This book examines reform in American education over the past fifty years and against this backdrop presents a compelling analysis of why contemporary voucher plans and charter schools have yet to fulfill the expectations of their advocates. It is the only book to date to attempt a comprehensive synthesis and analysis of the emerging research base on vouchers and charter schools. Suitable for courses in school policy, school reform, school leadership, or educational issues, it will also be of interest to anyone (parents, teachers, policymakers) directly involved with the charter school movement.
Key features of this timely new book include the following:
* A Historical Perspective--The early chapters look at American educational reform over the past fifty years and analyze why these efforts have fallen short of their goals.
* Student Achievement--Chapter 3 provides an insightful assessment of American students' school achievement from 1970 to the present and, in the process, counters the widely held myth that, overall, student achievement has deteriorated.
* Voucher Plans and Charter Schools--Chapter 4 looks specifically at choice and vouchers in American education while chapters 5-7 provide a comprehensive and balanced examination of the charter school movement.
* Policy Recommendations--The book concludes with explicit policy suggestions that attempt to balance the educational needs of children and youth against the rights of schools to experiment. Suggestions for developing broader coalitions to support public education, particularly in the inner cities, are also offered.

Research has shown that there is a correlation between academic achievement and the strength of community life and awareness within a school. The aim of this book is to introduce communitarian thought to classroom teachers and to those working in education. The book contextualizes the current debates within education around the many topical ideas being developed by communitarian thinkers, including: character-building; the role of parents; the community and the individual; values education and citizenship; community education; standards and ethos in schools. Throughout, the book makes specific reference to the practical implications for both primary and secondary schools as well as for further education colleges.

Series Information:
RoutledgeFalmer Studies in International and Comparative Education

Schools are now seen as being one of the key agents which can help redress society's most fundamental problems, create more cohesive communities and promote citizenship and a sense of social conscience in the young. Promoting Mental, Emotional and Social Health: A Whole School Approach provides a clear and practical overview of ways in which mainstream schools can promote the health of all those who work and learn in them.
Supported by the latest new evidence from the UK and Europe as well as findings from the USA, it outlines and examines:
* evidence that social and emotional learning and academic achievement can go hand in hand and that the same key factors underlie both happy and effective schools
* the areas of school life that are the key to promoting social and affective health, including relationships with families and the community, management and the curriculum
* the competencies that we all need to become more emotionally literate and relate to more effectively.

This text provides user friendly advice and support for school teachers and lecturers in further and higher education who need to know what information technology and computers can do for their work.

Contents:
1 The Consequences of Truancy 2.Types of Truants and Incidence 3.Types of Truancy 4.The Causes of Truancy: Social Perspectives 5.The Causes of Truancy: Psychological Indices 6.Educational Causes of Truancy 7.Government Initiatives 8.School Based Initiatives 9.Whole-School Approaches to Reducing Truancy 10. Improving School Attendance 11.Teachers, Teaching and Truancy 12.Tackling Truancy: Records of Achievement and Work Placement Schemes 13.OFSTED: Guidelines on Attendance and Truancy 14. Parents and Truancy 15.Education Welfare Service

Communitarianism, as a movement, is clearly a dominant theme within New Labour's educational policy. How does this affect education and the life and work of schools? Research has shown that there is a correlation between academic achievement and the strength of community life and awareness within a school. The aim of this book, therefore, is to introduce communitarian thought to classroom teachers and to those working in education. The book contextualizes the current debates within education around the many topical ideas being developed by communitarian thinkers, including: character building; the role of parents; the community and the individual; values education and citizenship; community education; and standards and ethos in schools. Throughout, the book makes specific reference to the practical implications for both primary and secondary schools as well as for further education colleges. This is a timely book that should be of interest to all those working in schools and with children and young people. It aims to be a guide to this important and highly influential movement that is shaping our educational future.

Contents:
1. Concepts of Special Educational Needs 2. The Legislative Framework 3. The Range of Special Educational Need and Provision 4. A Curriculum for All? 5. Teaching Approaches and Organisational Strategies 6. The Social and Emotional Context for Learning 7. Frameworks of Support

This INSET-based book provides teachers and managers in schools with a practical guide to developing and maintaining high standards of behavior. Using their extensive experience, the authors emphasize planning policies which take account of the individual needs of the staff and pupils as well as whole-school administration. They encourage an experimental approach supported by many activities to guide the development process, and consider both the 'soft', human side of the development process, as well as the more predictable 'hard' side involving audit, planning, implementation and review.

