Amid widespread concern that our approach to testing and grading undermines education, two experts explain how schools can use assessment to support, rather than compromise, learning. Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, capitulated to a grade-grubbing student, or fretted over a child’s report card knows that the way we assess student learning in American schools is freighted with unintended consequences. But that’s not all. As experts agree, our primary assessment technologies—grading, rating, and ranking—don’t actually provide an accurate picture of how students are doing in school. Worse, they distort student and educator behavior in ways that undermine learning and exacerbate inequality. Yet despite widespread dissatisfaction, grades, test scores, and transcripts remain the currency of the realm. In Off the Mark, Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt explain how we got into this predicament, why we remain beholden to our outmoded forms of assessment, and what we can do to change course. As they make clear, most current attempts at reform won’t solve the complex problems we face. Instead, Schneider and Hutt offer a range of practical reforms, like embracing multiple measures of performance and making the so-called permanent record “overwritable.” As they explain, we can remake our approach in ways that better advance the three different purposes that assessment currently serves: motivating students to learn, communicating meaningful information about what young people know and can do, and synchronizing an otherwise fragmented educational system. Written in an accessible style for a broad audience, Off the Mark is a guide for everyone who wants to ensure that assessment serves the fundamental goal of education—helping students learn.

Back in the days of the lumberjack and the river drive, supplies and equipment were moved up Maine's most remote river by towboats--wooden barge-like structures--which were towed upriver by horses or oxen on the shore. In this charming book for younger readers, eleven-year-old Ben accompanies his Uncle Horace on a trip upriver. He has an adventure he'll not soon forget as he discovers the beauty of the wilderness and makes fast friends with his uncle's crew. Filled with action and lore, Allagash Towboat portrays a side of Maine's colorful history seldom examined and is a must-have for schools, libraries, and anyone interested in this fascinating aspect of Maine's past. A glimpse of the life of Maine rivermen in the 1930s, written for young adults, and beautifully illustrated by the author.

By the early twenty-first century, a startling consensus had emerged about the overall aim of American school reform. In an era of political discord, and in a field historically known for contentiousness, the notion of promoting educational excellence for all students was a distinct point of bipartisan agreement. Shaped by a corps of entrepreneurial reformers intent on finding "what works" and taking it to scale, this hybrid vision won over the nation's most ambitious and well-resourced policy leaders at foundations and nonprofits, in state and federal government, and in urban school districts from coast to coast.

"Excellence for all" might, at first glance, appear to be nothing more than a rhetorical flourish. Who, after all, would oppose the idea of a great education for every student? Yet it is hardly a throwaway phrase. Rather, it represents a surprising fusion of educational policy approaches that had been in tense opposition throughout the twentieth century--those on the right favoring social efficiency, and those on the left supporting social justice.

This book seeks to understand why the "excellence for all" vision took hold at the time it did, unpacks the particular beliefs and assumptions embedded in it, and details the often informal coalition building that produced this period of consensus. Examining the nation's largest urban school districts (Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York), the author details three major reform efforts in chapters titled "The Right Space: The Small Schools Movement"; "The Right Teachers: Teach for America"; and "The Right Curriculum: Expanding Advanced Placement."

A trenchant analysis of how public education is being destroyed in overt and deceptive ways-and how to fight back "A powerful analysis of the predatory, profit-seeking forces that threaten our nation's public schools. . . . If you care about the future of our society, read this book." -Diane Ravitch, author of Slaying Goliath and Reign of Error In the "vigorous, well-informed" (Kirkus Reviews) A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, the co-hosts of the popular education podcast Have You Heard expose the potent network of conservative elected officials, advocacy groups, funders, and think tanks that are pushing a radical vision to do away with public education. "Cut[ing] through the rhetorical fog surrounding a host of free-market reforms and innovations" (Mike Rose), Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire lay bare the dogma of privatization and reveal how it fits into the current context of right-wing political movements. A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door "goes above and beyond the typical explanations" (SchoolPolicy.org), giving readers an up-close look at the policies-school vouchers, the war on teachers' unions, tax credit scholarships, virtual schools, and more-driving the movement's agenda. Called "well-researched, carefully argued, and alarming" by Library Journal, this smart, essential book has already incited a public reckoning on behalf of the millions of families served by the American educational system-and many more who stand to suffer from its unmaking. "Just as with good sci-fi," according to Jacobin, "the authors make a compelling case that, based on our current trajectory, a nightmare future is closer than we think."

