In "Overcoming Religious Illiteracy," Harvard professor and Phillips Academy teacher Diane L. Moore argues that though the United States is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world, the vast majority of citizens are woefully ignorant about religion itself and the basic tenets of the world's major religious traditions. The consequences of this religious illiteracy are profound and include fueling the culture wars, curtailing historical understanding and promoting religious and racial bigotry. In this volume, Moore combines theory with practice to articulate how to incorporate the study of religion into the schools in ways that will invigorate classrooms and enhance democratic discourse in the public sphere.

"This is a major contribution to the field. Over the past twenty years there has been growing public concern about Islamic education in general and Muslim madrasas in particular. The latter have come to be seen as nurturers of Islamic radicalism, indeed, as training centers for jihadi militants and terrorists. This book makes the enormously important point to those who would wish to essentialize Islam or madrasas that Islamic education is profoundly shaped by local contexts as Muslims seek the best possible ways to grasp, live, and communicate a Muslim life."--Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London

"This book is outstanding in the breadth and maturity of scholarship it assembles on a subject of surpassing importance at once academically and in the wider world of public policy. The editors and contributors lay out a thought-provoking set of studies of educational practices, institutions, intellectual content, and debates about the past, present, and likely futures of Islamic education. The richness of these accounts should put paid to scholarly as well as political stereotyping of Islamic education--from the shibboleths of 'rote learning' to the association of madrasa with terrorism. This book is a must read for all scholars and researchers on Islam."--Jon W. Anderson, Catholic University of America

Mobile Learning in Schools explores the potential for using mobile devices in diverse school and college settings around the globe. It evaluates the exciting opportunities mobile initiatives bring and shares experience of where things can go wrong, in order to ensure that those embarking on new projects are fully informed. Drawing on a wide range of international perspectives, it unpicks knotty sociocultural issues, including lack of sustainability, behavioural and ethical concerns, and explores successful student learning. Key issues considered include: mobile learning in primary schools teaching and learning with mobile devices in secondary schools opportunities inside and outside school pedagogical principles and sustainability mobile learning for initial teacher training and CPD ethical considerations behaviour matters - disruption, plagiarism, cheating, cyberbullying assessing mobile learning. With annotated further reading and questions to trigger reflection and further discussion amongst readers, this thought-provoking text provides a detailed survey of this often controversial topic. It is essential reading for all those engaged in understanding the potential for using mobile devices to support students' learning.

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.

School Reform in a Global Society is about how a silent, wealthy upper class in the United States waited until the end of the Twentieth Century to transform America into something it once was during the Age of the Robber Barons. Known today as neoliberals, this nostalgic elite, craving the return of the unregulated capitalism of the nineteenth century, see themselves as the new Victorian imperialists. Using the term globalization to mean economic colonialism, their corporate policies force Third World governments, parents and children alike to accept schooling that disregards and damages their cultures. Even in the United States they discovered they could not create their nineteenth century imperial nirvana without first forcing schools to develop an obedient working class that swore allegiance to them. This social history of schools, capitalism, colonialism and its child named globalization is about how those who crave wealth and power are willing to gamble away the lives of American youth to satisfy their dreams of past economic glory.

This book considers in unprecedented detail one of the most confounding questions in American racial practice: when to speak about people in racial terms. Viewing "race talk" through the lens of a California high school and district, "Colormute" draws on three years of ethnographic research on everyday race labeling in education. Based on the author's experiences as a teacher as well as an anthropologist, it discusses the role race plays in everyday and policy talk about such familiar topics as discipline, achievement, curriculum reform, and educational inequality.

Pollock illustrates the wide variations in the way speakers use race labels. Sometimes people use them without thinking twice; at other moments they avoid them at all costs or use them only in the description of particular situations. While a major concern of everyday race talk in schools is that racial descriptions will be inaccurate or inappropriate, Pollock demonstrates that anxiously suppressing race words (being what she terms "colormute") can also cause educators to reproduce the very racial inequities they abhor.

