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"Public schools -- United States -- Case studies"
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Schooling in the age of austerity : urban education and the struggle for democratic life
\"Schooling in the Age of Austerity examines the fragmentation of human security in urban public schools and lives of young people amid escalating global economic volatility and domestic social polarization. In accessible and vivid language, Means confronts how neoliberal restructuring and crisis have contributed to the fraying of the urban social contract, processes of violence and criminalization, and the erosion of the educative and human development capacity of urban public schools serving historically disadvantaged and marginalized communities. Through an ethnographic case study in a low-income and racially segregated neighborhood and public high school in the city of Chicago, Means highlights the voices and experiences of educators and young people living and working at the margins of the new urban geography. Despite precarious conditions, Means demonstrates that there exists a wealth of positive social relations, knowledge, and desire for change among educators, youth, and communities that can be built upon and nurtured in order to develop more ethical and restorative approaches to urban schooling and for promoting more secure and equitable democratic futures for young people\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Exam Schools
What is the best education for exceptionally able and high-achieving youngsters? Can the United States strengthen its future intellectual leadership, economic vitality, and scientific prowess without sacrificing equal opportunity? There are no easy answers but, as Chester Finn and Jessica Hockett show, for more than 100,000 students each year, the solution is to enroll in an academically selective public high school.Exam Schoolsis the first-ever close-up look at this small, sometimes controversial, yet crucial segment of American public education. This groundbreaking book discusses how these schools work--and their critical role in nurturing the country's brightest students.
The 165 schools identified by Finn and Hockett are located in thirty states, plus the District of Columbia. While some are world renowned, such as Boston Latin and Bronx Science, others are known only in their own communities. The authors survey the schools on issues ranging from admissions and student diversity to teacher selection. They probe sources of political support, curriculum, instructional styles, educational effectiveness, and institutional autonomy. Some of their findings are surprising: Los Angeles, for example, has no \"exam schools\" while New York City has dozens. Asian-American students are overrepresented--but so are African-American pupils. Culminating with in-depth profiles of eleven exam schools and thoughtful reflection on policy implications, Finn and Hockett ultimately consider whether the country would be better off with more such schools.
At a time of keen attention to the faltering education system,Exam Schoolssheds positive light on a group of schools that could well provide a transformative roadmap for many of America's children.
eBook
Deeper learning : how eight innovative public schools are transforming education in the twenty-first century
In Deeper Learning, education strategist Monica R. Martinex and sociologist Dennis McGrath take us inside eight schools that have set out to transform the experience of learning. In these schools, we meet teachers and students who show us just what \"Deeper Learning\" looks like. The eight diverse schools featured are: MC2 STEM High School in Cleveland, Ohio, Impact Academy of Arts & Technology in Hayward, California, Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, King Middle School and Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine, Rochester High School in Rochester, Indiana, High Tech High in San Diego, California, Avalon School in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Book
Growing into equity
High-achieving students and teachers—winning strategies from Title I schools!What makes a Title I school high-achieving, and what can we all learn from that experience? Professional learning and leadership that supports personalized instruction makes the difference, as captured in the ground-breaking research of authors Sonia Caus Gleason and Nancy Gerzon.This illuminating book shows how four outstanding schools are making individualized learning a reality for every teacher and student. The common thread is the commitment to equity—every student achieving. Readers will find: Guidance on identifying obstacles to equity within your school; Background that builds a case for personalized learning; Four case studies that show the lived values, professional learning practices, leadership, and systems that have helped schools transform learning; How-to's and templates for creating a team-based professional development program that expands individualized instruction in every classroomDiscover new approaches for individual, team, and whole school professional learning that support personalized learning, drawn from schools that are leaders in overcoming challenges and creating opportunities.“Equity is not an afterthought to high achievement. Gleason and Gerzon's new book on outstanding equity-driven practice in four very different schools shows that if you want to raise the bar you have to start by narrowing the gap.”—Andy Hargreaves, Thomas More Brennan Chair in EducationBoston College
eBook
Deeper learning : how eight innovative public schools are transforming education in the twenty-first century
The acclaimed exploration of how public education can cultivate innovators--with a foreword by Russlynn Ali, a leading advocate for remaking schools Dime-a-dozen ideas for reforming education seem to be everywhere these days but few actually transform the everyday experience of the 50-million-plus students who are regularly subjected to.
eBook
When Mayors Take Charge: School Governance in the City
Large urban school systems have been the weakest link in American education, driving middle-class families into the suburbs while contributing mightily to the racial learning gap. Activist mayors in several major cities have responded by taking control of their public schools. When Mayors Take Charge is the most up-to-date assessment available on this phenomenon. It brings together the topic's leading experts to analyze the factors and people driving the trend, its achievements and shortcomings, its prospects for the future, and ways to improve it. Part One of the book assesses the results of mayoral control nationwide. The second section details the experience in three key cities: Boston and Chicago, the major prototypes for mayoral control, and Detroit, where mayoral control ended in disaster. The final section provides the first in-depth examination of New York City, where the law installing mayoral control sunsets in 2009. Viteritti's opening essay and postscript frame the analysis to shed light on the significance and limitations of governance reform. Contributors include Clara Hemphill (formerly NewYork Newsday), Jeffrey R. Henig (Columbia University), Michael Kirst (Stanford University), John Portz (Northeastern University), Diane Ravitch (NYU),Wilbur C. Rich (Wellesley College), Robert Schwartz (Harvard University), Dorothy Shipps (Baruch College), and Kenneth K.Wong (Brown University).
eBook
Making Volunteers
Volunteering improves inner character, builds community, cures poverty, and prevents crime. We've all heard this kind of empowerment talk from nonprofit and government-sponsored civic programs. But what do these programs really accomplish? InMaking Volunteers, Nina Eliasoph offers an in-depth, humorous, wrenching, and at times uplifting look inside youth and adult civic programs. She reveals an urgent need for policy reforms in order to improve these organizations and shows that while volunteers learn important lessons, they are not always the lessons that empowerment programs aim to teach.