A trenchant analysis of how public education is being destroyed in overt and deceptive ways-and how to fight back "A powerful analysis of the predatory, profit-seeking forces that threaten our nation's public schools. . . . If you care about the future of our society, read this book." -Diane Ravitch, author of Slaying Goliath and Reign of Error In the "vigorous, well-informed" (Kirkus Reviews) A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, the co-hosts of the popular education podcast Have You Heard expose the potent network of conservative elected officials, advocacy groups, funders, and think tanks that are pushing a radical vision to do away with public education. "Cut[ing] through the rhetorical fog surrounding a host of free-market reforms and innovations" (Mike Rose), Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire lay bare the dogma of privatization and reveal how it fits into the current context of right-wing political movements. A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door "goes above and beyond the typical explanations" (SchoolPolicy.org), giving readers an up-close look at the policies-school vouchers, the war on teachers' unions, tax credit scholarships, virtual schools, and more-driving the movement's agenda. Called "well-researched, carefully argued, and alarming" by Library Journal, this smart, essential book has already incited a public reckoning on behalf of the millions of families served by the American educational system-and many more who stand to suffer from its unmaking. "Just as with good sci-fi," according to Jacobin, "the authors make a compelling case that, based on our current trajectory, a nightmare future is closer than we think."

When it comes to sizing up America's public schools, test scores are the go-to metric of state policy makers and anxious parents looking to place their children in the "best" schools. Yet ample research indicates that standardized tests are a poor way to measure a school's performance. It is time-indeed past time-to rethink this system, Jack Schneider says. Beyond Test Scores reframes current debates over school quality by offering new approaches to educational data that can push us past our unproductive fixation on test scores. Using the highly diverse urban school district of Somerville, Massachusetts, as a case study, Schneider and his research team developed a new framework to more fairly and comprehensively assess educational effectiveness. And by adopting a wide range of measures aligned with that framework, they were able to more accurately capture a broader array of school strengths and weaknesses. Their new data not only provided parents, educators, and administrators with a clearer picture of school performance, but also challenged misconceptions about what makes a good school. With better data, Schneider shows, stakeholders at the federal, state, and local levels can undo the damage of present accountability systems and build greater capacity in our schools. Policy makers, administrators, and school leaders can better identify where assistance is needed. Educators can engage in more evidence-based decision making. And parents can make better-informed choices for their children. Perhaps most importantly, better data can facilitate communication among all these groups, allowing them to take collective action toward shared, concrete goals.

By the early twenty-first century, a startling consensus had emerged about the overall aim of American school reform. In an era of political discord, and in a field historically known for contentiousness, the notion of promoting educational excellence for all students was a distinct point of bipartisan agreement. Shaped by a corps of entrepreneurial reformers intent on finding "what works" and taking it to scale, this hybrid vision won over the nation's most ambitious and well-resourced policy leaders at foundations and nonprofits, in state and federal government, and in urban school districts from coast to coast.

"Excellence for all" might, at first glance, appear to be nothing more than a rhetorical flourish. Who, after all, would oppose the idea of a great education for every student? Yet it is hardly a throwaway phrase. Rather, it represents a surprising fusion of educational policy approaches that had been in tense opposition throughout the twentieth century--those on the right favoring social efficiency, and those on the left supporting social justice.

This book seeks to understand why the "excellence for all" vision took hold at the time it did, unpacks the particular beliefs and assumptions embedded in it, and details the often informal coalition building that produced this period of consensus. Examining the nation's largest urban school districts (Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York), the author details three major reform efforts in chapters titled "The Right Space: The Small Schools Movement"; "The Right Teachers: Teach for America"; and "The Right Curriculum: Expanding Advanced Placement."