Dr Dylan Wiliam is the world's foremost authority on formative assessment and has worked for years to improve the state of education in the US and abroad. Through his experience teaching in classrooms, leading schools, and directing research, Dr Wiliam has found there is no simple solution to school improvement that works in every classroom every time - but there are measures that can improve the odds of success. In Creating the Schools Our Children Need, Dr Wiliam breaks down the methods schools use to improve, and the gaps between what research tells us works and what we actually do. Dr Wiliam analyzes the three real, implementable improvements that are proven to be factors in school success: Building a curriculum focused on developing knowledge Supporting a culture where every teacher improves Applying a framework for evaluating new district initiatives Solutions to the problem of improving education for our children require each school district to make smart decisions about what will make the most difference in their district. In order to create the schools our children need, leaders must understand why what we're doing right now really won't help much, and critically, what we can do instead.

This book analyzes curriculum studies in Turkey from the perspective of three paradigms-religion, science, and ideology-since the early 19th century. Using Islam as a guiding point, Turkish curriculum theory later evolved to become the classical curriculum theory. In this book, the author presents a historical account of the long, complex, and contested evolution of the Turkish curriculum, as shaped by the intellectual and international forces of the day. This interplay is designed to inform international curriculum studies across national borders.

School libraries stand at the forefront of innovation in education. Yet many teachers and administrators do not know what to make of them, much less how to best utilize their varied and valuable resources. What if school librarians, whose field of practice has transformed in the past few decades, could show us excellent models for innovative teaching? What if the vital adaptations that school librarians have made could help other educators evolve? What if the lessons learned in the library could be scaled up to benefit all fields of practice and all students? The 21st Century School Library takes an in-depth look at the paradigm-shifting work that school libraries are doing to advance student learning, professional development, and school-wide engagement. It explains how library-led, forward-thinking initiatives can guide all educators - teachers and administrators alike - toward transformative educational practices. It is an inspiring survey of 21st century school libraries whose guiding principles also serve as a blueprint for innovation in K-12 education. School libraries - and all the educators associated with them - offer a compelling vision for the future of K-12 education. This book is a roadmap for how to make this vision a reality.

This book, the first on the growing phenomenon of private full-time K-12 Muslim schools in France, investigates whether these schools participate in the communautarisme (or ethnic/cultural separatism) that Muslims are often accused of or if their founding is a sign of integration, given that most of private education in France is subsidized by the government. Is Islam compatible with the West? This study proposes an answer to this question through the lens of Muslim education in France, adding to our understanding of the so-called resurgence of religion following the demise of the secularization theory and shedding new light on religion's place in the West and of Islam in diasporic contexts.

The Influential School Leader is a unique, accessible guide for any leader seeking to improve their vision and positively influence school communities in the face of adversity. A successful school today requires a nimble learning environment that is supportive, welcoming, and inspiring for teachers, students, and families. Based on numerous contributions from social and organizational psychology, this book provides a dynamic framework that prepares education stakeholders to examine problems from multiple perspectives and dimensions to create durable solutions. An ideal resource for principals, superintendents, department heads, school psychologists, and other educators in positions of leadership, this expansive toolkit is packed with pragmatic strategies and relatable vignettes.

Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform features the most current empirical research about the successes and challenges of the small schools movement and the implications of such for urban public educational policy. Situated in a climate of hierarchical reform, many of the principles of the original small schools movement-which are rooted in community participation, innovative pedagogies and assessment, and equity and social justice-have become obscured by an educational agenda that emphasizes top-down mandates and standards-based reform. With the increased popularity and the rapid proliferation of small schools, the emphasis on 'size only' has resulted in a bifurcation of the small schools movement; on one end are the small schools which have embraced the democratic, participatory, and self-governing nature of the original movement, while on the other end are schools that have simply reduced their size without rethinking school structures and practices. This book distinguishes the small schools featured and researched in this volume from schools that are simply small and labels them "critical small schools." By documenting the practices that take place in various critical small schools in New York City, we show how these schools have narrowed the achievement gap and increased graduation and college acceptance rates. Although smallness is an essential feature in the design of these schools, it is certainly not the only one and this volume illuminates the other elements that contribute to these schools' successes and shortcomings. Critical Small Schools also challenges the recent emphasis on charter schools as a panacea for urban educational reform. By featuring research about the inner workings of public schools, this volume challenges this new direction that steers successful school development away from public education. Moreover, as every site is fraught with some tension, Critical Small Schools not only offers glimpses into intellectually vibrant and democratic learning communities, but also acknowledges that these concepts are not static and necessitate continual reflection and renewal. At this pivotal moment in educational reform, this volume provides keen insight into the challenges and possibilities of the small schools movement and is indispensable for anyone interested in comprehensive public school reform.

This book marks the centenary of the first Waldorf School, established by Rudolf Steiner in Stuttgart in 1919. With around 1,150 Waldorf Schools and over 1,800 Waldorf Kindergartens established in over 60 countries, this book examines and analyses how the initial impulse of Steiner education has grown over the last century to become a worldwide alternative movement in education. The author documents and compares the growth and development of Waldorf schools and Steiner-inspired educational institutions around the world, and determines the extent to which the original underpinning philosophy has been maintained against the contexts and challenges of contemporary global trends in education. Within such diverse international contexts, it is significant that the schools retain such a distinctive identity, and clearly redefine how 'alternative education' can be viewed. This comprehensive volume will be of interest and value to scholars of Steiner education and Waldorf schools as well as alternative education more widely.

This how-to resource provides leaders with a concrete framework for a strategic improvement plan, helping educators link the "principles" to "processes" of planning. Packed with key takeaways and additional resources, this book provides the concrete tools to design a strong strategy for improvement and enables educational leaders to think constructively about why we plan, what an effective strategic plan should contain, and how to create meaningful dialogue to support plan development, implementation, and monitoring for continuous improvement. The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders provides superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teacher leaders with the opportunity to reframe the process of their strategic planning and breathe new life into the activity.

This how-to resource provides leaders with a concrete framework for a strategic improvement plan, helping educators link the "principles" to "processes" of planning. Packed with key takeaways and additional resources, this book provides the concrete tools to design a strong strategy for improvement and enables educational leaders to think constructively about why we plan, what an effective strategic plan should contain, and how to create meaningful dialogue to support plan development, implementation, and monitoring for continuous improvement. The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders provides superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teacher leaders with the opportunity to reframe the process of their strategic planning and breathe new life into the activity.

Completely updated, the 3rd edition of this practical, highly portable manual offers quick access to the most relevant health and wellness information for children -- from birth through age 21 - in the school setting. You'll find valuable guidance on developmental stages, learning domains, acute and chronic illnesses, first aid, medical syndromes, special education, and emergency illness. This edition also addresses the growing array of issues affecting today's children, including mental health disorders, disaster management, substance abuse, and school violence, as well as new threats such as West Nile virus, dermatological conditions, and the reemergence of tuberculosis. Ideal for use in school and community settings, this manual is a must-have resource for anyone who works with children. A best practice approach to health issues and concerns helps you provide the best possible care to students. A clear, consistent outline format and straightforward writing style make it easy to locate and apply essential information. Updated content includes important contemporary issues in schools, such as body piercing, backpack syndrome, and computer ergonomics. Brain Findings section offers relevant information about recent brain and neurology research, with insights on how it relates to childhood development and health. Numerous appendices, including the latest growth charts and immunization schedules, provide essential information for assessing school age children. English-Spanish translation guide for common health terms and phrases helps you communicate more effectively with Hispanic students. Web site resources at the end of each chapter provide reliable sources for further information and research. A convenient Glossary familiarizes you with important terminology and definitions used throughout the book. New, user-friendly design helps you find key information quickly with helpful boxes, tables, and headings. New 8-page color insert serves as an instant visual reference to help you identify rashes, skin lesions, and other dermatological conditions that are common among school-age children. A separate chapter on first aid walks you through the management of common injuries and emergency situations. Revised mental health chapter presents current, detailed information on the major mental disorders that affect school-age children such as depression, autism, and Asperger's, with an extensive psychotropic medication table. A new chapter devoted to disaster management includes the latest information on bioterrorism and homeland security threats to help you create an action plan for disaster situations. A revised chapter on violence addresses sexual assault, self-mutilation, suicide, domestic violence, and violence in the schools, to help you stay informed about current societal trends, issues, and developments. New information on teen pregnancy offers helpful guidelines on communicating with students about this important issue.