The book assists readers in cultivating a greater understanding of the pitfalls and possibilities of everyday race talk and clarifies previously murky discussions of "colorblindness." By bridging the gap between theory and practice, "Colormute" will be enormously helpful in fostering ongoing conversations about dismantling racial inequality in America.

Peer learning allows a positive use of differences between pupils, turning them into learning opportunities. Yet education professionals often remain unfamiliar with the principles necessary to guarantee its effectiveness. The aim of this book is to help practitioners establish well-structured and effective peer learning projects using a variety of methods. It introduces and defines cooperative learning (mutual peer interaction) and peer tutoring (directional peer interaction) - outlining general organisational principles that will help practitioners implement peer learning in either of these forms. The authors consider how to prepare and train learners to undertake their roles effectively, and how to organise and monitor the process of interaction as it is happening. They then look at how these systems actually operate in the classroom, exploring how the organisational principles work in practice and giving many practical examples. Subsequently three successive chapters consider how to structure peer interactions in cooperative learning, same-age peer tutoring and cross-age peer tutoring. Finally, the advantages and problems, and the potential and challenges, of peer learning are examined. The book should be read in stages, with each part being able to be read on its own - thus providing time for reflection. Within each part, readers can choose to focus on cooperative learning or peer tutoring. The successive focuses on definitions, general principles of implementation and practical issues of implementation should help practitioners build their skills and confidence. Many choices between methods are described, and when teachers are confident in one method they may then consider trying a new method. It is the authors' hope that the book will become a model for peer learning by sharing with readers the skills of other practitioners, and thereby helping all children to develop to their full potential.

Within the past few years, schools, communities, and parents throughout the world, have begun to recognize that bullying is not something that can be ignored with dismissive comments or admonitions. There is no doubt that school violence is a critical problem in America's schools and bullying is a maladaptive behavior with consequences. Bullying can be reduced, but first, educators and parents must recognize the pervasive nature of the problem. This easy-to-read book describes the problem of bullying at all school levels-elementary, middle, and high. Chapters include different types of bullying that occur and how they effect the bully, the bullied, and the bystander. The authors report the results of many studies including personal research to discuss incidences of bullying at school, and list of sources for preventing and intervening to reduce this type of misbehavior are included. For K-12 educators, professors of education, and parents.

There are no magical prescriptions for success as a school leader, but Joe Batory's exemplary career as a superintendent provides ample examples of effective leadership. He truly 'Lets it All Hang Out' in this very revealing portrait of the human side of an award-winning superintendent. Beyond the issues of school leadership, Joey addresses the complexities of public education_the goals, aspirations, and ideals; the special qualities of the people who work inside schools, and the propaganda that surround them. This book will appeal to anyone who cares about education in America.

Catch a new vision of leadership that fosters school communities that are socially just and academically excellent with this accessible guide. It combines promising theoretical perspectives with stories about practitioners and schools across the United States, Canada, and in the South Pacific (Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand) to show how, in many varied contexts, leaders are making a difference. Good Intentions Are Not Enough, is designed to raise the awareness of all concerned citizens about how to develop schools with diverse populations. Comprehensive and research-based, this book offers theories and practical ideas helpful to both teachers and administrators.

At least 24 state legislatures have authorized state takeovers of local schools. This handbook assumes that state legislatures will continue endorsing takeovers as state policy, which begs an important question: how can takeovers be made effective? Garland argues that those who execute takeovers should expect a mess_racial, legal, political, and bureaucratic. This book serves as a first and chief resource for those interested in state takeovers of local school districts including a persuasive description of effective legislation, a strategy for implementation, and a comprehensive and well-researched compilation of takeover experiences. The main message is a warning that takeovers always cause turbulent waters but the author presses on to draft a strategy for more effectively navigating these waters. Will be of interest to parents, teachers, administrators, academics, students, and policymakers.

