In Thinking about Schools, Eleanor Hilty has put together a wonderful collection of classic and contemporary readings that speak loudly and clearly to the importance of equity and justice as goals for contemporary education. This is just the right collection of readings to inspire and inform prospective and practicing teachers alike. It is the perfect text for introducing students to the social forces affecting public schooling in America.-Barry M. Franklin, Utah State University

Everybody knows that South Africa has an education crisis, despite the fact that the government spends the biggest slice of its budget on education, more than any other African country. And yet the crisis persists.

Jonathan Jansen and Molly Blank looked at South African schools that work, in spite of adverse conditions – schools in poor communities, schools with overcrowded classrooms, schools in both rural and urban environments – and have drawn out the practical strategies that make them successful.

19 short films (included on DVD) let you visit these schools and understand in the words of their principals, teachers and learners what makes them succeed. Then take look at the 10 key strategies identified and see how to implement them in other schools to effect transformation. As we have come to expect from Jansen, there are no complicated theories, no difficult to implement solutions – just lots of common sense!

Responding to Diversity in Schools provides guidance for education practitioners on how to use an inquiry-based approach in responding to learner diversity. It supports readers in addressing an agenda for change, considering questions such as:

• Who are the learners who are missing out?
• What evidence do we need in order to understand the barriers faced by these learners?
• How can we analyse this evidence in order to find effective ways of moving forward?
• How do we involve others in this process?

Responding to Diversity in Schools sets out to encourage innovation in schools, challenge existing assumptions and practices, and promote critical reflection. The contributing authors explain how to use a wide range of research methods, including visual methods that can be used to gather the views of children and young people. In addition, the book provides illustrative examples of innovative approaches to doing research with children, teachers and parents in schools.

Written in a clear, direct style that addresses the types of concerns facing teachers on a daily basis, this book offers both practical guidance on responding to the challenge of diversity and inclusion from an inquiry-based learning perspective, and a range of detailed worked examples from schools. It will support individual practitioners and staff teams working on school development issues, as well as tutors wishing to use inquiry-based approaches within workshops and courses. It will also benefit post-graduate students who are focusing on inclusion, diversity, school development and leadership.

Responding to Diversity in Schools provides guidance for education practitioners on how to use an inquiry-based approach in responding to learner diversity. It supports readers in addressing an agenda for change, considering questions such as: Who are the learners who are missing out? What evidence do we need in order to understand the barriers faced by these learners? How can we analyse this evidence in order to find effective ways of moving forward? How do we involve others in this process? Responding to Diversity in Schools sets out to encourage innovation in schools, challenge existing assumptions and practices, and promote critical reflection. The contributing authors explain how to use a wide range of research methods, including visual methods that can be used to gather the views of children and young people. In addition, the book provides illustrative examples of innovative approaches to doing research with children, teachers and parents in schools. Written in a clear, direct style that addresses the types of concerns facing teachers on a daily basis, this book offers both practical guidance on responding to the challenge of diversity and inclusion from an inquiry-based learning perspective, and a range of detailed worked examples from schools. It will support individual practitioners and staff teams working on school development issues, as well as tutors wishing to use inquiry-based approaches within workshops and courses. It will also benefit post-graduate students who are focusing on inclusion, diversity, school development and leadership.

The professional development school (PDS) is a unique educational reform initiative that attempts the simultaneous reform of education at the school and the university. By conducting reform at both levels of education, the PDS is a solution to the piecemeal reforms of the past, from Dewey's Progressivism to the Sputnik reforms to New Math to Whole Language, which have targeted educational change in the public schools but most have overlooked the preparation of new teachers.

The PDS addresses the professional development of experienced teachers in the field, the preparation of new teachers, and improvement of the programs of K-12 schools at the same time and at the same place--the school site. In this way, reform goals are agreed upon and implemented by both new and experienced teachers so that reform efforts are seamlessly supported by all parties involved. Nevertheless, most educators engaged in PDS reform agree that PDSs are a high stakes reform effort and are fraught with difficulties. This case study provides an annotated road map of one PDS partnership so that others interested in partnership work are provided general principles to guide their work.

