can to win the Race to the Top. They are allocating their funding to test preparation, riffing beloved teachers, and transferring students who "drag down" their grade average on the state report card...

Responsible elementary schools strive to ensure that all pupils know more today than they knew yesterday thereby better preparing the youngsters for tomorrow's lessons. However essential that aim, achieving the goal faces serious challenges due to what...

Using metaphors of nets, trenches, sink holes and cisterns, this book shows instances of the obstacles that hinder academic success for our children. The purpose of this book is to bring an awareness of what is broken in our educational system by looking...

Losing America's Schools: The Fight to Reclaim Public Education is a call to save one of the last great democratic institutions in America. Corporatization, charter schools, misleading claims of skill gaps, the loss of Separation of Church and State,...

While school vouchers have captured the headlines, a different policy has captured the students. Tuition tax credit laws are now entrenched in Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Iowa, and Georgia, and they affect far more students. Yet few...

Collaborative Action for Change presents new directions in the preparation and lifelong professional development of music educators. The book's chapters are based on some of the most effective presentations from the 2007 Symposium on Music Teacher...

Why School Reform Is Failing and What We Need to Do about It evolved from a review of the educational and managerial theory and history that shaped our contemporary public education system. This theoretical construct is then interpreted through more than...

Getting it Right: Dynamic School Renewal, Fixing What's Broken challenges citizens of this nation to right the wrongs in public education by elevating the graduation rate and by equipping every graduate with saleable skills for gainful employment in the...

Education reform and policy making have captured the attention of the American public. In a highly politicized agenda, federal and state improvement plans have become touted national education platforms with stiff penalties for schools and teachers who...

If we want our students to be prepared for a life involved with artificial intelligence, global awareness, cultural understanding, racial, religious and lifestyle diversity, and changing economic and political realities, then we have to change what we...

The systems that make up the accountability package in education: standards, assessments, and the quality determination for a school, have each entered the educational field under the explicit assumption by their creators that they would drive educator...

The school finance debate has profoundly shaped the educational reform landscape over the past four decades. Most conspicuously, judges level billion dollar decrees based on scant and conflicting findings. This book sought to explore whether school...

As editors of Breaking the Mold of School Instruction and Organization: Innovative and Successful Practices for the 21st Century (2010) and Breaking the Mold of Preservice and Inservice Teacher Education: Innovative and Successful Practices for the 21st...

Barriers to Excellence: The Changes Needed for Our Schools brings a new and different viewpoint to our educational problems in the United States. The reasons behind the academic decline we have seen over the last several decades, the continued inequity...

The challenge of proper school finance goes beyond having a balanced budget to finding strategies that maximize money to improve schools and equalize student achievement. School finance deals with how money works to support school operations and answer...

Women in America have come a long way in the last hundred years, from lacking the right to vote to holding some of the highest profile positions in the country. But this change has not come without struggle. More Than Title IX highlights the impact of...

The intent of this book is to look at our educational system as it currently works and to evaluate not only why this system is broken, but also how we might move forward, together, to fix it.So, how do we fix our failing schools? We begin by finally...

Misinformation and propaganda abound about the quality of teacher preparation in the United States. The Teachers We Need vs. the Teachers We Have reveals exactly how American teachers are taught, describes the wide disparities in the preparation of...

Misguided Education Reform: Debating the Impact on Students argues for reforms that will help, not hurt, America's public school students. Early childhood education, testing, reading, special education, discipline, loss of the arts, and school...

There are times in today's educational world when it seems as if common sense has lost its place as a factor in critical decision making. This book strives to provide alternative, practical, and commonsense solutions to decision making in several...

Responsible elementary schools strive to ensure that all pupils know more today than they knew yesterday thereby better preparing the youngsters for tomorrow's lessons. However essential that aim, achieving the goal faces serious challenges due to what...

Ten Days that Shook the World of Education: A Close Look at the People who Facilitated Educational Change focuses on the critical moments that changed the course of our unique educational experiment. These important incidents reveal how everyday people...

The purpose of our book is to share with our readers some insights we have acquired over the years in our administrative experience implementing change and reforms. Two areas that are critical for any reform to succeed are the way communications and...

Education Is Upside Down cuts through adjustments being made at technical levels of educational practice and accountability, challenging ideals and philosophies that have powered American Education for most of the last century. This book explains how and...

Louis Sullivan, an American architect, was referred to as the "father of modernism" and coined the phrase "form follows function." His phrase provides a key insight into the state of public education in America. The existing form for public education is...

This book provides clear strategies and processes for boards faced with the challenge to make their governing model, either Coherent GovernanceO or Policy GovernanceO, work in real life. The Art of Governing Coherently is a practical guide loaded with...

In today's education climate, parents, teachers and school leaders are often confused about the direction of education and what and how children are learning. For anyone interested in the minefields that young people navigate in schools today, this book...

All school districts have written statements of the educational values and goals that members of the school community believe are important and worth pursuing. They display these on the front page of all school district public relations packets and on...

The institution of public education was born from the belief that in order to sustain a true democratic society it was essential to have an educated and informed public with the capacity to rule through self-governance. Unfortunately, self-governance is...

America's educational system is in crisis. Test scores show us that students across America are performing at levels far below their peers overseas. In addition, graduation rates are shamefully low. There is no doubt that America's students deserve...

This book takes on the issues of our failures from the dangers associated with a lack of classroom discipline to the failings of the people to recognize and defend their schools from an overstepping federal government. This book clarifies the answers to...

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...

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...

The vast numbers of new educational policies, programs, and practices being implemented as educational reform in American public schools have not been analyzed for short or long-term effectiveness or impact on students and their learning. Not only are...

The chief purpose of this book is to explain how public education in this country became dysfunctional as a result of the education policies and programs funded by the federal government to address low academic achievement. It highlights student effort...