Mobilizing Citizens for Better Schools PDF Download

Author: Robert F. Sexton
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 9780807744413
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Tired of the complacent attitudes Kentucky politicians showed toward education, the Prichard Committee formed as an organization to galvanize the citizens of Kentucky to attack the state's historic educational deficits. The committee's campaigning helped prepare the way for the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990 and continues to work for school reform today. Based on his wealth of experience and success with the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, Sexton provides invaluable guidance for citizens of all states who are interested in implementing school reform.

Author: Vera Schatten Coelho
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848139152
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
Mobilizing for Democracy is an in-depth study into how ordinary citizens and their organizations mobilize to deepen democracy. Featuring a collection of new empirical case studies from Angola, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, this important new book illustrates how forms of political mobilization, such as protests, social participation, activism, litigation and lobbying, engage with the formal institutions of representative democracy in ways that are core to the development of democratic politics. No other volume has brought together examples from such a broad Southern spectrum and covering such a diversity of actors: rural and urban dwellers, transnational activists, religious groups, politicians and social leaders. The cases illuminate the crucial contribution that citizen mobilization makes to democratization and the building of state institutions, and reflect the uneasy relationship between citizens and the institutions that are designed to foster their political participation.

Author: United States. Office of Education
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Citizens' advisory committees in education
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description

Author: Margaret McNamara
Publisher: Random House Studio
ISBN: 1984892800
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
In this charming and powerful picture book about voting and elections, the students of Stanton Elementary School learn how we can find--and use--our voices for change. Every two years, on the first Tuesday of November, Stanton Elementary School closes for the day. For vacation? Nope! For repairs? No way! Stanton Elementary School closes so that it can transform itself into a polling station. People can come from all over to vote for the people who will make laws for the country. Sure, the Stanton Elementary School students might be too young to vote themselves, but that doesn't mean they can't encourage their parents, friends, and family to vote! After all, voting is how this country sees change--and by voting today, we can inspire tomorrow's voters to change the future.

Author: Milbrey W. McLaughlin
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807774995
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Building on extensive evidence that school-based teacher learning communities improve student outcomes, this book lays out an agenda to develop and sustain collaborative professional cultures. McLaughlin and Talbert—foremost scholars of school change and teaching contexts—provide an inside look at the processes, resources, and system strategies that are necessary to build vibrant school-based teacher learning communities. Offering a compelling, straightforward blueprint for action, this book: Takes a comprehensive look at the problem of improving the quality of teaching across the United States, based on evidence and examples from the authors’ nearly two decades of research.Demonstrates how and why school-based teacher learning communities are bottom-line requirements for improved instruction. Outlines the resources and supports needed to build and sustain a long-term school-based teacher professional community. Discusses the nature of high-quality professional development to support learning and changes in teaching.Details the roles and responsibilities of policymakers at all levels of the school system. “This book offers vivid examples of how teacher learning communities are formed and sustained. A must-read for educators at all levels who are serious about enacting change.” —Amy M. Hightower, Assistant Director, American Federation of Teachers

Author: Anne Newman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022607188X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
In Realizing Educational Rights, Anne Newman examines two educational rights questions that arise at the intersection of political theory, educational policy, and law: What is the place of a right to education in a participatory democracy, and how can we realize this right in the United States? Tracking these questions across both philosophical and pragmatic terrain, she addresses urgent moral and political questions, offering a rare, double-pronged look at educational justice in a democratic society. Newman argues that an adequate K–12 education is the right of all citizens, as a matter of equality, and emphasizes that this right must be shielded from the sway of partisan and majoritarian policy making far more than it currently is. She then examines how educational rights are realized in our current democratic structure, offering two case studies of leading types of rights-based activism: school finance litigation on the state level and the mobilization of citizens through community-based organizations. Bringing these case studies together with rich philosophical analysis, Realizing Educational Rights advances understanding of the relationships among moral and legal rights, education reform, and democratic politics.