In this innovative series Education Write Now, ten of education's most inspiring thought-leaders meet for a three-day retreat to think and write collaboratively, and then bring you the top takeaways you need right now to improve your school or classroom. This second volume, edited by Jeff Zoul and Sanee Bell, focuses on relationships-the heart of everything we do in education. Building strong relationships and a positive school culture takes intentional, consistent effort, and the authors provide strategies and examples to help you along the way. Throughout the book, you'll find insights and inspiration on these topics: Connecting the dots among students and staff (Jeffrey Zoul) Strengthening relationships in the learner-centered class (Randy Ziegenfuss) Building a culture of equity and access (Rosa Isiah) Cultivating student strengths and interests (Elisabeth Bostwick) Bridging the gap between schools and families (Laura Gilchrist) Deepening connections through productive conflict (Sanee Bell) Finding relationships beyond the four walls (Onica Mayers) Connecting through the power of generosity (Winston Sakurai) Bringing passion into the schoolhouse (Sean Gaillard) Tapping into dreams for a world-class culture (Danny Bauer) The royalties generated from this book will support the Will to Live Foundation, a nonprofit foundation working to prevent teen suicide.

"A superb, crucial, blistering expose of all the myths about our education system that are all too often used to attack it. Melissa Benn again proves why she is one of country's most formidable education campaigners - and why the powerful should fear her. Owen Jones, Guardian columnist and best-selling author Never has it been more urgent to publicise the truth about what works and doesn't work in our education system. Debunking the ideology of marketisation, and exposing the half-truths that pass for objective reporting, Benn and Downs meticulously lay out the evidence: that a national system of comprehensive schools delivers the best outcomes. This hugely important book should be required reading for each new Education Secretary. Caroline Lucas, MP Opinions about comprehensive education are often made into easy-to-swallow sound-bites by media and politicians alike and whilst the benefits of a genuinely comprehensive education for all pupils are obvious, untruths have unwittingly evolved into hard facts. Based on Melissa Benn and Janet Downs' work as part of the pioneering Local Schools Network, The Truth About Our Schools calls for us to urgently and articulately challenge unquestioned myths about state education. Benn and Downs have meticulously built an argument for its still enormously vital role, and rigorously challenge assumptions that: Comprehensive education has failed Local authorities control and hold back schools Choice, competition and markets are the route to educational success Choice will improve education in England: the free school model. Academies raise standards Teachers don't need qualifications Private schools have the magic DNA Progressive education lowers standards Anyone who thinks that comprehensive education cannot deliver, that local authorities are the chief block to improving our school system, that competition and markets are the route to educational success and that private schools hold the magic DNA that can simply be transferred to other state schools will have their beliefs shaken by this blisteringly incisive book. .

Reclaiming Freedom in Education examines the notion of 'freedom' within educational settings. Following an investigation of the new 'Free Schools' in the UK, it argues that this name is a misnomer, and instead explores the original free schools of the 1960s and 1970s, using these models as a lens through which to explore contemporary examples of radical schooling, notably those which describe themselves as democratic and/or progressive. By arguing that in radical educational contexts both 'positive freedom' and 'negative freedom' are apparent, and that the notion that 'responsible freedom' is more pertinent than that of 'absolute freedom', this book posits that freedom can be seen to operate in a number of ways including 'freedom to be', 'freedom to think', 'freedom to choose' and 'freedom to self-govern'. The book: Describes how freedom can be used to inform educational structures, policies, pedagogies and practices across a range of settings Features illustrative case studies of radical free schools and alternative education spaces which have been underpinned by a commitment to freedom and to advancing social justice Critiques the current policy agenda to use 'freedom' to make education more competitive through claims that it correlates with higher test scores and academic success Considers some of the challenges for teachers, educators and students of offering and experiencing freedom in education, and argues that despite these, the case for advancing freedom is both urgent and compelling Creating discussions about the new meaning and role that 'freedom' can have in improving education, Reclaiming Freedom in Education is a practical contribution to educational activism, which will be a key point of reference for teachers, parents, researchers and students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Education Studies, Early Childhood Studies and doctorates.

David Reynolds is recognised internationally as one of the leaders of the school effectiveness and school improvement movement, and Failure Free Education? brings together for the first time many of his most influential and provocative pieces. Drawing on the authora (TM)s work from over three decades, these extracts from his seminal books, chapters, papers and articles combine to give a unique overview of how the movement developed, the problems involved in the application of the knowledge and the disciplinesa (TM) potentially glittering future now.

The book also covers the issues raised by, and lessons learned from, his close involvement with English government educational policymaking from the mid 1990s to date.

This book is essential reading for those who seek to understand how we can make every school a good school, and what the obstacles may be to achieving that goal.