Creating the Ideal School is the only comprehensive guide available that provides all the tools necessary to create an ideal school. There are many education books out there but most are specific to one aspect of school improvement and do not provide a systemic framework or a total approach. This book does, and it is based on expertise that was developed and implemented in a real school district with impressive results by author Albert Mamary. Under the author's leadership, an under-achieving and troubled upstate New York school district was transformed into a nationally validated high-performing school system, and Dr. Mamary was credited with creating the first and only comprehensive systemic framework for quality learning and school improvement. This book will be of interest to teachers and administrators who are interested in making profound improvements in education.

In this edited volume, authors analyze how symbolic boundaries of belonging are negotiated and reflected upon by school actors in different educational contexts and how that contributes to a richer understanding of the ways in which "we-ness" acts as a fundamentally structuring force in immigrant incorporation. The analyses draw on cultural sociologist Jeffrey Alexander's work on civil sphere theory, thus grasping both the solidaristic dimensions of incorporation and processes of exclusion. Chapters are guided by two major themes: school choice/ethnic school segregation and religion/faith in schooling. Both of these themes provide rich examples of how immigrant school actors negotiate the symbolic codes that define boundaries of belonging/non-belonging in different communities. This focus will broaden the understanding of how educational practices and formal schooling works in relation to immigrant incorporation into different school cultures, as well as in the Swedish civil sphere.

Lopsided Schools introduces readers to the case method and helps the reader to use the case method to examine the scholastic challenges that critics posed from World War I to the present. Some critics have stirred up educators with threats to reduce their budgets or fire them. Others upset them with disconcerting questions. Should parents demand that their children learn speed reading? Should teachers emphasize vocational activities? Should principals train their own successors? Should superintendents award bonuses to teachers? Should employers hire the graduates with the highest scores on standardized tests? Should politicians assume greater responsibility for schooling? Should journalists publicize information about lopsided schools? This book examines these and the numerous other questions that critics posed.

This book discusses how East Asia has introduced school and curricular reform to reflect democratic citizenship and globalized skills, knowledge, dispositions, and competencies in the 21st century. It also focuses on the tendencies and reasons students from Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore receive the highest scores in international students' assessment such as PISA and TIMSS; yet their curiosity and motivation for learning are the lowest internationally. Moreover, Indonesian and Vietnamese students are likely to receive the lowest testing scores, yet their motivation for learning is quite high. It is worth investigating high academic achievement in East Asia in light of the trend towards democratization. The authors consider controversial issues such as whether the goals of democratic education should be the attainment of high academic scores, consideration of whether to implement competency-based curriculums or meritocratic systems of academic competition, and the provision of equal opportunities in the community of learning. The book illuminates each country's struggle to realise school reform on the basis of its social and cultural settings, and looks at what connects East Asia's past, present, and future.

The ideal resource for school counseling field experiences, the updated and expanded third edition of A Guide to Practicum and Internship for School Counselors-in-Training covers all aspects of the practicum and internship experience from the initial contact with supervisors to detailed descriptions of students' different roles. Readers will gain an awareness of school culture and the understanding needed to develop an individualized philosophy of school counseling. Each chapter contains activities, case studies, worksheets, and images to facilitate understanding, and all material is consistent with both the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) 2016 Common Core and School Counselor Entry-Level Specialty Areas and the school counselor standards identified by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). Specific focus is given to strategies for implementing the ASCA National Model (4th edition) as a part of clinical experiences. This text can be used by faculty, students, and supervisors alike to support and enhance the school counseling knowledge base used to meet the needs of all students.

