Author: Arne Duncan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1501173065
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
“This book merits every American’s serious consideration” (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an exposé of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kids’ education, and threatens our nation’s future. “Education runs on lies. That’s probably not what you’d expect from a former Secretary of Education, but it’s the truth.” So opens Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work, although the title could just as easily be How American Schools Work for Some, Not for Others, and Only Now and Then for Kids. Drawing on nearly three decades in education—from his mother’s after-school program on Chicago’s South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in Washington, DC—How Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can’t help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the “most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama’s Cabinet.” Going to a child’s funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person. How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also identifies what really does make a school work. “As insightful as it is inspiring” (Washington Book Review), How Schools Work will embolden parents, teachers, voters, and even students to demand more of our public schools. If America is going to be great, then we can accept nothing less.
How Schools Work
Author: Arne Duncan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1501173065
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
“This book merits every American’s serious consideration” (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an exposé of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kids’ education, and threatens our nation’s future. “Education runs on lies. That’s probably not what you’d expect from a former Secretary of Education, but it’s the truth.” So opens Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work, although the title could just as easily be How American Schools Work for Some, Not for Others, and Only Now and Then for Kids. Drawing on nearly three decades in education—from his mother’s after-school program on Chicago’s South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in Washington, DC—How Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can’t help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the “most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama’s Cabinet.” Going to a child’s funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person. How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also identifies what really does make a school work. “As insightful as it is inspiring” (Washington Book Review), How Schools Work will embolden parents, teachers, voters, and even students to demand more of our public schools. If America is going to be great, then we can accept nothing less.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1501173065
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
“This book merits every American’s serious consideration” (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an exposé of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kids’ education, and threatens our nation’s future. “Education runs on lies. That’s probably not what you’d expect from a former Secretary of Education, but it’s the truth.” So opens Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work, although the title could just as easily be How American Schools Work for Some, Not for Others, and Only Now and Then for Kids. Drawing on nearly three decades in education—from his mother’s after-school program on Chicago’s South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in Washington, DC—How Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can’t help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the “most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama’s Cabinet.” Going to a child’s funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person. How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also identifies what really does make a school work. “As insightful as it is inspiring” (Washington Book Review), How Schools Work will embolden parents, teachers, voters, and even students to demand more of our public schools. If America is going to be great, then we can accept nothing less.
Making Schools Work
Author: William G. Ouchi
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439108102
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
Introducing a bold, persuasive new argument into the national debate over education, Dr. William Ouchi describes a revolutionary approach to creating successful public schools. This program has produced significant, lasting improvements in the school districts where it has already been implemented. Drawing on the results of a landmark study of 223 schools in six cities, a project that Ouchi supervised and that was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, Making Schools Work shows that a school's educational performance may be most directly affected by how the school is managed. Ouchi's 2001-2002 study examined innovative school systems in Edmonton (Canada), Seattle, and Houston, and compared them with the three largest traditional school systems: New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Researchers discovered that the schools that consistently performed best also had the most decentralized management systems, in which autonomous principals -- not administrators in a central office -- controlled school budgets and personnel hiring policies. They were fully responsible and fully accountable for the performance of their schools. With greater freedom and flexibility to shape their educational programs, hire specialists as needed, and generally determine the direction of their school, the best principals will act as entrepreneurs, says Ouchi. Those who do poorly are placed under the supervision of successful principals, who assume responsibility for the failing schools. An essential component of this management approach is the Weighted Student Formula, a budgetary tool whereby every student is evaluated and assessed a certain dollar value in educational services (a non-English-speaking or autistic student, or one from a low-income family, for example, would receive a higher dollar value than a middle-class student with no special needs). Families have the freedom to choose among public schools, and when schools must compete for students, good schools flourish while those that do poorly literally go out of business. Such accountability has long worked for religious and independent schools, where parents pay a premium for educational performance. Making Schools Work shows how the same approach can be adapted to public schools. The book also provides guidelines for parents on how to evaluate a school and make sure their child is getting the best education possible. Revolutionary yet practical, Making Schools Work shows that positive educational reform is within reach and, indeed, already happening in schools across the country.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439108102