Understanding democracy, learning to be democratic and to value democracy are critical competencies to be developed by all Americans. In the present debate about what knowledge is of most worth in the public school, these civic competencies are seen as second in importance only to the development of critical thinking. They are typically, however, honored more in commencement rhetoric than in school programs or practices; their actualization falls far short of their ascribed importance. The authors argue that critical opportunities for democratic development occur in the day-to-day life of the schools. It follows that all grade levels should participate in the creation of the "constitution" of the school and classrooms, the justice structure of the school (its disciplinary code, norms, and adjudication), the policy-making of the school, and in the understanding of the school as a social laboratory. The authors demonstrate the effectiveness of such a program by reporting some two decades of applied research on democratic schools which have realized some of these outcomes.

The evidence is clear - school leaders make a difference to the learning of the pupils they serve. And yet, not all leaders have the same degree of impact. What are the factors that make the difference to student learning? Why are some leaders able to raise student achievement in schools in the most challenging circumstances whilst other leaders struggle to simply maintain the status quo?

Drawing from international case study research over many years, from the experience of hundreds of school leaders serving widely diverse communities, Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser argue that there are six distinct mindsets that characterize the way successful, learning-oriented leaders operate and make sense of their professional world. These leaders are:

• motivated by intense moral purpose
• knowledgeable about current models of learning
• consistently inquiry-oriented
• able to build trusting relationships
• evidence-informed
• able to move to wise action.

This book outlines an alternative way of thinking about school leadership. It examines research evidence that leaders will find most useful and suggests how they might use this evidence to maximise their learning and the learning of their students. Leadership Mindsets has been written specifically for aspiring to newly-appointed school leaders who are determined and motivated to create quality and equality for learners in the schools they serve, through networks of inquiry, learning and support.

In this powerful manifesto, the bestselling author of WHY KNOWLEDGE MATTERS addresses the failures of America's early education system and its impact on our current national malaise, advocating for a shared knowledge curriculum students everywhere can be taught-an educational foundation that can help improve and strengthen America's unity, identity, and democracy. In How to Educate a Citizen, E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America's public schools, particularly at the elementary level, to educate our children more effectively to help heal and preserve the nation. Since the 1960s, our schools have been relying on "child-centered learning." History, geography, science, civics, and other essential knowledge have been dumbed down by vacuous learning "techniques" and "values-based" curricula; indoctrinated by graduate schools of education, administrators and educators have believed they are teaching reading and critical thinking skills. Yet these cannot be taught in the absence of strong content, Hirsch argues. The consequence is a loss of shared knowledge that would enable us to work together, understand one another, and make coherent, informed decisions. A broken approach to school not only leaves our children under-prepared and erodes the American dream but also loosens the spiritual bonds and unity that hold the nation together. Drawing on early schoolmasters and educational reformers such as Noah Webster and Horace Mann, Hirsch charts the rise and fall of the American early education system and provides a blueprint for closing the national gap in knowledge, communications, and allegiance. Critical and compelling, How to Educate a Citizen galvanizes our schools to equip children with the power of shared knowledge.

"Six-Way Paragraphs in the Content Areas" teaches the essential skills and techniques needed to organize, understand, and apply information in four general categories: the humanities, social studies, science, and mathematics.

Originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, this expanded text provides new insights into the successful, sustained implementation of Full-Service Community Schools (FSCSs) in the United States. Reviewing the Success of Full-Service Community Schools in the US documents the experiences of students, teachers, and communities involved in the establishment and growth of FSCSs. By considering how successful this reform strategy has been in meeting the needs of underserved communities, the text illustrates the potential these schools have to transform students' learning and outcomes. In particular, the studies illustrate the value these schools have in supporting low-income students and students of color. At the same time, by interrogating the defining pillars of FSCSs - expanded learning opportunities, integrated services, family and community engagement, and collaborative leadership - chapters identify challenges that if left unattended, could limit the transformative potential of this reform strategy. This groundbreaking text will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, academics, professionals, and policy makers in the fields of Educational Change and School Reform, Multicultural Education, Sociology of Education, Education Policy, and School Management and Administration.