Among the abundance of material available about death and dying, there is a very limited amount that deals directly with the needs of a school community when one of its members dies. In addition, a great need exists for schools to develop an organized plan for responding to the death of a student or staff member. "A Student Dies, A School Mourns" aims to fill this gap. The book not only examines and explains the grief reactions of students and school staff members and the factors that affect these reactions, it also provides a systematic guide for developing a death-related crisis response plan.
This timely book is designed to be a systematic guide that incorporates a thorough analysis of grief in school, including normal and abnormal grief reactions, factors affecting these grief responses, and the differences in death beliefs and responses of students at different ages and developmental stages. It also acts as a map or step-by-step guide for establishing a death-related response plan. The liberal use of flow charts, time tables, and action plans, turns the often daunting task of creating a response plan into a relatively painless activity, stating what must be done, who should do it, and when. Extensive coverage is given to two issues in particular: youth suicide and violence/murder in the school.
" A Student Dies, A School Mourns" will be a vital resource for school counselors, social workers, rehab psychologists, school administrators, teachers, clergy and anyone with an interest in death as it pertains to the school community. It will also be of use as a textbook for courses in death and dying, educational psychology, education, and educational administration.

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.

Moving beyond the traditional focus on curriculum and pedagogy, this volume explores hidden dimensions of sexuality education in schools and how sexual meanings are produced. Challenging the standard understandings of sexuality education, Allen discusses how students' knowledge of sexualities is often learnt outside the 'official' school curriculum in informal spaces such as the sports field, gym locker rooms and peer groups. By employing visual methods and analysing student photo-diaries, Allen's original book captures a sexual culture of schooling that allow readers to literally 'see through young people's eyes.' Introducing theoretical ideas in relation to queer theory and 'new' feminist new materialisms, this volume calls for a re-conceptualization of how sexuality comes into being at school, in order to take account of its material, spatial and embodied elements.

What is the creative potential of the new technologies? How can computers create new possibilities for artistic and creative work in education?
Young People, Creativity and New Technologies describes ways in which ICTs (Information Communication Technologies) can produce new possibilities for creative work both within the formal curriculum and in complementary educational arenas. It provides a series of case studies which show how 'digital arts' are currently being used across school and community arts curricula and demonstrates how ICTs can be used in a genuinely inter-disciplinary way.
It is aimed at those who are interested in practical ways to develop the creative uses of new technologies at school and in community arts settings.

The use of psychology in the classroom is a valuable tool for understanding and improving pupils' learning processes. This readable and informative book considers a range of contemporary issues including improving pupil motivation and understanding social dynamics in the classroom, and encourages teachers to conduct small-scale classroom investigations and to assess learning environments. It also provides a brief overview of the underlying psychological theory in each chapter and discusses the issues which are relevant to classroom practice, and provides practical examples and activities to support the text.

Contents:
Introduction 1. Leadership and management 2. Working with others 3. Teams and team building 4. Maintaining staff motivation 4. Managing the challenge of change 6. Communicating the vision 7. Selecting suitable staff 8. Effective interviewing for selection Appendix 9. Adding to the value of the workforce 10. Caring for customers 11. Managing conflict and stress

Although pupil disaffection has been a major concern to professionals, policy makers and researchers for quite some time, recent professional books in the area tend to focus on behaviour and exclusion from schools. Despite considerable government funding in both LEA's and schools- to promote new measures to improve school attendance, non-attendance at school is a relatively neglected topic as far as serious researched-based literature is concerned. This book will be the first in several years concerned with non-attendance.
Previously unpublished research material in the book will provide a multi-disciplinary evaluation of practice at LEA, whole school and individual levels.

Using the accounts of mainstream pupils and pupils with SEN, the author explores the pupils' identities and experiences in relation to each other. In particular, mainstream pupils often function as "deciders" with regard to the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. The research also shows how the pupils with SEN actively challenge these decisions and seek to influence perceptions of themselves and their inclusion experiences through the "practices of self". It argues that existing research has tended to focus upon the practices of integration and inclusion, without much attention being paid to what inclusion means to young people. Strategies for inclusion have to take into account both mainstream and SEN pupils, if they are to have a chance of succeeding. The research presented in this book should prove of value in helping teachers achieve inclusion in the classroom.

'I do think it is an extremely well-written and edited book that is a useful resource to add to the growing literature on bullying. The topic is of particular relevance to EPs and if you have not read anything so far on school bullying, I recommend that you start with this book.' - Lisa Stanley, Kingston Upon Hull

'An invaluable resource for researchers, educators, and others interested in bullying - a must-have text for anyone who desires to understand and end this worldwide source of childhood distress.' - Renae Duncan, Murray State University, APA Review of Books

This text aims to raise levels of writing achievement for all children - particularly those with special educational needs - by helping teachers to coordinate the process of inclusion with national requirements for SEN and the National Literacy Strategy. The practical advice and information will enable teachers to: analyse children's difficulties with writing and identify the small steps of progression in spelling, handwriting and the ability to work at sentence and text level; match writing tasks to identified levels of attainment; integrate IEP targets for writing into normal classroom activities; assess all pupils' writing more effectively; teach writing for different purposes and for a range of audiences; reinforce good writing in other subject areas throughout the curriculum; develop children's confidence and motivation to write independently; and encourage team approaches to writing development through the coordinated support of learning support staff and parents.