This comprehensive look at Chinese-heritage students' academic, sociocultural, and emotional development in the public schools examines pertinent educational theories; complex (even inconvenient) realities; learning practices in and outside of schools; and social, cultural, and linguistic complications in their academic lives across diverse settings, homes, and communities. Chinese-heritage students are by far the largest ethnic group among Asian American and Asian Canadian communities, but it is difficult to sort out their academic performance because NAEP and most state/province databases lump all Asian students' results together. To better understand why Chinese-heritage learners range from academic role models to problematic students in need of help, it is important to understand their hearts and minds beyond test scores. This book is distinctive in building this understanding by addressing the range of issues related to Chinese-heritage K-12 students' languages, cultures, identities, academic achievements, and challenges across North American schools.

A strategic plan is a useful tool for communicating the purpose of the library media center (LMC) to the administrators, teachers, and parents of the school community. An initial benefit is an assessment of the library program's strengths, weaknesses, and impact on the teaching and learning process. The library media specialist should use the planning process to garner greater support, identify priorities for future direction, provide the basis for effective budget development, and articulate the LMC's integral role in the school's instructional program. Based on Information Power, as well as input from focus groups of librarians, computer educators, teachers, administrators, and parents, the authors identified a core of the essential elements found in quality library media programs. Rubrics developed for this core provide a foundation for developing and prioritizing goals and objectives, as well as tools for ongoing evaluation. School library media centers, often short of time and staff, will welcome this easy-to-follow blueprint, packed with forms, questions to consider, templates, rubrics, and charts. From forming a committee and constructing surveys, to good PR and a consistent evaluation process, this essential handbook provides the tools to create a visionary mission statement, the strategic plan that embodies it, and the steps to implement it.

Do principals see themselves as others see them? Many new and veteran principals remark that one cannot truly know what it means to be a principal until you are one. However, most people have developed their own perceptions of the role of a principal based on their direct experience. Sharon Pristash describes the various perceptions of the principalship based on interviews with students, teachers, parents, and community members. She also offers some implications these perceptions might have for the profession. Viewpoints of practicing or former principals are included allowing the reader to compare and contrast the public and personal view of the profession. Whether novice or veteran principal, there's something for everyone in this fascinating study.

If you have more questions than answers about online learning for K-12 students, then you need this comprehensive guide that takes you through all of the planning and implementation steps need to go from vision to actual delivery of online courses. Clearly written and incorporating useful aids such as a timeline for planning and creating your online program, this book provides information on evaluating online courses, how-to successfully mentor students online, and some opportunities and services that will enhance the online program. More multi-layered than step-by-step, the process described involves working in many areas simultaneously. Superintendents, board members, administrators, and teachers can successfully pull all of the pieces together with this book as their guide.

This is a time of far-reaching change and debate in American education and social policy, spurred in part by a rediscovery that civil-society institutions are often better than government at meeting human needs. As Charles Glenn shows in this book, faith-based schools and social agencies have been particularly effective, especially in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable. However, many oppose providing public funds for religious institutions, either on the grounds that it would threaten the constitutional separation of church and state or from concern it might dilute or secularize the distinctive character of the institutions themselves. Glenn tackles these arguments head on. He builds a uniquely comprehensive and persuasive case for faith-based organizations playing a far more active role in American schools and social agencies. And, most importantly, he shows that they could do so both while receiving public funds and while striking a workable balance between accountability and autonomy.

Glenn is ideally placed to make this argument. A leading expert on international education policies, he was for many years the director of urban education and civil rights for the Massachusetts Department of Education, and also serves as an Associate Minister of inner-city churches in Boston. Glenn draws on all his varied experience here as he reviews the policies and practices of governments in the United States and Europe as they have worked with faith-based schools and also with such social agencies as the Salvation Army and Teen Challenge. He seeks to answer key theoretical and practical questions: Why should government make greater use of faith-based providers? How could they do so without violating First Amendment limits? What working relationships protect the goals and standards both of government and of the organizations that the government funds? Glenn shows that, with appropriate forms of accountability and a strong commitment to a distinctive vision of service, faith-based organizations can collaborate safely with government, to their mutual benefit and that of those they serve. This is a major contribution to one of the most important topics in political and social debate today.