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
Introducing a bold, persuasive new argument into the national debate over education, Dr. William Ouchi describes a revolutionary approach to creating successful public schools. This program has produced significant, lasting improvements in the school districts where it has already been implemented. Drawing on the results of a landmark study of 223 schools in six cities, a project that Ouchi supervised and that was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, Making Schools Work shows that a school's educational performance may be most directly affected by how the school is managed. Ouchi's 2001-2002 study examined innovative school systems in Edmonton (Canada), Seattle, and Houston, and compared them with the three largest traditional school systems: New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Researchers discovered that the schools that consistently performed best also had the most decentralized management systems, in which autonomous principals -- not administrators in a central office -- controlled school budgets and personnel hiring policies. They were fully responsible and fully accountable for the performance of their schools. With greater freedom and flexibility to shape their educational programs, hire specialists as needed, and generally determine the direction of their school, the best principals will act as entrepreneurs, says Ouchi. Those who do poorly are placed under the supervision of successful principals, who assume responsibility for the failing schools. An essential component of this management approach is the Weighted Student Formula, a budgetary tool whereby every student is evaluated and assessed a certain dollar value in educational services (a non-English-speaking or autistic student, or one from a low-income family, for example, would receive a higher dollar value than a middle-class student with no special needs). Families have the freedom to choose among public schools, and when schools must compete for students, good schools flourish while those that do poorly literally go out of business. Such accountability has long worked for religious and independent schools, where parents pay a premium for educational performance. Making Schools Work shows how the same approach can be adapted to public schools. The book also provides guidelines for parents on how to evaluate a school and make sure their child is getting the best education possible. Revolutionary yet practical, Making Schools Work shows that positive educational reform is within reach and, indeed, already happening in schools across the country.
When Schools Work
Author: Bruce Fuller
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421442787
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 229
Book Description
How did a young generation of activists come together in 1990s Los Angeles to shake up the education system, creating lasting institutional change and lifting children and families across southern California? Critics claim that America's public schools remain feckless and hamstrung institutions, unable to improve even when nudged by accountability-minded politicians, market competition, or global pandemic. But if schools are so hopeless, then why did student learning climb in Los Angeles across the initial decades of the twenty-first century? In When Schools Work, Bruce Fuller details the rise of civic activists in L.A. as they emerged from the ashes of urban riots and failed efforts to desegregate schools. Based on the author's fifteen years of field work in L.A., the book reveals how this network of Latino and Black leaders, civil rights lawyers, ethnic nonprofits, and pedagogical progressives coalesced in the 1990s, staking out a third political ground and gaining distance from corporate neoliberals and staid labor chiefs. Fuller shows how these young activists—whom he terms "new pluralists"—proceeded to better fund central-city schools, win quality teachers, widen access to college prep courses, decriminalize student discipline, and even create a panoply of new school forms, from magnet schools to dual-language campuses, site-run small high schools, and social-justice focused classrooms. Moving beyond perennial hand-wringing over urban schools, this book offers empirical lessons on what reforms worked to lift achievement—and kids—across this vast and racially divided metropolis. More broadly, this study examines why these new pluralists emerged in this kaleidoscopic city and how they went about jolting an institution once given up for dead. Spotlighting the force of ethnic communities and humanist notions of children's growth, Fuller argues that diversifying forms of schooling also created unforeseen ways of stratifying both children and families. When Schools Work will inform the efforts of educators, activists, policy makers, and anyone else working to reshape public schools and achieve equitable results for all children.
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421442787
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 229
Book Description
How did a young generation of activists come together in 1990s Los Angeles to shake up the education system, creating lasting institutional change and lifting children and families across southern California? Critics claim that America's public schools remain feckless and hamstrung institutions, unable to improve even when nudged by accountability-minded politicians, market competition, or global pandemic. But if schools are so hopeless, then why did student learning climb in Los Angeles across the initial decades of the twenty-first century? In When Schools Work, Bruce Fuller details the rise of civic activists in L.A. as they emerged from the ashes of urban riots and failed efforts to desegregate schools. Based on the author's fifteen years of field work in L.A., the book reveals how this network of Latino and Black leaders, civil rights lawyers, ethnic nonprofits, and pedagogical progressives coalesced in the 1990s, staking out a third political ground and gaining distance from corporate neoliberals and staid labor chiefs. Fuller shows how these young activists—whom he terms "new pluralists"—proceeded to better fund central-city schools, win quality teachers, widen access to college prep courses, decriminalize student discipline, and even create a panoply of new school forms, from magnet schools to dual-language campuses, site-run small high schools, and social-justice focused classrooms. Moving beyond perennial hand-wringing over urban schools, this book offers empirical lessons on what reforms worked to lift achievement—and kids—across this vast and racially divided metropolis. More broadly, this study examines why these new pluralists emerged in this kaleidoscopic city and how they went about jolting an institution once given up for dead. Spotlighting the force of ethnic communities and humanist notions of children's growth, Fuller argues that diversifying forms of schooling also created unforeseen ways of stratifying both children and families. When Schools Work will inform the efforts of educators, activists, policy makers, and anyone else working to reshape public schools and achieve equitable results for all children.