Author: Anna Ershler Richert
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807771023
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
“Have you ever been waiting for THE book? This is that book. Anna Richert has held on to this book for many years because she wanted it to honor the profession and the work of teaching. It satisfies on two important levels—that of those who study teaching and those who do the teaching. At a time when the profession is suffering from a lack of support and criticism on all fronts, Richert elevates it without valorizing it. These are real dilemmas that real teachers struggle with everyday. We owe Anna Richert a big thank you for What Should I Do?” —Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison What Should I Do? is a practical guide to the everyday dilemmas of the urban classroom. It offers a lifeline to both beginning teachers who are struggling to be successful and to the teacher educators who are trying to prepare them for these challenges. The author uses narratives of practice, written by novice teachers, to help readers experience a variety of dilemmas they are likely to encounter in the classroom. By engaging with and analyzing the cases, readers come to see that the “problems” of teaching are actually “dilemmas” that have no clear-cut right or wrong solution, thus reducing the potential for frustration and despair often felt by teachers. This practical resource will empower teachers to transform the unpredictable world of troubled schools into places of learning and hope, for both themselves and their students. As a former teacher said, “I wish I had read this book and realized that I wasn’t expected to have all the answers. I would probably still be teaching.” Anna Ershler Richert is a professor in the School of Education at Mills College in Oakland California where she is Director of the Master of Arts in Education with an Emphasis on Teaching (MEET) Program and Faculty Director of the Mills Teacher Scholars.

Author: Camille A. Farrington
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807772747
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Roughly half of all incoming ninth graders across urban districts will fail classes and drop out of school without a diploma. Failing at School starts with the premise that urban American high schools generate such widespread student failure not because of some fault of the students who attend them but because high schools were designed to stratify achievement and let only the top performers advance to higher levels of education. This design is particularly detrimental for low-income, racial/ethnic minority students. To get different results, Farrington proposes fundamental changes based on what we now know about how students learn, what motivates them to engage in learning, and what kinds of educational systems and structures would best support their learning. “This is a groundbreaking and eye-opening study because it does what few studies of high school truly do: get inside the hearts and minds of teen-agers and show what their experience of school looks and feels like to them. The analysis of students who fail is revealing and powerful. There are poignant and revealing stories of just how a few student mistakes or teacher insensitivities lead to unfortunate and long-lasting results. More importantly, these case studies, their nuances, and their implications take us beyond the clichés and simplistic theories about schools and reform. Most importantly, we read of tangible and intelligent solutions that can be instituted, based on the facts on the ground. I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in getting beyond the typical talking points of school reform.” —Grant Wiggins, Authentic Education “Camille Farrington details how high schools trap students along developmental trajectories distorted by structural factors—resources, values and practices—beyond their control. Grounded firmly in research, she describes a better way forward. This book is an important contribution to the re-visioning of American high schools.” —Ronald F. Ferguson, faculty director, Achievement Gap Initiative, Harvard University "Why is there such a pattern of failure in urban high schools? This is a vital issue for every city in America. Camille Farrington’s analysis of the roots of this problem and suggestions for structural changes to break this cycle is the best I have seen. This book combines research and practitioner wisdom with common sense and heart, and for those of us engaged in this work, presents concrete directions for positive change.” —Ron Berger, chief academic officer, Expeditionary Learning Book Features: Offers concrete strategies for redesigning high schools based on four dimensions of student achievement—structural, academic, developmental, and motivational. Highlights the voices of students to illustrate fundamental problems with the way we currently “do school.” Addresses the new Common Core State Standards and the potential of this major reform effort to move us toward equity and excellence. Camille A. Farrington is a research associate (assistant professor) at The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and the Consortium on Chicago School Research and director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment for the Network for College Success.

Author: Ruthanne Kurth-Schai
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1681234254
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
The future of public education and democracy is at risk. Powerful forces are eroding commitment to public schools and weakening democratic resolve. Yet even in deeply troubling times, it is possible to broaden social imagination and empower effective advocacy for systemic progressive reform. Re-envisioning Education and Democracy explores challenges and opportunities for restructuring public education to establish and sustain more broadly inclusive, deeply democratic, and effectively transforming approaches to social inquiry and civic participation. Re-envisioning Education and Democracy adopts a non-traditional format to extend social awareness and imagination. Within each chapter, one episode of an evolving strategic narrative traces the life cycle of a systemic reform initiative. This is followed by an exploratory essay that draws from theory, research, criticism, and practice to prompt consideration of focal issues. Woven through each chapter is a poetically framed meditative stream informed by varied historical and cultural conceptions of oracles. A developmental sequence of social learning strategies (exploratory democratic practices), accompanied by thematic bibliographic references, are included to model democratic teaching and learning applicable in classroom and community settings.

Author: Kenneth A. Sirotnik
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 9780807744642
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Kenneth Sirotnik asserts that however well-intentioned, past and current accountability practices in public education are "miseducative, misdirected, and misanthropic." In this provocative book, well-respected educators join Sirotnik to provide critical analyses and sophisticated perspectives on prevailing high-stakes accountability practices. They offer both conceptual and practical foundations for rethinking what it means to act responsibly when it comes to calling our schools, school systems, educators, and students into account.