Despite their close geographic and cultural ties, Indonesia and Malaysia have dramatically different Islamic education, with that in Indonesia being relatively decentralized and discursively diverse, while that in Malaysia is centralized and discursively restricted. The book explores the nature of the Islamic education systems in Indonesia and Malaysia and the different approaches taken by these states in managing these systems. The book argues that the post-colonial state in Malaysia has been more successful in centralising its control over Islamic education, and more concerned with promoting a restrictive orthodoxy, compared to the post-colonial state in Indonesia. This is due to three factors: the ideological makeup of the state institutions that oversee Islamic education; patterns of societal Islamisation that have prompted different responses from the states; and control of resources by the central government that influences centre-periphery relations. Informed by the theoretical works of state-in-society relations and historical institutionalism, this book shows that the three aforementioned factors can help a state to minimize influence from the society and exert its dominance, in this case by centralising control over Islamic education. Specifically, they help us understand the markedly different landscapes of Islamic education in Malaysia and Indonesia. It will be of interest to academics in the field of Southeast Asian Studies, Asian Education and Comparative Education.

As economies across the world continue to struggle, there is growing evidence that the vulnerable in society, especially children, are paying the greatest cost in terms of reduced opportunities for access to equitable life chances, the most vital of these being education. Juxtaposing the ongoing failure of education systems to address disadvantage with the widespread belief in the vital importance of the training of teachers raises another issue, namely that remarkably little is known about the effective preparation of pre-service teachers to ameliorate educational disadvantage and, additionally, that little attention appears to be given to this in most teacher preparation programmes. This book attempts to redress this balance and is structured by three themes that focus on national policy, pre-service teacher preparation programmes and individual pre-service teachers. The book reveals a disheartening picture of complex patterns of inequality across and within individual countries, together with an incomplete understanding of the intersectional mechanisms - political, ideological, social and cultural - that link poverty and educational disadvantage. Contributions from five different countries, however, provide evidence of positive signs that interesting, innovative and intellectually sound developments are happening at a local level and offer a valuable contribution to the debate about how teacher education can create levers for change. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Education for Teaching.

First published in 1992. At one level, this book is about the care and education of children with very special needs. The needs result from emotional damage which impinges on their lives both at school and at home. At another level, it is about the development of a holistic approach to education - applicable to all children generally. The first part of the book describes the Raddery experience - a school set up in 1979 based on a holistic and therapeutic community approach to children with special needs. The second part of the book examines the implications of the Raddery experience for educational and child-care policy and practice at a time when there has been growing emphasis on integrating children with special needs into mainstream schools. Are the needs of the children at Raddery very different from others who have been successfully retained in normal classes? If Raddery, and schools like it, have a particular contribution, what is their secret? Can it be shared with ordinary schools?

Tackle underlying issues to get to the root of bullying By reframing bullying prevention, you can make significant progress in addressing the underlying issues causing bullying and aggression in your school. In this resource, James Dillon digs into the work that busy educators often have little time for: translating rich and insightful research on the dynamics of change into practical terms. He probes deeply into the issues and why they persist in our schools to promote meaningful conversation among school staff and parents. Inside you'll find Vignettes, analogies, and real-life examples along with tools that illustrate the benefits of using alternative methods to prevent bullying Discussion on transforming the role of discipline to reframe bullying among teachers, administrators, and students Key ideas and concepts summarized in easy-to-understand bullet points and charts Guidance on how to establish a school climate that promotes empathy and compassion instead of fear Reframing bullying prevention will allow competent and caring educators, students, and parents to not just stop bullying, but to improve the learning environment for all students.