Not everyone finds goals easy to select or focus on, despite escalating evidence of their importance in education. This book offers a simple action research approach to goal pursuit, favoring depth, informed decision making, and an improvement orientation. It presents practical, yet academically informed, ideas, and has real case study examples.

The evil prosthesis of Captain Hook, the comical speech of Porky Pig, and the bumbling antics of Mr Magoo are all examples of images in our culture which can become the basis of negative attitudes and subliminal prejudice towards persons with disabilities. These attitudes influence and underlie discriminatory acts, resulting in negative treatment and segregation. A teacher's ability to recognise and counter such images may well determine the success of inclusion and mainstreaming programs in our schools and society. Well-researched and well-written, this book offers practical guidance as grounded in solid research to schools that are wrestling with how to mainstream children with disabilities.

Using the accounts of mainstream pupils and pupils with SEN, the author explores the pupils' identities and experiences in relation to each other. In particular, mainstream pupils often function as "deciders" with regard to the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. The book also shows how the pupils with SEN actively challenge these decisions and seek to influence perceptions of themselves and their inclusion experiences through the "practices of self". Existing texts tend to focus upon the practices of integration and inclusion, without much attention being paid to what inclusion means to young people. This book will prove invaluable in helping teachers achieve inclusion in the classroom.

This volume brings together a collection of essays by William A. Reid that present and elaborate the deliberative tradition of curriculum theory, and examine the implications of a deliberative perspective for approaches to policy making and school systems. The essays illustrate the development of Reid's understanding of the deliberative tradition and his efforts to extend it from a focus on practice to one that embraces conceptions of schooling as an institution.
"Institution" and "practice" are the key concepts which guide and illuminate the central thesis of the book: To be effective, a theory of curriculum must be able to talk not only about questions of desirable practice, but also about questions of how practice may be aided or constrained by the nature of the institution within which it takes place. This significant new contribution to the literature of curriculum studies:
*represents a unique attempt to synthesize what have often been treated as quite separate issues: questions of the philosophical basis for curriculum decision making, questions of processes of decision making, and questions of the nature of schools and classrooms;
*presents its material in an evolutionary way, focusing on the continuing development of ideas, rather than on a "rhetoric of conclusions"; and
*offers a summing up of thought and achievement in the deliberative tradition that is not otherwise available.

"Electronic Literacies" is an insightful study of the challenges and contradictions that arise as culturally and linguistically diverse learners engage in new language and literacy practices in online environments.
The role of the Internet in changing literacy and education has been a topic of much speculation, but very little concrete research. This book is one of the first attempts to document the role of the Internet and other new digital technologies in the development of language and literacy. Warschauer looks at how the nature of reading and writing is changing, and how those changes are being addressed in the classroom. His focus is on the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse learners who are at special risk of being marginalized from the information society.
Based on a two-year ethnographic study of the uses of the Internet in four language and writing classrooms in the state of Hawai'i--a Hawaiian language class of Native Hawaiian students seeking to revitalize their language and culture; an ESL class of students from Pacific Island and Latin American countries; an ESL class of students from Asian countries; and an English composition class of working-class students from diverse ethnic backgrounds--the book includes data from interviews with students and teachers, classroom observations, and analysis of student texts. This rich ethnographic data is combined with theories from a broad range of disciplines to develop conclusions about the relationship of technology to language, literacy, education, and culture. Central to Warschauer's discussion and conclusions is how contradictions of language, culture, and class affect the impact of Internet-based education. While Hawai'i is a special place, the issues confronted here are similar in many ways to those that exist throughout the United States and many other countries: How to provide culturally and linguistically diverse students traditionally on the educational and technological margins with the literacies they need to fully participate in public, community, and economic life in the 21st century.

"Language Policy in Schools" provides school administrators and teachers a practical approach for designing a language policy for their school and for dealing with the language issues that confront schools, particularly those operating in settings of linguistic and cultural diversity. It can be used as a text in teacher and administrator preparation programs, graduate programs, and in-service and professional development programs. Special features include:
* a clear, jargon-free writing style that invites careful reading;
* abundant examples that students of education everywhere can learn from--including samples of school language policies developed for real schools by real teacher-researchers;
* questions at the end of each chapter to highlight key points and stimulate informed discussion among pre-service and experienced teachers and administrators; and
* an up-to-date international and cross-cultural biography.