Schools that Work
Author: George Harrison Wood
Publisher: Plume Books
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
In a fresh, positive, and practical approach to the crisis in American education, professional educator Wood tells of the search that led him to innovative schools across the country, where students aren't just getting by--they are excited about the learning process. Unencumbered by abstract theory and academic jargon, Wood's book brings a message of hope to all who are concerned with the plight of American education.
Publisher: Plume Books
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
In a fresh, positive, and practical approach to the crisis in American education, professional educator Wood tells of the search that led him to innovative schools across the country, where students aren't just getting by--they are excited about the learning process. Unencumbered by abstract theory and academic jargon, Wood's book brings a message of hope to all who are concerned with the plight of American education.
Social Work in Schools
Author: Linda Openshaw
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 1462506739
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
This accessible and authoritative text gives social workers the tools they need for effective and ethical practice in school settings. Readers learn practical skills for observation, assessment, intervention, and research that will enable them to respond to the needs of diverse students from preschool through the secondary grades. The book presents strategies for dealing with particular problems, such as violence, trauma, parental absence, substance abuse, bereavement, and mental health concerns. Also reviewed are developmental issues that can interfere with school success. Specific guidelines for implementing interventions, including group work, are provided. Student-friendly features include many concrete examples; study and discussion questions; and reproducible letters, forms, and checklists.
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 1462506739
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
This accessible and authoritative text gives social workers the tools they need for effective and ethical practice in school settings. Readers learn practical skills for observation, assessment, intervention, and research that will enable them to respond to the needs of diverse students from preschool through the secondary grades. The book presents strategies for dealing with particular problems, such as violence, trauma, parental absence, substance abuse, bereavement, and mental health concerns. Also reviewed are developmental issues that can interfere with school success. Specific guidelines for implementing interventions, including group work, are provided. Student-friendly features include many concrete examples; study and discussion questions; and reproducible letters, forms, and checklists.
Making Schools Work
Author: Eric A. Hanushek
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815717687
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Educational reform is a big business in the United States. Parents, educators, and policymakers generally agree that something must be done to improve schools, but the consensus ends there. The myriad of reform documents and policy discussions that have appeared over the past decade have not helped to pinpoint exactly what should be done. The case for investment in education is an economic one: schooling improves the productivity and earnings of individuals and promotes stronger economic growth and better functioning of society. Recent trends in schooling have, however, lessened the value of society's investments as costs have risen dramatically while student performance has stayed flat or even fallen. The task is to improve performance while controlling costs. This book is the culmination of extensive discussions among a panel of economists led by Eric Hanushek. They conclude that economic considerations have been entirely absent from the development of educational policies and that economic reality is sorely needed in discussions of new policies. The book outlines an improvement plan that emphasizes changing incentives in schools and gathering information about effective approaches. Available research and analysis demonstrates that current central decisionmaking has worked poorly. Concentrating on inputs such as pupil-teacher ratios or teacher graduate degrees appears quite inferior to systems that directly reward performance. Nonetheless, since experience with such alternatives is very limited, a program of extensive evaluation appears to be in order. Attempts to institute radical change on the basis of currently available information involve substantial risks of failure. Many people today find proposals such as charter schools, expanded use of merit pay, or educational vouchers to be appealing. Yet there is little evidence of their effectiveness, and widespread adoption of these proposals is sure to run into substantial problems of im
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815717687