With short-term funding and a dizzy mix of mandates from multiple sponsors, community programs develop a complex web of intimacy, governance, and civic life. Eliasoph describes the at-risk youth served by such programs, the college-bound volunteers who hope to feel selfless inspiration and plump up their resumés, and what happens when the two groups are expected to bond instantly through short-term projects. She looks at adult \"plug-in\" volunteers who, working in after-school programs and limited by time, hope to become like beloved aunties to youth. Eliasoph indicates that adult volunteers can provide grassroots support but they can also undermine the family-like warmth created by paid organizers. Exploring contradictions between the democratic rhetoric of empowerment programs and the bureaucratic hurdles that volunteers learn to navigate, the book demonstrates that empowerment projects work best with less precarious funding, more careful planning, and mandatory training, reflection, and long-term commitments from volunteers.
Based on participant research inside civic and community organizations,Making Volunteersillustrates what these programs can and cannot achieve, and how to make them more effective.
eBook
The attainment agenda : state policy leadership in higher education
How state leadership determines effective higher education attainment. Although the federal government invests substantial resources into student financial aid, states have the primary responsibility for policies that raise overall higher educational attainment and improve equity across groups. The importance of understanding how states may accomplish these goals has never been greater, as educational attainment is increasingly required for economic and social well-being of individuals and society. Drawing on data collected from case studies of the relationship between public policy and higher education performance in five states—Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Texas, and Washington—The Attainment Agenda offers a framework for understanding how state public policy can effectively promote educational attainment. Laura W. Perna and Joni E. Finney argue that there is no silver bullet to improve higher education attainment. Instead, achieving the required levels of attainment demands a comprehensive approach. State leaders must consider how performance in one area (such as degree completion) is connected to performance in other areas (such as preparation or affordability), how particular policies interact to produce expected and unexpected outcomes, and how policy approaches must be adapted to reflect their particular context. The authors call for greater attention to the state role in providing policy leadership to advance a cohesive public agenda for higher education and adopting public policies that not only increase the demand for and supply of higher education but also level the playing field for higher educational opportunity. The insights offered in The Attainment Agenda have important implications for public policymakers, college and university leaders, and educational researchers interested in ensuring sustained higher education attainment.
eBook
Defining Student Success
The key to success, our culture tells us, is a combination of talent and hard work. Why then, do high schools that supposedly subscribe to this view send students to college at such dramatically different rates? Why do students from one school succeed while students from another struggle? To the usual answer-an imbalance in resources-this book adds a far more subtle and complicated explanation.Defining Student Successshows how different schools foster dissimilar and sometimes conflicting ideas about what it takes to succeed-ideas that do more to preserve the status quo than to promote upward mobility.Lisa Nunn's study of three public high schools reveals how students' beliefs about their own success are shaped by their particular school environment and reinforced by curriculum and teaching practices. While American culture broadly defines success as a product of hard work or talent (at school, intelligence is the talent that matters most), Nunn shows that each school refines and adapts this American cultural wisdom in its own distinct way-reflecting the sensibilities and concerns of the people who inhabit each school. While one school fosters the belief that effort is all it takes to succeed, another fosters the belief that hard work will only get you so far because you have to be smart enough to master course concepts. Ultimately, Nunn argues that these school-level adaptations of cultural ideas about success become invisible advantages and disadvantages for students' college-going futures. Some schools' definitions of success match seamlessly with elite college admissions' definition of the ideal college applicant, while others more closely align with the expectations of middle or low-tier institutions of higher education.With its insights into the transmission of ideas of success from society to school to student, this provocative work should prompt a reevaluation of the culture of secondary education. Only with a thorough understanding of this process will we ever find more consistent means of inculcating success, by any measure.
eBook
Heroes and Cowards
When are people willing to sacrifice for the common good? What are the benefits of friendship? How do communities deal with betrayal? And what are the costs and benefits of being in a diverse community? Using the life histories of more than forty thousand Civil War soldiers, Dora Costa and Matthew Kahn answer these questions and uncover the vivid stories, social influences, and crucial networks that influenced soldiers' lives both during and after the war. Drawing information from government documents, soldiers' journals, and one of the most extensive research projects about Union Army soldiers ever undertaken, Heroes and Cowards demonstrates the role that social capital plays in people's decisions. The makeup of various companies--whether soldiers were of the same ethnicity, age, and occupation--influenced whether soldiers remained loyal or whether they deserted. Costa and Kahn discuss how the soldiers benefited from friendships, what social factors allowed some to survive the POW camps while others died, and how punishments meted out for breaking codes of conduct affected men after the war. The book also examines the experience of African-American soldiers and makes important observations about how their comrades shaped their lives. Heroes and Cowards highlights the inherent tensions between the costs and benefits of community diversity, shedding light on how groups and societies behave and providing valuable lessons for the present day.
eBook