This book focuses on the creation of new educational environment for youth; youth employment; crime and the juvenile system; health system; trends in health policy in the United states and other western democracies; and new environment for the transition of youth to adulthood.

This book focuses on the creation of new educational environment for youth; youth employment; crime and the juvenile system; health system; trends in health policy in the United states and other western democracies; and new environment for the transition of youth to adulthood.

Urban education is the primary target of the school reform movement and remains the most difficult to assess and repair. The crisis in urban school systems mirrors many of the problems found in big cities - poor economic conditions for schools and families, personnel shortages and high turnover rates, improper facilities and materials, and political struggles over issues of structure and control. This book analyses the problems affecting urban schools and their students and the efforts that have been made to make these schools more accountable and effective. This book is organized in three parts. Part one provides an overview of many of the issues facing urban school districts, their students and their communities including meeting the needs of racially, ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse populations, financing schools located in economically disadvantaged areas, and attracting and maintaining qualified teachers and administrators. Part two examines the impact demands for increased accountability and equity influence urban education reform. The issues discussed in this section include academic standards and high stakes testing, technology and the digital divide, the role of leadership and impact of teacher shortages, and school finance and public policy. Part three focuses on strategies developed to reform and improve urban school systems. These chapters examine federal education policy, the impact of school choice and related issues such as privatization and vouchers, the influence of community involvement, and state sponsored reform and reorganization efforts.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is designed to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged and disadvantaged children through its Title I program. Title I provides disadvantaged students with compensatory education. Only Title I schools are required to meet NCLB accountability guidelines but some states apply federal accountability guidelines to non-Title I schools; and states must separate achievement test scores by racial subgroups. The book explores models to achieve equity in Title I schools. The authors define what is required of states in Title I schools. The NCLB guidelines are flexible: states may confine their accountability involvement to Title I schools only and limit the number of Title I schools in their state; states may establish their own standardized tests and establish their own racial subgroups. The authors examine how each state reacts and implements NCLB accountability standards, and challenges to these guidelines in the courts and in the body politics by states. The text examines the achievements of NCLB, implications of the Act. The text also reviews implications for a larger immigrant population that did not exist in 1965 when Title I was originally enacted by Congress; and the impact of globalization the educational needs of the country.
*Explores models to achieve equity under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act
*Examines how each state implements NCLB standards and the implications of the Act

Two fanciful verses for the young, based on the photographs of Frank and Mary Brown. The first is the story of a lonely green heron, and what happens when he calls for some friends to come and play by the river. The second is set in Ireland, it's the tale of a magical blue horse and what might happen should you be lucky (or unlucky) enough to see her.

Our favorite photographs give us a sense of story; the image shows us a single moment within a particular storyline. One of the ways Frank shares his stories is through digital postcards - it's always a treat to see what he saw, the way he saw it, and read his thoughts - whether he writes about the image itself, or what he was supposed to be working on when he was out with his camera.

Nature photographer Frank Brown has travelled world-wide, sending back photographs for friends and family. Recently, he's focused on the view closer to home. Here is a collection of his favorite images of the wildflife living in Eastern Ontario.

Somone is spending a lazy summer day, day-dreaming on a dock in the bay.

It's a mystery for young children, told in fanciful photos and poetry. Frank Brown's wonderful photos are sure to catch a child's imagination.

Through his provocative and influential work, most notably The Culture of Desire and A Queer Geography, Frank Browning has proven himself to be an erudite and intellectual writer with deep insights into the fusion of culture and identity. In his new book The Monk and the Skeptic, Browning examines the intersection of sexuality and religion through the framework of conversations between the author and a gay priest to discuss the nature of secular and spiritual friendship; religious thought on same-sex marriage; the relation of the body to God; the mission of charity enacted by the drag troop Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence; the biblical prohibitions on improper pleasures of the body; and the history of how the church has viewed the body and desire. Browning manages to bring in a host of influences to his discussion: Descartes, Locke, Greek Myth, Christian Myth, Buddhist myth, Harry Potter, St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as modern writers like Jeanette Winterson, John Boswell, and Daniel Mendelsohn. The result is an engaging, timely, and very modern discourse on how the self and sexuality has been interpreted throughout the ages.

Lanky Dank is the lone survivor of a terrible shipwreck, which leaves him in a state of amnesia and distressing fear. He finds himself on the shores of Urula Beach, where hes rescued by a passel of dwarfish people-the Tattertoids. Their roundish faces were as dazzling as their oddish duds. It was hard to look into their eyes that stuck out on the surface of their cinnamon skin like glittering marbles. They bring him to their strange dwelling in a cave inside Warwick Hill. Just as stunned with the interior of their home as hed been with their appearance, Lanky Dank felt he was surely dreaming. Fear possessed him. And when he learns at length the eldest son, Izzie, has run off with Warrior Wolfe who had been ordered by the King to go and reconnonoitre the lair of four dragons whod shut up the neighboring kings castle in the Land Beyond the River, Lanky Dank wanted no part of it. But to show his gratitude to the Tattertoids for rescueing him, he drags himself along willy-nilly.

Can Lanky Dank overcome his debilitating fear and be of some use in the inevitable showdown with the ferocious Formidable Four?

Lanky Dank is the lone survivor of a terrible shipwreck, which leaves him in a state of amnesia and distressing fear. He finds himself on the shores of Urula Beach, where hes rescued by a passel of dwarfish people-the Tattertoids. Their roundish faces were as dazzling as their oddish duds. It was hard to look into their eyes that stuck out on the surface of their cinnamon skin like glittering marbles. They bring him to their strange dwelling in a cave inside Warwick Hill. Just as stunned with the interior of their home as hed been with their appearance, Lanky Dank felt he was surely dreaming. Fear possessed him. And when he learns at length the eldest son, Izzie, has run off with Warrior Wolfe who had been ordered by the King to go and reconnonoitre the lair of four dragons whod shut up the neighboring kings castle in the Land Beyond the River, Lanky Dank wanted no part of it. But to show his gratitude to the Tattertoids for rescueing him, he drags himself along willy-nilly.

Can Lanky Dank overcome his debilitating fear and be of some use in the inevitable showdown with the ferocious Formidable Four?

David Tuller provides the first look into the emotional and sexual lives of Russian lesbians and gays and the pervasive influence of the state on gay life. Part travelogue, part social history, and part journalistic inquiry, the book challenges our assumptions about what it means to be gay. The book also explores key issues in Russia and Soviet life, including concepts of friendship, community, gender, love, fate, and the relationship between the public and private spheres.
"Tuller's observant reporting and personal experiences make for absorbing reading: the human comedy rendered in unexpected ways."--"New Yorker"
"Anyone who thinks San Francisco is the world capital of sexual polymorphism should read this book."--Adam Goodheart, "Washington Post"
"[This book is] is profoundly moving."--Jim Van Buskirk, "San Francisco Chronicle"