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Educational reform is a big business in the United States. Parents, educators, and policymakers generally agree that something must be done to improve schools, but the consensus ends there. The myriad of reform documents and policy discussions that have appeared over the past decade have not helped to pinpoint exactly what should be done. The case for investment in education is an economic one: schooling improves the productivity and earnings of individuals and promotes stronger economic growth and better functioning of society. Recent trends in schooling have, however, lessened the value of society's investments as costs have risen dramatically while student performance has stayed flat or even fallen. The task is to improve performance while controlling costs. This book is the culmination of extensive discussions among a panel of economists led by Eric Hanushek. They conclude that economic considerations have been entirely absent from the development of educational policies and that economic reality is sorely needed in discussions of new policies. The book outlines an improvement plan that emphasizes changing incentives in schools and gathering information about effective approaches. Available research and analysis demonstrates that current central decisionmaking has worked poorly. Concentrating on inputs such as pupil-teacher ratios or teacher graduate degrees appears quite inferior to systems that directly reward performance. Nonetheless, since experience with such alternatives is very limited, a program of extensive evaluation appears to be in order. Attempts to institute radical change on the basis of currently available information involve substantial risks of failure. Many people today find proposals such as charter schools, expanded use of merit pay, or educational vouchers to be appealing. Yet there is little evidence of their effectiveness, and widespread adoption of these proposals is sure to run into substantial problems of im
How Schools Work
Author: Rebecca Barr
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780226038124
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 191
Book Description
As budgets tighten for school districts, a sound understanding of just how teaching and administration translate into student learning becomes increasingly important. Rebecca Barr, a researcher of classroom instruction and reading skill development, and Robert Dreeben, a sociologist of education who analyzes the structure of organizations, combine their expertise to explore the social organization of schools and classrooms, the division of labor, and the allocation of key resources. Viewing schools as part of a social organization with a hierarchy of levels—district, school, classroom, instructional group, and students—avoids the common pitfalls of lumping together any and all possible influences on student learning without regard to the actual processes of the classroom. Barr and Dreeben systematically explain how instructional groups originate, form, and change over time. Focusing on first grade reading instruction, their study shows that individual reading aptitude actually has little direct relation to group reading achievement and virtually none to the coverage of reading materials once the mean aptitude of groups is taken into consideration. Individual aptitude, they argue, is rather the basis on which teachers form reading groups that are given different instructional treatment. It is these differences in group treatment, they contend, that explain substantial differences in learning curricular material.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780226038124
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 191
Book Description
As budgets tighten for school districts, a sound understanding of just how teaching and administration translate into student learning becomes increasingly important. Rebecca Barr, a researcher of classroom instruction and reading skill development, and Robert Dreeben, a sociologist of education who analyzes the structure of organizations, combine their expertise to explore the social organization of schools and classrooms, the division of labor, and the allocation of key resources. Viewing schools as part of a social organization with a hierarchy of levels—district, school, classroom, instructional group, and students—avoids the common pitfalls of lumping together any and all possible influences on student learning without regard to the actual processes of the classroom. Barr and Dreeben systematically explain how instructional groups originate, form, and change over time. Focusing on first grade reading instruction, their study shows that individual reading aptitude actually has little direct relation to group reading achievement and virtually none to the coverage of reading materials once the mean aptitude of groups is taken into consideration. Individual aptitude, they argue, is rather the basis on which teachers form reading groups that are given different instructional treatment. It is these differences in group treatment, they contend, that explain substantial differences in learning curricular material.
Work Hard. Be Nice.
Author: Jay Mathews
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1565126734
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
When Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that—and more. In their early twenties, by sheer force of talent and determination never to take no for an answer, they created a wildly successful fifth-grade experience that would grow into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which today includes sixty-six schools in nineteen states and the District of Columbia. KIPP schools incorporate what Feinberg and Levin learned from America's best, most charismatic teachers: lessons need to be lively; school days need to be longer (the KIPP day is nine and a half hours); the completion of homework has to be sacrosanct (KIPP teachers are available by telephone day and night). Chants, songs, and slogans such as "Work hard, be nice" energize the program. Illuminating the ups and downs of the KIPP founders and their students, Mathews gives us something quite rare: a hopeful book about education.
