This book captures the experiences of children in U.S. public schools and how they utilize artmaking to disrupt injustices they face. These first-time authors, who represent school children, parents, teachers, and community leaders, focus on artmaking for social change. Their first-tellings provide thought-provoking insights regarding the impact of artmaking on their capacity to promote social justice-oriented work in K-12 school communities. As the U.S. continues to experience significant demographic shifts, including increases of homeless children, children identified with learning differences, thousands of refugees and immigrants, children living in poverty, children in foster care, and increasing numbers of Children of Color, those who work in schools will need to know how to address disparities facing these underserved communities. These U.S. demographic shifts and issues facing underserved populations provide opportunities for children, teachers, families, and school leaders to deepen their understanding regarding their experiences within their communities and K-12 schools as well as ways to interrupt oppressive practices and policies they face every day through art as social action. Authors call upon decision-makers who serve children from disenfranchised populations to utilize artmaking to create equal access for children to explore social justice, equity, reflective practices, and promote authentic social action and change through artmaking. Authors reflect on this artmaking process as a catalyst for increasing consciousness, creating imaginative possibilities, and facilitating meaningful change in schools. Authors urge readers to create equal access art spaces to build bridges among schools, families, and communities. Together, they contend that artmaking promotes courageous conversations and encourages the exploration of what it means to live this significant work.

This book tells stories of life in a ""failing"" school. These are insider stories of the daily lives of children and educators in an urban school during a time when accountability weighs heavy on both teachers and students. Most educators are in favor of accountability. The kind and amount of testing associated with the current accountability movement, however, influence teachers' and students' lives in a way not often apparent to parents and politicians.

Quality Assessment In South African Schools provides a balanced view of assessment in terms of the policy statement on assessment for South African schools. The book offers guidance through recommended assessment guidelines and principles which will help teachers to design and implement sound, meaningful learner assessment strategies.

This second edition contains:

• a new chapter on blended learning
• a strong focus on remote learning throughout the book in order to mirror recent changes in teaching and learning
• new text on leadership in assessment
• open book testing as an assessment technique
• updated examples of reporting and recording

This monograph celebrates the 50th anniversary of Michael Young's iconic book "The Rise of the Meritocracy" by analysing the ideas behind meritocracy, citizenship and education and offering an extension to Young's initial findings.Young's iconic book "The Rise of the Meritocracy", not only coined the word meritocracy but contained a prescient warning about the dangers of pursuing the vision of a meritocratic society.This fascinating book takes this anniversary as its starting point for an analysis and critique of meritocracy, citizenship and education. Part I begins with two substantial chapters - the first discussing Young's book and its influence, and the second the revival of support for meritocracy under New Labour in the UK, with particular reference to its implications for education; the third chapter then examines and critiques the ways New Labour has interpreted the idea of active citizenship.Part II examines issues of continuity and change in New Labour policy on schools, the curriculum, and the professions (especially but not only the teaching profession).Issues raised in Part I are revisited in Part III, which is devoted to an analysis of policy responses to the problems of multiculturalism and their relation to immigration policy and ideas of a common civic culture in both Britain and overseas. In all the sections, the aim is to go beyond exposition to develop a sustained critique, particularly of New Labour's over-centralizing tendencies and the associated erosion of local and institutional democracy.

As American educational reformers continue to find innovative ways to address the global achievement gap, many experts seem to agree that increasing instructional time is a viable option. In addition to extending the school day, some educational leaders have looked to modifying the traditional academic calendar to address some of the academic losses that occur when students have 8-10 weeks of summer vacation each year. Re-examining how students spend their summer vacation, although considered by many to be a cultural taboo, may be the answer to addressing global competition and decreasing the national achievement gap. The need for a two month break from schools harkens back to a pre-industrial time that no longer is pertinent for our students. Although an answer may be staring us in the face, are we willing to give up on the American tradition of summer vacation all in the name of reform and student success?

