An exploration of the variables that contribute to the improvement of literacy instruction in large urban school districts. The text grew out of a five-year initiative known as The Dallas Reading Plan - a 50 million dollar collaborative effort between area business and corporate interests, philanthropy, and the Dallas Independent School District. Features include: an analysis of systemic reform factors from the varied viewpoints of key stakeholders (such as change management experts, university scholars, school leaders, teachers, and educational researchers) involved in the improvement of urban literacy education in a major school district; concise reporting on the effects of long-term teacher development programmes built upon scientific research; quantitative and qualitative research data on the improvement of teacher performance in literacy instruction gathered over a five-year period. systemic reform efforts in urban settings; insights into the benefits of principal training as part of creating effective school-wide literacy programmes; and data showing that previously ineffective teachers can become effective literacy educators through deep and sustained professional development.

Education and Conflict is a critical review of education in an international context. Based on the author's extensive research and experience of education in several areas afflicted by conflict, the book explores the relationship between schooling and social conflict and looks at conflict internal to schools. It posits a direct link between the ethos of a school and the attitudes of future citizens towards 'others'. It also looks at the nature and purpose of peace education and war education, and addresses the role of gender and masculinity.
In five lucid, vigorously argued sections, the author brings this thought-provoking and original piece of work to life by:
* Setting out the terms of the debate, defining conflict and peace and outlining the relevant aspects of complexity theory for education
* Exploring the sources of conflict and their relations to schooling in terms of gender/masculinity, pluralism, nationalism and identity
* Focusing on the direct education/war interface
* Examining educational responses to conflict
* Highlighting conflict resolution within the school itself.
This is the first time that so many aspects of conflict and education have been brought together in one sustained argument. With its crucial exposure of the currently culpable role of formal schooling in maintaining conflict, this book will be a powerful and essential read for educational policy makers, managers, teachers and researchers dealing with conflict in their own contexts.

New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., Oxford, Wien. Following an outline of the origins of the concept of ethos as it is found in the writings of Aristotle and Plato, James Norman examines the Catholic Church's understanding of ethos in post-Vatican II educational documents and compares this understanding with the Irish Catholic Church's approach to school ethos. Based on his own experience and research, Norman suggests new possibilities for the development of ethos in Catholic schools.

Providing a practical guide to strategic management in the field of special educational needs, this text gives the reader a framework for raising achievement throughout the school.

By focusing on how to manage SEN strategically, rather than on planning for individual children, it shows how you can make it part of the overall school improvement process.

The text also provides tools that SENCOs, headteachers and governors can use to analyze data, set objectives, measure and evaluate outcomes for SEN just as they do for other areas of the curriculum. Included are sections on: school self-evaluation; school development plans; the evidence base for different forms of provision; developing staff; and how to minimize bureaucracy.

Helpful for OFSTED planning and securing best value, "Special Educational Needs and School Improvement" also enables schools to target limited resources where they should have most impact on promoting inclusion and raising attainment for all.

Education is a values-based experience. Consciously or not, we are highly attuned to one another's values. We see, time and again, that the 'best' schools are compelled and propelled by strong values which inspire and guide the creation of a meaningful context for learning and an aspirational ethos. However, values can often be submerged, overlooked, or ignored. By infusing our teaching with values, both explicit and implicit, learning can serve a greater purpose, nourishing us as humans and deepening our experience. Drawing on the views and inspired teaching practice of a range of contributors, this book offers both the theoretical underpinning and practical examples to bring values to life in the classroom. It shows how each subject has a unique and valuable role, and how a values-based culture generates a powerful climate for successful learning in every subject discipline. It is a 'bedside book' that will bring joy and practical support to the many professionals who work from the heart and wish to touch the future. It offers validation to those teachers who deeply care about the subject disciplines they teach, ultimately making a difference to children, their lives, and their world. In our current educational context, this work is unashamedly people-orientated, futures-thinking, and forward-facing.