Design thinking is a human-centered problem-solving process that organizations can use to address wicked and complex problems of practice. Within the PK-12 space, design thinking has been employed to engage educators in an innovative approach to address challenges like curriculum redesign, instructional engagement, and designing physical spaces. The use of design thinking in the PK-12 space is a result of the evolution of an organizational improvement process that puts people at the center of problem-solving initiatives. Design thinking is seen as both a process and a mindset that enables people to look at problems in new ways and address these problems through creative approaches. In this book we share case studies of PK-12 schools and other educational organizations that have used design thinking, as well as research studies that have studied aspects of design thinking in the PK-12 space. We have brought together a variety of research-based and illustrative case studies around design thinking in PK-12 education that explore the development and implementation of design thinking in practice.

Shows educators and administrators how they can fill their classrooms with students who are eager for success and motivated to learn. The learner-centered approach focuses on designing instruction that is sensitive to the individual students needs, abilities, and interests rather than rigidly tied to the subject matter.

The ultimate guide to understanding how a school can be led, managed and run, written by an author with extensive experience, and drawing heavily on research around knowledge-based curricula.Cleary and honestly stating the challenges of leading a school, Samuel Strickland focuses on approaches to the curriculum, teaching and learning, teacher workload, behavior, staff morale, leadership and Ofsted.

Losing America's Schools: The Fight to Reclaim Public Education is a call to save one of the last great democratic institutions in America. Corporatization, charter schools, misleading claims of skill gaps, the loss of Separation of Church and State, deprofessionalization, and the over-use of technology all threaten the existence of the schools that belong to all Americans. This book addresses the problems surrounding those issues, and is a tribute to the groups and individuals who are fighting draconian reforms in order to save our public schools. It is the sequel to Misguided Education Reform: Debating the Impact on Students.

Although in plain sight daily, a highly successful war against the public schools has been hidden in the shadows of public consciousness. Only very recently have several people written articles about this war, with the only book calling it a war being written in 2002. Neither the public nor educators have become aware of the far-reaching extent and effectiveness of this war. This book treats this war as part of an extensive social movement that is conducting wars also against government and science, as well as against women, immigrants, the poor (but not against poverty), and, certainly, against unions. However, the book focuses on the war against the public schools. It sets the stage in Chapter One, Checklist for Destroying Public Education, followed by Chapter Two, How the War Plays Out on the Battlefield - Seven Examples that illustrate and prove the thesis. One example involves a private for-profit company that took over a school district in Michigan, but found that they couldn't make a profit running the high school. So what did they do? They simply closed it, leaving the students high and dry. We provide a chapter analyzing the considerable profits being made by entrepreneurs, businessmen, politicians, testing companies and charter schools. We then describe and analyze the overt and covert attacks on our kids, on teachers and on public schools, such as the clever idea of grading schools A, B, C, D, or F, thereby undermining public confidence in their local schools. We focus on the arsenal of weapons aimed at the public schools, such as privatization, intrusion of politicians into educational decision-making, vouchers, using merit pay and Value-Added Models (VAMs) to evaluate teachers, charter schools, extremely intensive testing, the standards movement, etc. We look at unintended consequences and conclude with attempts at peaceful resolutions and developing reconciliation strategies.

Education and Muslim Identity During a Time of Tension explores life inside an Islamic Center and school in present-day America. Melanie Brooks' work draws on in-depth discussions with community and school leaders, teachers, parents and students to present thoughtful and contemporary perspectives on many issues central to American-Muslim identities. Particularly poignant are the children's voices, as they discuss their developing identities and how they navigate the choice of being American, Muslim, or both. The book covers topics ranging from establishing the community and the considerations involved, the management of diversity within the community, and approaches to modern opinions on and experiences of gender and extremism in the western world. Based on focus groups, interviews and observations collected over a two-year period, this book serves as a fascinating and informative insight into the culture and experiences of modern American Muslims. This is essential reading for students and researchers interested in education, religion, politics, sociology, and most particularly in contemporary Islamic studies.