The history of American education is a vital and productive field of study. This reference book provides factual information about eminent people and important topics related to the development of American public, private, and parochial schools, covering elementary and secondary levels. In addition to major state and regional leaders and reformers, it includes biographies of significant national educators, philosophers, psychologists, and writers. Subjects embrace important ideas, events, institutions, agencies, and pedagogical trends that profoundly shaped American policies and perceptions regarding education. The more than 350 entries are arranged alphabetically and written by expert contributors. Each entry closes with a brief bibliography, and the volume ends with a list of works for further reading.

Entries were drawn from a review of leading history of education textbooks and the "History of Education Quarterly." These topics were further refined by comments from leading authorities and the contributors. Most of the contributors are established scholars in the history of education, curriculum and instruction, school law, educational administration, and American history; a few also work as public and private school teachers and thus bring their practical experience to their entries. The period covered begins in the colonial period and continues through the 1990s.

This provocative and accessible text is addressed to prospective and practicing teachers who believe schools must be fundamentally reformed to meet student needs in an information age. Drawing on interviews with frontline educators, the authors integrate descriptive accounts of learning and teaching in schools today with emerging multicultural curricula, information technologies, organizational structures that support innovations, and democratic dialogue. Jones and Maloy offer analytic perspectives for rethinking the social, historical, and philosophical foundations of education along with strategies for teacher renewal and organizational change.

Adopting a constructivist-developmental approach to learning, the authors identify endemic dilemmas that increasingly handicap industrial-era schools. A stagnant economy heightens tensions due to class, race, and gender inequities. Hierarchically structured corporations and representative politics perpetuate business domination. Computers offer possibilities for more open communication, flexible organizations, and democratic discourse. Alternative visions of the future that engage students can renew cooperation, collaboration, and community in schools and society.

Education is a profession in which billions of federal dollars have been spent to reduce academic underachievement--particularly for minority children from poverty homes. Few funded programs have reduced failure on standardized achievement tests. Despite either repetition or innovation, most children who fail do not perform substantially better the next time around. On the other hand, practitioners who have used the Dunn and Dunn learning-styles approaches have reported statistically higher standardized achievement test scores among average, poorly achieving, and special education students.

This book is based on the practical, diverse experiences of more than thirty different supervisors throughout the United States. Representing a variety of urban and suburban locations with diverse student populations, each supervisor was able to obtain significantly higher standardized achievement test scores for his or her student populations.

We all share responsibility for vitalizing American education. As Myles Friedman makes clear, many of the changes needed are beyond the ability of educators to implement alone. They need supportive coalitions among government, community, and business leaders and agencies to force change. The purpose of the book is to present a prescription for interesting students in school so that they will want to attend and learn; developing law-abiding, productive citizens who are able to keep our nation at the forefront through innovation; and enabling students to find personal satisfaction while making social contributions. The emphasis is on changing what and how students are taught, rather than on changing the organization or politics of education. Friedman asserts that it is the instruction students receive in the classroom that determines their potential much more than the structure of the educational system or the politics that govern it. We all share responsibility for vitalizing American education. As Myles Friedman makes clear, many of the changes needed are beyond the ability of educators to implement alone. They need supportive coalitions among government, community, and business leaders and agencies to force change. The purpose of this book is to present a prescription for interesting students in school so that they will want to attend and learn; developing law-abiding, productive citizens who are able to keep our nation at the forefront through innovation; and enabling students to find personal satisfaction while making social contributions. The emphasis is on changing what and how students are taught, rather than on changing the organization or politics of education. Friedman asserts that it is the instruction students receive in the class that determines their potential much more than the structure of the educational system or the politics that govern the system. Teaching students how to control outcomes is the thesis that permeates the book. People must learn to control outcomes if they are to benefit themselves or society. They must be able to control outcomes well enough to take care of themselves, become gainfully employed, and to get what they want from life--whatever that may be. This important book is for professionals, academic, and community leaders responsible for improving education.