'It's stimulating stuff: more of a guide to reflection, perhaps, than to action, but encouraging none the less as a counterblast to the control-and-command mentality that characterises mosr education policy and practice today.' - Michael Duffy, TES

'It's stimulating stuff: more of a guide to reflection, perhaps, than to action, but encouraging none the less as a counterblast to the control-and-command mentality that characterises mosr education policy and practice today.' - Michael Duffy, TES

Addressing leadership issues in American schools, this volume examines various strategies for creating inclusive schools, including zero tolerance policies, teachers' perceptions of African American principals' leadership in urban schools, and perceptions of intergroup conflict.

First published in 1997, this study examines the trend towards markets in UK schools, with a particular focus on fee-paying schools in South Wales, by outlining the varied economic and political arguments both for and against increased parental choice and exploring parents' real reasons for using fee-paying schools. Stephen Gorard destroys the cosy myth that fee-paying schools are large, successful, charitable institutions catering chiefly for a select group of privileged families. Instead, he reveals them as typically privately owned, coeducational and with fewer than a hundred pupils, based in a poorly-converted residential site with few facilities. It is the first book which allows children's voices to be heard fully in the context of debates on the choice of a new school. Gorard has gathered the voices of parents and children via observation, interview and survey, comparing them directly and revealing stark differences in the perception of each generation.

"Ensuring Safe School Environments: Exploring Issues--Seeking Solutions" presents research findings and information about school violence, with a focus on strategies for increasing school safety. Based on a special topical issue of "Rural Special Education Quarterly," the original journal articles have been rewritten to address safe schools from the perspective of suburban and urban, as well as rural environments. Topics include the frequency of violence in these different settings; violence as it directly impacts school administrators; strategies for preventing and addressing violence at both the school and individual levels; and ways to work with the community both in and out of schools. Part I focuses on issues. In Part II, solutions that have been used to deal with youth violence are offered for readers to consider, including chapters on effective conflict management practices, behavioral support plans, school-community relations, the development of a caring school community as a way to decrease tendencies toward violence, and a model which demonstrates an in-practice, state-wide program designed to assist in the development of a community-focused school. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions and a case study to enhance understanding of and reflection on the issues surrounding school violence.
The text is intended as supplementary material for any course preparing school administrators. Presenting both research and practice, the text can be a guide for practicing school administrators in their search for ways to insure the safety and well being of the students whom they serve, as well as a resource for individuals in other community-based human service agencies who deal with school violence.

Self-evaluation is going global. This book describes what happened when teams of school students from across the world embarked on the trip of a lifetime to explore the school lives of their international contemporaries.
The students involved in The Learning School project used a variety of tools to evaluate the learning, motivation and self-evaluation abilities of school students in the UK, Sweden, Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic, South Africa and South Korea. From the easy freedom of the Swedish school to the highly structured day in the Czech Republic, this study shows that success and effectiveness in education really is in the eye of the beholder.
The results of this study have significant implications for school leaders and managers, policy makers and academics, and all those concerned with school improvement. This lively and accessible book makes intriguing and important reading, raising fundamental questions about how we judge quality and effectiveness in teaching and learning.

This book investigates the anti-semitic foundations of Nazi curricula for elementary schools, with a focus on the subjects of biology, history, geography, race hygiene and literature. The author argues that any study of Nazi society and its values must probe the education provided by the regime in order to understand how the official knowledge of the state was circulated and legitimized.
Anti-Semitism and Schooling under the Third Reich chronicles an extreme case of what happens when schools are put in the service of a political and racial agenda. Schools, according to Wegner, play a major role in advancing ideological justifications for mass murder, and in legitimising a culture of ethnic and racial hatred. Using a variety of primary sources, Wegner provides a vivid account of the development of Nazi education.

Is there really a discernable difference between the education provided by public and private schools? Is it true, as advocates of voucher plans assert, that market driven education results in improved educational practice, greater parental involvement, and heightened student achievement? Not necessarily.

Through advocates of school privatisation have, in the past, produced compelling evidence to support their claims of private school superiority and campaigned for state voucher programs, other, equally compelling, studies have repeatedly shown that socio-economics plays the defining role in determining student achievement

Straightforward and authoritative, All Else Equal, challenges us to reconsider vital policy decisions and rethink the issues facing our current educational system.

This practical comprehensive book for senior managers and inclusion coordinators covers all the essential aspects of how to manage inclusion more effectively. It informs coordinators about effectively managing their own continuing professional development, and that of other staff working within the inclusion team.