Millions of children and adults across the nation spend their days in school buildings, and they need safe, healthy environments to thrive, learn, and succeed. This book explores the school environment using the methods and perspectives of environmental health science. Though environmental healht has long been understood to be an important factor in workplaces, homes, and communities, this is the first book to address the same basic concerns in schools. The editors are physicians and educators trained in pediatrics, occupational and environmental medicine, and medical toxicology, and the authors are experts in their fields drawn from across the United States and abroad. Each section of the book addresses a different concern facing schools today. In the first six sections, the various aspects of the school environment are examined. Chapters include the physical environment of the school, air quality issues, pest control, cleaning methods, food safety, safe designs of playgrounds and sports fields, crime and violence prevention, and transportation. In the last two sections, recommendations are made for school administrators on how to maximize the health of their schools. Appropriately evaluating the school environment, implementing strategies to address children and adults with disabilities, emphasizing health services, infectious disease prevention and recognition, and occupational health for faculty and staff are all addressed. The entire book is evidence-based, readable, generously illustrated, and practical. An indispensable resource for parents, school staff, administrators, government officials, and health professionals, this book is for anyone who cares about the health of ourschools.

The second edition of Knowledge and Power in the Global Economy examines how neoliberal and neoconservative policies are working in tandem to privatize and commercialize public schools. It looks at how these policies and the agendas behind them have impacted the internal dynamics of school management, teaching, and learning, as well as how they have transformed the external dynamics of education from a public good or service offered to serve public interests to a private enterprise primarily serving private interests. In addition to information, critique, and analysis, multiple perspectives are provided that readers can draw upon to formulate an alternative vision of education as a crucial element of social change along democratic and egalitarian lines. The first edition of this volume provided a critical encyclopedic approach to the rhetoric of educational reform as it developed from the 1980s through the 1990s-critiquing its vocabulary, elaborating the multiplicity of ways that the logic of neoliberalism and the emerging patterns of high stakes testing and accountability were impacting the curriculum, and introducing ideas associated with alternative and liberatory educational projects. Since its publication in 2000, policy developments, such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 in the U.S. and others in the U.K. and other parts of the world, have nationalized and intensified these patterns, deepening the logic and extent of neoliberalism's hold over educational reforms. At the same time, it is impossible to understand the current crises in education solely in terms of neoliberalism; the impact of neoconservatism must also be considered. Hence this second edition has a new subtitle: The Effects of School Reform in a Neoliberal/ Neoconservative Age. This edition is structured around five themes: *Political and Social Foundations; *Anti-Educational Foundations: The Set-Up; *Anti-Educational Foundations: The Trap; *Classroom Consequences; and *Democracy's Path. This volume will particularly interest scholars and professionals across the fields of educational foundations, curriculum theory, and educational policy, and is well suited as a text for courses in these areas.

The Future of Publicly Funded Faith Schools addresses and critically examines the arguments both for and against the continued maintenance of faith-based schools within a publicly funded state system. Addressing the issue systemically, first grounding the discussion in the practical world of education before raising the central philosophical issues stemming from faith-based education, it provides a balanced synthesis of the different arguments surrounding faith schools. The book expounds upon the different threats facing faith-based schools, including their perceived potential to undermine social cohesion within a multi-cultural society, and the questioning of their right to receive public funding, and examines what these mean for their future. Examining these threats, it questions: What it means for a school to be 'faith-based'. The nature of religious education both within and without a faith-based school environment. The ethical, epistemological, and political issues arising from faith-based education. The concepts of the common good and social cohesion. Whether there is possible reconciliation between opposing parties. The Future of Publicly Funded Faith Schools makes a unique contribution to the literature in this area and is crucial reading for anyone interested in what the future holds for publicly funded faith schools including academics, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of education, religious studies, policy, and politics of education, sociology, and philosophy.

ILS-Innovative Learning Space is a Summer School organised in 2016 by the Ecourbanlab research facility, founded by Massimo Faiferri within the DADU (Department of Architecture, Design and Urbanism) at the University of Sassari. It was formed as a project activity SPIN-APP: Innovative Learning Spaces (Regional Law No. 7 Promotion of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in Sardinia) in collaboration with the INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) and with contributions from Sardegna Ricerche through the project Scientific School 2015. The general objective of the Scientific School is as an innovative project for learning environments which can serve as a reference and model for the new realisation or adaptation of school education. To intervene on the project of school space means to reflect responsibly on the role that space itself covers in the dynamics of learning processes as well as to think about the renewal of the didactic organisation. The prerequisite is the articulation of a modular and multi-functional space suited to the subjective needs of the individual pathways of pupil skills, and which incorporates principles and material linked to good sustainable practices as their constituent elements, which can accept new technological tools as a form of enhancement of real space.

Featuring helpful checklists, models of good practice, templates and photocopiable resources that can be used in development work, this highly practical book will be an invaluable resource for anyone involved with implementing Every Child Matters in extended schools and children's centres.