The school library media center is a relatively recent phenomenon. Its development throughout the 20th century has not always been predictable or peaceful, but neither has it been static or dull. Through personal and objective perspectives, this book relates the often turbulent history of the school library movement to times of rapid change. The authors address the mission of the school library program and how its realization has been shaped by professional organizations, standards and guidelines, accreditation associations, the education of library media specialists, collection development, evaluation, instruction, research, and technology applications. The relationship of the program to educational paradigms and to local, national, and international partnerships is also discussed. Students and instructors in school library media programs will find this work essential, and practicing library media specialists will find it a fascinating professional read.

This book provides busy educators with insight on genuine processes and decision-making that maximizes student learning and overall academic success. Full of examples, templates, reflective prompts, and suggestions on how to plan for and drive daily practice, Ten Steps for Genuine Leadership in Schools explores the importance of a genuine learning environment, genuine instructional practices, genuine innovative processes, a genuine vision and mission of your school, and genuine relationships between staff, students, parents, and community. Covering specific strategies that can be implemented immediately, this book is a straightforward and honest approach in doing what really matters in the principal's chair to elicit positive student outcomes.

This work looks at managing school system change. It covers such topics as: challenges to leading and managing school and school system change; key roles and competencies for administrators; stakeholder theory analysis; understanding school culture change; and more.

This practical, hands-on guide will assist the school library media specialist in planning, funding, implementing, and promoting special events programs in the school. Trotta provides a readable text filled with program ideas, planning documents, and tips for successful programs. She shows how to incorporate special events programs into a yearly curriculum plan, where to locate speakers and performers, how to budget and build support for special programs, and how to develop partnerships with school and community members that will ensure the success of the program. Reproducible forms and guidelines will make it easy for the school library media specialist to plan for and implement special event programming. Trotta systematically takes the library media specialist through the process from the idea stage to the evaluation process. The work features chapters on developing special events programs relevant to the curricula, developing partnerships to support these programs, raising community support and awareness of the media center and its programs, personnel training and strategies, developing promotional materials, keys to making programs successful, and how to do programs on a shoestring. An extensive list of resources for all kinds of programs completes the work.

An authoritative reference on one of education's hottest topics, describing how the latest testing and assessment tools can be used to help improve student performance. In this comprehensive review of the wealth of techniques by which students can be assessed, Valerie J. Janesick points out that the politics of schooling often gets in the way of student progress. "High-stakes" standardized testing is frequently based on poorly constructed, unfair tests that encourage "teaching to the test," which actually impedes educational goals. Authentic testing relies more on essays and writing samples, performances, demonstrations, and role-plays. Although it is fairer and provides a measure of student growth and progress, it requires more effort by teachers, who also require extra training. Besides discussing authentic assessment in detail, The Assessment Debate includes a chronology, an annotated directory of organizations supporting performance assessment, a list of state coordinators for testing reform, and state-by-state report cards. A historical chronology from pioneering efforts in the testing movement in the 1880s through the drive toward standardized testing in 2001 A comprehensive annotated bibliography on assessment, including print resources, videotapes, websites, and organizations supporting performance assessment

Research has consistently documented the failure of schools to reach students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. One reason suggested for this failure is teachers' lack of understanding and appreciation for students' home backgrounds, while most teachers are eager to becvome informed and supportive of their diverse students many have lacked the opportunity to develop the knowedge and skills appropriate to working with such students. Ethnic Diversity examines how migration and settlement patterns have varied for these populations throughout U.S. history, documenting what researchers have learned about Latino, Native American, African American, urban Appalachian, and Asian American families, neighborhoods, and communities as these relate to children's learning through case studies (in the form of vignettes) and suggests how schools, communites, and universities can address the needs of culturally diverse students and their families.

"Not by Schools Alone" takes a compelling look at the realities of modern education: attitude problems hindering change, isolation and bureaucratic rigidity, and proliferating social problems afflicting children and families. Author Sandra Waddock proposes that we all, whether in business, social service, or health care agencies, government or civic leaders, or simply parents, have roles to play and responsibilities to bear for education reform. For schools to change requires shifts of enormous proportions within schools themselves to reengineer the educational goals, content, processes, and systems to assure that all children learn at high levels. This cannot be done in a vacuum, but should and must be done by tapping the strengths of other key stakeholders in society and restructuring so that responsibility can be shared appropriately.