The book explores the role of inclusion assistants, managing an inclusive resource center, identifying barriers to learning for a diversity of pupils; and applying the Index for Inclusion, the Business Excellence Model and the Ofsted school self-evaluation model to review and support inclusive school practice. It also looks at the role of external professionals, support services, beacon, special and specialist schools, national initiatives and ICT enabling schools to improve their inclusive provision.

Self-evaluation is going global. This book describes what happened when teams of school students from across the world embarked on the trip of a lifetime to explore the school lives of their international contemporaries.
The students involved in The Learning School project used a variety of tools to evaluate the learning, motivation and self-evaluation abilities of school students in the UK, Sweden, Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic, South Africa and South Korea. From the easy freedom of the Swedish school to the highly structured day in the Czech Republic, this study shows that success and effectiveness in education really is in the eye of the beholder.
The results of this study have significant implications for school leaders and managers, policy makers and academics, and all those concerned with school improvement. This lively and accessible book makes intriguing and important reading, raising fundamental questions about how we judge quality and effectiveness in teaching and learning.

Violence in schools is a pervasive, highly emotive and, above all, global problem. Bullying and its negative social consequences are of perennial concern, while the media regularly highlights incidences of violent assault - and even murder - occurring within schools. This unique and fascinating text offers a comprehensive overview and analysis of how European nations are tackling this serious issue.
Violence in Schools: The Response in Europe, brings together contributions from all EU member states and two associated states. Each chapter begins by clearly outlining the nature of the school violence situation in that country. It then goes on to describe those social policy initiatives and methods of intervention being used to address violence in schools and evaluates the effectiveness of these different strategies. Commentaries from Australia, Israel and the USA and an overview of the book's main themes by eminent psychologist Peter K. Smith complete a truly international and authoritative look at this important - and frequently controversial - subject.
This book constitutes an invaluable resource for educational administrators, policymakers and researchers concerned with investigating, and ultimately addressing, the social and psychological causes, manifestations and effects of school violence.

The aim of this book is to consider how schools and LEAs can develop inclusive policies and practices for students who experience a range of difficulties in learning or behavior. it highlights debates and contradictions about the realities of inclusion and suggests ways in which practice can move forward. The contributors look at key areas of development in special and inclusive education and considers ways in which the latest research can inform practice.
Areas covered include promoting inclusion for all; how to make sense of the Code of Practice SEN Thresholds; working with Teaching Assistants; new approaches to counseling and pastoral care in schools; including pupils with EBD; how nurture groups are helping inclusive practice; making education inclusive for pupils with sensory disabilities; including pupils with specific learning difficulties; and preparing students for an inclusive society.
The book will be of particular interest to teachers, LEA support staff, educational psychologists and related professionals who face the challenge of meeting the needs of a diverse population within an inclusive framework. it will also be of relevance for students in further and higher education, and their tutors.

Americans worry continually about their schools with frequent discussions of the "crisis" in American education, of the "failures" of the public school systems, and of the inability of schools to meet the current challenges of contemporary life. Such concerns date back at least to the nineteenth century. A thread that weaves its way through the critiques of American elementary and secondary schools is that the educational system is not serving its children well, that more should be done to enhance achievement and higher performance. These critiques first began when the United States was industrializing and were later amplified when the Soviets and Japan were thought to be grinding down the competitive position of America. At the start of the twenty-first century, as we discuss globalization and maintaining our leadership position in the world economy, they are being heard again.
"The Urban School: A Factory for Failure" challenges these assumptions about American education. Indeed, a basic premise of the book is that the American school system is working quite well-doing exactly what is expected of it. To wit, that the schools in the United States affirm, reflect, and reinforce the social inequalities that exist in the social structures of the society. Stated differently, the schools are not great engines for equalizing the existing social inequalities. Rather, they work to reinforce the social class differences that we have had in the past and continue to have in more pronounced ways at present.
Rist uses both sociological and anthropological methods to examine life in one segregated African-American school in the mid-western United States. A classroom of some thirty children were followed from their first day of kindergarten through the second grade. Detailed accounts of the day-by-day process of sorting, stratifying, and separating the children by social class backgrounds demonstrates the means of ensuring that both the poor and middle-class students soon learned their appropriate place in the social hierarchy of the school. Instructional time, discipline, and teacher attention all varied by social class of the students, with those at the bottom of the ladder consistently receiving few positive rewards and many negative sanctions.
When "The Urban School" was first published in 1973, the National School Boards Association called it one of the ten most influential books on American education for the year. It remains essential reading for educators, sociologists, and economists.
Ray C. Rist is a senior evaluation officer with the Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank. He has held senior positions in both the legislative and executive branches of the United States government as well as teaching positions at Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University.
""The Urban School" is a timely and much needed wake-up call to a educational policy and contemporary social problem that urgently needs to be addressed across the country and in every urban school district."--"The Bookwatch"