Unlike other humanistic disciplines, the academic study of religion must contend with a phenomenon that touches every dimension of human experience. For scholars so engaged, the study of religion often becomes a cross-cultural as well as a necessarily interdisciplinary endeavor. In this collection of original essays, Jon R. Stone has brought together the intellectual autobiographies of fourteen senior scholars--all with national or international reputations in their respective fields--each of whom reflects upon his or her own theoretical assumptions and methodological approaches to the study of religion. Taken together, these essays represent the variety of research methods and interpretive rigor mature scholars bring to the task of examining religious phenomena, religious actions, religious movements, and religious ideas.

This easy-to-read book integrates research and performance-based concepts in order to demystify and debunk the conventional wisdom about education. For many years, education has been beset by myths - myths that it can't be fixed with new concepts, that it takes specialists to diagnose what's wrong, that research doesn't reflect the real world, that the lessons of business cannot be generalized to education. This book takes on these misunderstandings and shows precisely what educators may do in order to overcome them. Educators will find Salowe and Lessinger's advice to be a rational, sober, and research-based approach to an often-debated topic.

This book presents, in 11 chapters, a comprehensive look at the school superintendent that will be welcomed in the fields of education management and policy. Many different perspectives are represented: studying the school manager (Glass, Kowalski, and Glasman), minorities in the profession (Ortiz and Brunner), and the radical decentralization of the British school system under Thatch and Major (Campell, Powell, and Parker). Legal positions and collective bargaining are also discussed to great effect. Professors, public school educators, and policymakers should all find this book useful due to the critical nature of the superintendency.

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.

Journey to a High-Achieving School: Eliminate Destructive Excuses examines the range of devastating excuses often expressed for failure to attain significant improvement in our schools. Using the methods of systems thinking and leadership practices that are employed in high-performing organizations of all kinds, this book shows concretely and specifically that what is at the root of these excuses can be overcome. The core ideas at work in the volume are based on the authors' well-regarded Academy for Education Leaders, an intensive course of seminars conducted for school superintendents, principals, and other educational leaders for the past several years. This is not a "quick fix" manual offering magic wands or silver bullets. It is a carefully-structured guidebook that can clearly and demonstrably help educational leaders at all levels of accountability begin to build a serious culture of excellence within their schools and school districts. Improvement will take time, but as the processes become familiar, school leaders can uncover and address the complex, but confused assumptions that keep standing in the way of the substantial and measurable improvements that must be made for our society's educational future.

Stop talking about wellbeing, and start taking action to own your workload. As the teacher retention crisis reaches breaking point, and mental health for teachers features regularly in the press, wellbeing has been pushed to the top of the national agenda in a bid for schools to consider how to look after their staff. However, wellbeing is becoming a tokenistic feature within the education sector, as staff participate in compulsory wellbeing-linked activities that have very little impact on their workload or ability to do what they came into the profession to achieve: inspiring young people. In a critical consideration of a range of educational research, Kat explores the key factors that form a teacher's role within school, outlining a range of ways that teachers can take ownership of their workload, and wellbeing through a sense of true job fulfilment. Interviewing expert teachers in their field and taking a Kat provides practical strategies for teachers at any point of their career to take away and implement immediately, in a bid to improve the educational landscape for teachers everywhere.

The aim of this book, "Mentoring in Schools: The Way to Succeed" by Pam and John Richardson, is to provide an aide memoire for mentors of young people with a ready reference for safe and effective mentoring best practice. Every year of a young person's education is an important step on their path to becoming a valuable member of society. Every step they take is moving them nearer to living a happy and fulfilling life. That is the ideal situation for our young people. However, it is not always the reality. Modern day life can present all sorts of challenges that young people have to cope with whilst they try to get a good education. Do we need to list them? NO No young person goes to school determined to fail and yet this can be the outcome for all too many these days. So what can be done to help young people to achieve despite the challenges that they may face? Mentoring has for a long time been seen as a way of helping people to fulfil their potential. This book will be a useful reference to support those people mentoring young people in any setting,