As well as setting out roles and expectations, this unique book clearly and thoroughly explains how to:

• implement and meet the five ECM outcomes for well-being
• provide extended services and wraparound care
• work in partnership with agencies and private, voluntary and community sector providers
• quality-assure and evaluate the impact of provision and care
• self-review, monitor and evaluate the ECM outcomes in line with national standards and OFSTED.

From leaders and managers, to front-line staff and volunteers, everyone will find this step-by-step handbook packed with useful advice and suggestions for further reading, websites and resources.

Slow Teaching is a thoughtful exploration of how slowing down in all aspects of education can lead to improved student outcomes. It evaluates how this slow pedagogy will result in improved feedback, more nuanced and skilled classroom management and relationships, meaningful classroom dialogue, retention of knowledge and school leadership with attention to detail. It explores how to slowly deepen the craft of teaching to grow expert practitioners who are committed to mastering their practice. It also reflects on strategies that will enable teachers to feel calm, confident and organised in a profession that can often appear relentless.

Teaching the Global Dimension specifically responds to concerns such as inequality, justice, environment and conflict in chapters written by leading educationalists in the field. It explores both the theory and practice of global education today and provides:

• a framework for understanding global issues
• a model identifying the key elements of good practice
• insight into young people 's concerns for the world and the future
• tried and tested strategies for handling controversial global issues more confidently in the classroom
• key concepts for planning appropriate learning experiences
• a range of case studies which demonstrate the different ways in which a global dimension can be developed.

Inspiring, thought-provoking and highly practical, this book shows how teachers at any stage in their career can effectively and successfully bring a global dimension to the taught curriculum.

This volume--a major new contribution to Joel Spring's reportage and analysis of the intersection of global forces and education--offers a new paradigm for global school systems. Education for global economic competition is the prevailing goal of most national school systems. Spring argues that recent international studies by economists, social psychologists, and others on the social factors that support subjective well-being and longevity should serve as a call to arms to change education policy; the current industrial-consumer paradigm is not supportive of either happiness or long life.
Building his argument through an original documentation, synthesis, and critique of prevailing global economic goals for schools and research on social conditions that support happiness and long life, Spring:
*develops guidelines for a global core curriculum, methods of instruction, and school organizations;
*translates these guidelines into a new paradigm for global school systems based on progressive, human rights, and environmental educational traditions;
*contrasts differing ways of seeing and knowing among indigenous, Western, and Confucian-based societies, concluding that global teaching and learning involve a particular form of holistic knowing and seeing; and
*proposes a prototype for a global school--an eco-school that functions to protect the biosphere and human rights and to support the happiness and well-being of the school staff, students, and immediate community--and for a global core curriculum based on holistic models for lessons and instruction.
The book concludes with Spring's retelling of Plato's parable of the cave--in which educators break the chains thatbind them to the industrial-consumer paradigm and rethink their commitment to humanity's welfare.

As the federal government forces states to create centralized systems of accountability, the notion of a "community" school is now less and less defined by substantive decisions on core curriculum. Yet, the idea of a school as community survives, through the local politics of education or the policies of magnet and charter schools with small student populations. This collection explores the extent to which our collective notions of school-community relations have prevented us from speaking openly about the tensions created when we imagine schools as communities.

This edited collection considers Greek American formal and informal educational efforts, institutions, and programs, broadly conceived, as they evolved over time throughout the United States. The book's focus on Greek Americans aims to highlight the vast array of educational responses to local needs and contexts as this distinct, yet, heterogeneous immigrant community sought to maintain its linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage for over one hundred years. The chapters in this volume amend the scholarly literature that thus far has not only overlooked Greek American educational initiatives, but has also neglected to recognize and analyze the community's persistence in sustaining them. This book is an important contribution to an understanding of Greek Americans' long overdue history as a significant diaspora community within an American context.

This book presents changes in UK and global educational governance in the context of a radical shift in the operating logics of politics and its interaction with education. Beginning from the colonial origins of political interest in education, the author traces a fundamental shift in the patterns of governance of schools in England in the opening decades of the 21st century. Operating through the logics of public choice economics involving both real markets and quasi-markets, policy reforms have increasingly framed school values, and the value of schooling, in line with a politically determined and nostalgic discourse of 'British values'. This stands in contrast to a previous focus on 'community cohesion' which foregrounded school partnership with the parent community and wider society. Tracing the processes and mid-level actors mediating between government and school leaders, the author identifies processes of recontextualisation through which policy can be reinscribed and resisted.