How do you perform a MANOVA? What is grounded theory? How do you draw up a repertory grid? These, and many other questions are addressed in this wide-ranging handbook of methods and analytic techniques which uniquely covers both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Based on a broad survey of undergraduate curricula, the book takes curious readers through all of the methods that are taught on psychology courses worldwide, from advanced ANOVA statistics through regression models to test construction, qualitative research and other more unusual techniques such as Q methodology, meta-analysis and log-linear analysis. Each technique is illustrated by recent examples from the literature. There are also chapters on ethics, significance testing, and writing for publication and research proposals.
Advanced Research Methods in Psychology will provide an invaluable resource for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers who need a readable, contemporary and eclectic reference of advanced methods currently in use in psychological research.

Related link: Free Email Alerting

"Why Reading Literature in School Still Matters: Imagination, Interpretation, Insight" explains how a reader's involvement with literary texts can create conditions for developing deep insight into human experience, and how teachers can develop these interpretive possibilities in school contexts. Developed from the author's many years of research, this book offers both a theoretical framework that draws from an interdisciplinary array of sources and many compelling and insightful examples of literary engagement of child, adolescent, and adult readers, as well as practical advice for teachers and other readers about how to create interesting and expansive sites for interpretation that are personally rewarding and productive.
"Why Reading Literature in School Still Matters: Imagination, Interpretation, Insight "
*provides an overview of theories of human learning that influence beliefs about language, culture, and identity;
*shows how these theories of learning influence beliefs about and practices of reading and interpretation;
*introduces new ways to conceptualize reading that emphasize the relationship between individual and collective identities and language/literacy practices;
*explains why access to information does not guarantee that understanding and/or insight will occur--by emphasizing the importance of "re-reading" and "close reading" this text shows that development of deep insight depends on interpretation skills that must be taught; and
*presents a reconceptualized view of reading pedagogy.
This is an essential text for education courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and a must read for teachers and for anyone interested in more deeply understanding how literary works of art can create conditions for learning about oneself, one's situation, and one's possibilities.

"Why Reading Literature in School Still Matters: Imagination, Interpretation, Insight" explains how a reader's involvement with literary texts can create conditions for developing deep insight into human experience, and how teachers can develop these interpretive possibilities in school contexts. Developed from the author's many years of research, this book offers both a theoretical framework that draws from an interdisciplinary array of sources and many compelling and insightful examples of literary engagement of child, adolescent, and adult readers, as well as practical advice for teachers and other readers about how to create interesting and expansive sites for interpretation that are personally rewarding and productive.
"Why Reading Literature in School Still Matters: Imagination, Interpretation, Insight "
*provides an overview of theories of human learning that influence beliefs about language, culture, and identity;
*shows how these theories of learning influence beliefs about and practices of reading and interpretation;
*introduces new ways to conceptualize reading that emphasize the relationship between individual and collective identities and language/literacy practices;
*explains why access to information does not guarantee that understanding and/or insight will occur--by emphasizing the importance of "re-reading" and "close reading" this text shows that development of deep insight depends on interpretation skills that must be taught; and
*presents a reconceptualized view of reading pedagogy.
This is an essential text for education courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and a must read for teachers and for anyone interested in more deeply understanding how literary works of art can create conditions for learning about oneself, one's situation, and one's possibilities.