This book has gone to great lengths to reveal, through research and practice, the possibilities of addressing and reducing racist practices in our schools. It features an Antiracist Education Teacher Study that assisted in providing baseline figures of teacher perceptions of racism, and demonstrated how teachers can successfully implement antiracist concepts in their classrooms. Findings further indicate that such teacher involvement makes a difference in student acceptance and attitude. As teachers display enthusiasm for teaching their subject areas multiculturally, and having an intolerance for racist behavior, many students have shown greater respect and appreciation for their teachers who are willing to expose life's realities. Educators in the Teacher Study became role models for their students. This role modeling empowered students in positive ways to address issues of racism from the student perspective. Dr. Donaldson also focuses on shattering the denial of teachers who doubt the existence of racism in schools and who question how student learning is adversely affected by racism. She uncovers the difficulty teachers have with coming to grips with the realities of racism. In light of these difficulties, those who endured became empowered to become better teachers.

Over the past 50 years, the federal government's efforts to reform American public education have transformed U.S. schools from locally-run enterprises to complex systems in which federal, state and local actors jointly construct the educational environment of U.S. children. Through struggles over school integration, the growth of special education, the teaching of English learners and the rise of accountability politics, the federal role in U.S. education has meant a profound reconstruction of local expectations, roles and political alignments. Seeking to construct the federal schoolhouse - an educational system in which there are common national expectations and practices - has meant the creation of new modes of education within local institutions. The creation of this "education state " has also meant that federal educational initiatives have collided with - or reinforced - local political regimes in cities and suburbs alike. To the extent that "all politics is local, " the federal role in public schools has changed both the conduct and the norms of local educational politics. Building the Federal Schoolhouse examines how increasing federal authority over public education in the U.S. changes the practices of 'operational localism' in education and how local regime commitments implement, thwart, or even block federal policy initiatives. The book examines these issues through an in-depth, fifty year examination of federal educational policies at work within one community, Alexandria, Virginia. The home of T.C. Williams High School, memorialized in the Hollywood movie Remember the Titans, Alexandria has been transformed within two generations from a Jim Crow school system to a new immigrant gateway school district with over 20 percent of its students English learners. Along the way, the school system has struggled to provide quality education for special needs students, sought to overcome the legacies of tracking and segregated learning and simultaneously retain upper-middle class students in this wealthy suburb of Washington, DC. Most recently, it has grappled with state and federally imposed accountability measures that seek to boost educational outcomes. All of these policy initiatives have contended with the existing political regime within Alexandria, at times forcing the local regime to a breaking point, and at times bolstering its reconstruction. At the same time, the local expectations and governing realities of administrators, parents, politicians and voters alike have sharply constrained federal initiatives, limiting their scope when in conflict with local commitments and amplifying them when they align. Through an extensive use of local archives, contemporary accounts, school data and interviews, Reed not only paints an intimate portrait of the conflicts that the creation of the federal schoolhouse has wrought in Alexandria, but also documents the successes of the federal commitment to greater educational opportunity. In so doing, he highlights the complexity of the American education state and the centrality of local regimes and local historical context to federal efforts to reform education.

Many educators have been looking for a fundamentally different approach to engage young people and encourage progress in learning. Supported by recent public policy developments, a transformation is beginning to take place in the practice of many schools. The focus of learning is shifting away from the child as an individual in a classroom detached from the surrounding neighbourhood to a learning community that embraces carers and families as well as young people and teachers. This monograph analyses the organising principles of this cultural transformation and considers how it will shape learning in schools and communities throughout the world. The book brings together key thinkers from the fields of new learning, new communities of educational practice and new forms of educational governance. Arguing for the necessary interconnectedness of pedagogy, institutions and governance, this ground-breaking book will undoubtedly shape the policy agenda in this area for years to come. >