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1565126734
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
When Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin signed up for Teach for America right after college and found themselves utter failures in the classroom, they vowed to remake themselves into superior educators. They did that—and more. In their early twenties, by sheer force of talent and determination never to take no for an answer, they created a wildly successful fifth-grade experience that would grow into the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which today includes sixty-six schools in nineteen states and the District of Columbia. KIPP schools incorporate what Feinberg and Levin learned from America's best, most charismatic teachers: lessons need to be lively; school days need to be longer (the KIPP day is nine and a half hours); the completion of homework has to be sacrosanct (KIPP teachers are available by telephone day and night). Chants, songs, and slogans such as "Work hard, be nice" energize the program. Illuminating the ups and downs of the KIPP founders and their students, Mathews gives us something quite rare: a hopeful book about education.
The Domains and Demands of School Social Work Practice
Author: Michael S Kelly
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190451130
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
School social work enters its second century as a profession still conflicted about its central mission. Are school social workers meant to be "in-house" clinicians providing services to kids in need, or are they meant to be involved in program development to enhance the social and emotional learning of all students in a school? How much time should they devote to serving whole families, or consulting with teachers? Whatever school social workers claim to do in their schools, it's clear that they are going to have to prove that they are effective doing it. The demands of federal legislation like No Child Left Behind and state requirements for certification are making it increasingly necessary that school social workers demonstrate that they are highly qualified school-based mental health and social service professionals who can demonstrate outcomes that impact school "bottom line" issues like student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Rather than recoil from this pressure, school social workers can utilize the skills of evidence based practice (EBP) to help them enhance both their effectiveness and their knowledge of interventions that work to help students, teachers, parents, and staff in school contexts. A succinct SSWAA Workshop volume, The Domains and Demands of School Social Work Practice demonstrates how EBP can be integrated into school social worker's daily practice, advancing the debate about where social workers can and should intervene, and how to do so effectively. Highlighting primary clinical issues, family problems, and school-wide needs faced by school social workers, it helps practitioners make the best use of evidence to be flexible, effective advocates at all levels of practice.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190451130
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
School social work enters its second century as a profession still conflicted about its central mission. Are school social workers meant to be "in-house" clinicians providing services to kids in need, or are they meant to be involved in program development to enhance the social and emotional learning of all students in a school? How much time should they devote to serving whole families, or consulting with teachers? Whatever school social workers claim to do in their schools, it's clear that they are going to have to prove that they are effective doing it. The demands of federal legislation like No Child Left Behind and state requirements for certification are making it increasingly necessary that school social workers demonstrate that they are highly qualified school-based mental health and social service professionals who can demonstrate outcomes that impact school "bottom line" issues like student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Rather than recoil from this pressure, school social workers can utilize the skills of evidence based practice (EBP) to help them enhance both their effectiveness and their knowledge of interventions that work to help students, teachers, parents, and staff in school contexts. A succinct SSWAA Workshop volume, The Domains and Demands of School Social Work Practice demonstrates how EBP can be integrated into school social worker's daily practice, advancing the debate about where social workers can and should intervene, and how to do so effectively. Highlighting primary clinical issues, family problems, and school-wide needs faced by school social workers, it helps practitioners make the best use of evidence to be flexible, effective advocates at all levels of practice.
Group Work in Schools
Author: Bradley T. Erford
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317525272
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
School counselors are often the only employees in school settings with any formal education in group work, and yet their training is typically a general course on how to run groups. Group Work in Schools provides an alternative training model; one that presents exactly what counselors need to know in order to successfully implement task-driven, psychoeducational, and counseling/psychotherapy groups in any educational setting. Additions to this newly updated second edition include: discussion topics, activities, case examples, integrated CACREP standards and learning outcomes, as well as an overall update to reflect the most recent research and knowledge.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317525272
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 442
Book Description
School counselors are often the only employees in school settings with any formal education in group work, and yet their training is typically a general course on how to run groups. Group Work in Schools provides an alternative training model; one that presents exactly what counselors need to know in order to successfully implement task-driven, psychoeducational, and counseling/psychotherapy groups in any educational setting. Additions to this newly updated second edition include: discussion topics, activities, case examples, integrated CACREP standards and learning outcomes, as well as an overall update to reflect the most recent research and knowledge.