Interest in complexity theory, a relation of chaos theory, has become well established in the business community in recent years. Complexity theory argues that systems are complex interactions of many parts which cannot be predicted by accepted linear equations. In this book, Keith Morrison introduces complexity theory to the world of education, drawing out its implications for school leadership.
This books suggests that schools are complex, nonlinear and unpredictable systems, and that this impacts significantly within them. As schools race to keep up with change and innovation, this book suggests that it is possible to find order without control and to lead without coercion. Key areas:
*schools and self-organisation
*leadership for self-organisation
*supporting emergence through the learning organisation
*schools and their environments
*communication
*fitness landscapes
This book will be of interest to headteachers and middle managers, and those on higher level courses in educational leadership and management.

In this ground-breaking book, Gerald Grace addresses the dilemmas facing Catholic education in an increasingly secular and consumer-driven culture. The book combines an original theoretical framework with research drawn from interviews with sixty Catholic secondary head teachers from deprived urban areas. Issues discussed include:
*Catholic meanings of academic success
*tensions between market values and Catholic values
*threats to the mission integrity of Catholic schools
*the spiritual, moral and social justice commitments of contemporary Catholic schools
This book will be equally useful to leaders of Catholic and other schools and to all those interested in values and leadership in schooling.

Contents:
Suárez-Orozco, C. and Suárez-Orozco, M. 'Schooling Experiences of the Children of Immigration.' Chapter 5 in Children of Immigration (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, forthcoming).

Ogbu, J. and Simons, H. 'Voluntary and Involuntary Minorities: A Cultural-ecological Theory of School Performance with Some Implications for Education.' Anthropology and Education Quarterly 29 (1998).

Gibson, M.A. 'Complicating the Immigrant/Involuntary Minority Typology.' Anthropology and Education Quarterly 28 (1997).

Portes, A and Macleod, D. 'Educational Progress of Children of Immigrants: The Roles of Class, Ethnicity and School Context.' Sociology of Education 69 (1996).

Kao, G and Tienda, M. 'Optimism and Achievement: The Educational Performance of Immigrant Youth.' Social Science Quarterly 76 (1995).

Brandon, P. 'Gender Differences in Young Asian American's Educational Attainments.' Sex Roles 25 (1991).

Orfield, G., Bechmeier, M.D., James, D.R. and Eitle, T. 'Deepening Segregation in American Public Schools: A Special Report from the Harvard Project on School Desegregation.' Equity and Excellence in Education (1997).

Donato, R., Menchaca, M. and Valencia, R. 'Segregation, Desegregation and Integration of Chicano Students: Problems and Prospects.' In Richard Valencia, Ed., Chicano School Failure and Success: Research and Policy for the 1990s (London, UK: Falmer, 1991).

Gandara, P. 'The Impact of the Educational Reform Movement on Limited English Proficient Students.' In B. McLeod, Ed., Language and Learning: Educating Linguistically Diverse Students (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994).

Lopez, N. 'The Structural Origins of High School Drop Out Among Second Generation Dominicans in New York City.' Latino Studies Journal 9 (1998).

Waters, Mary. 'Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-generation Black Immigrants in New York City.' International Migration Review 4 (1994).

Matute-Bianchi, M.E. 'Situational Ethnicity and Patterns of School Performance Among Immigrant and Non-immigrant Students.' In M.A. Gibson and J.U. Ogbu, Eds., Minority Status and Schooling (New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1991).

Sue, S and Okazaki, S. 'Asian-American Educational Achievements: A Phenomenon in Search of an Explanation.' American Psychologist 45 (1990).

Reese, L., Balzano, S., Gallimore, R. and Goldenberg, C. 'The Concept of Education: Latino Family Values and American Schooling.' International Journal of Education Research 23 (1995).

List of Recommended Readings

In this book, Bergeron demonstrates the negative emotional and pedagogical repercussions that result from American educators' embrace of self-esteem and the dogma surrounding its acceptance. Critically interpreting the meaning of self-esteem in education, he challenges "common sense" assumptions surrounding this notion and questions the historical, political, philosophical, and pedagogical forces that have shaped this psychological construct in education. Interrogating the pedagogical practices linked to student empowerment, self-determination, and social agency in the classroom, Bergeron discusses the ways in which the promise of self-esteem has backfired, particularly for marginalized and impoverished students.