Education Reform

If America's public schools don't survive the COVID-19 pandemic, it won't just be due to the virus. Opponents of public education have long sought to dismantle our system of free, universal, and taxpayer-funded schooling. But the present crisis has provided them with their best opportunity ever to realize that aim.

Not so long ago, conservative intellectuals such as William F. Buckley Jr. believed universities were worth fighting for. Today, conservatives seem more inclined to burn them down. In Let's Be Reasonable, conservative political theorist and professor Jonathan Marks finds in liberal education an antidote to this despair, arguing that the true purpose of college is to encourage people to be reasonable. Drawing on the ideas of John Locke and other thinkers, Marks presents the case for why, now more than ever, conservatives must not give up on higher education.

At a time of bitter national polarization, there is a critical need for leaders who can help us better communicate with one another. In A Search for Common Ground, Rick Hess and Pedro Noguera, who have often fallen on opposing sides of the ideological aisle over the past couple of decades, candidly talk through their differences on some of the toughest issues in K-12 education today - from school choice to testing to diversity to privatization.

¿De qué magnitud es el reto de recomponer la Educación en el Perú? ¿Cuán importante es contar con gente comprometida en la función pública? ¿Es posible revertir la situación crítica de los sectores educativos? Mediante anécdotas personales y profesionales, ideas, estudios y datos que refuerzan sus planteamientos, el exministro de Educación, Jaime Saavedra, aborda en este libro algunos de los complejos retos educativos en el Perú, a partir de su experiencia entre los años 2013 y 2016.

From coronavirus lockdowns to critical race theory in the classroom, it has become crystal clear that America’s schools aren’t working for America’s students and parents. No one knows this better than Betsy DeVos. In Hostages No More, DeVos unleashes her candid thoughts about working in the Trump administration, recounts her battles over the decades to put students first, hits back at “woke” curricula in our schools, and details the reforms America must pursue to fix its long and badly broken education system.

Following in the rich traditions in African American cooperative economic and educational thought, teacher-organizer Jay Gillen describes the Baltimore Algebra Project (BAP) as a youth-run cooperative enterprise in which young people direct their peers' and their own learning for a wage. BAP and similar enterprises are creating an educational network of empowered, employed students. Gillen argues that this is a proactive political, economic, and educational structure that builds relationships among and between students and their communities.

From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 best-selling memoir Duty, a characteristically direct, informed, and urgent assessment of why big institutions are failing us and how smart, committed leadership can effect real improvement regardless of scale.

As leaders in education, teachers face unprecedented challenges. Yet, they remain at the forefront of shaping future generations, cultivating thinkers, problem-solvers, communicators, and innovators. Unfortunately, the rising stress, lack of support, and difficulties in maintaining classroom engagement have driven teacher resignation rates to an all-time high. This is why Channon Essex, April Sabral, and Angee Costa joined forces to bring the education community a groundbreaking system—one designed to motivate students to learn and reignite teachers' passion for teaching.

The safeguarding and child protection challenges in education have never been more complex, nor the legal duties on schools and colleges more stringent. The criminal and sexual exploitation of children, FGM, radicalization, and online safety are sadly all now part of the remit, as are self-harm and mental health issues. And these safeguarding challenges are found not only in urban communities but also in leafy suburbs and rural idylls throughout.

Drawing on nearly three decades in education - from his mother’s after-school program on Chicago’s South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in DC - How Schools Work follows Arne as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can’t help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the “most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama's Cabinet.”

Synthesizing cutting-edge research and first-hand reporting, Peg Tyre offers parents far smarter and more sophisticated ways to assess a classroom and decide if the school and the teacher have the right stuff. Passionate and persuasive, The Good School empowers parents to make sense of headlines; constructively engage teachers, administrators, and school boards; and figure out the best options for their children.

As the "stunningly successful nonprofit organization, Teach For America" ( New York Times) celebrates its 20th anniversary, its founder Wendy Kopp issues a passionate and inspiring summation of what she and TFA corps members have learned: that educational inequity—the achievement gap—is a solvable problem, and that the key to solving it—in a single classroom, a school, or system-wide—is leadership.

Why has successful school reform been so difficult to achieve, despite decades of well-intentioned efforts, endless rhetoric, and billions of dollars of investment? Why do most U.S. schools continue to produce disappointing results? Why is there such a disconnect between the schools we need and the schools we have? In this thoughtful and insightful book, Ronald A. Wolk tackles these questions head-on, identifying key assumptions that have shaped the debate on school reform for the past several decades.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? by award-winning writer Yong Zhao offers an entertaining, provocative insider's account of the Chinese school system, revealing the secrets that make it both "the best and worst" in the world.

When racist curriculum "goes viral" on social media, it is typically dismissed as an isolated incident from a "bad" teacher. Educator Bree Picower, however, holds that racist curriculum isn't an anomaly. It's a systemic problem that reflects how Whiteness is embedded and reproduced in education. In Reading, Writing, and Racism, Picower argues that White teachers must reframe their understanding about race in order to advance racial justice and that this must begin in teacher education programs.

Una crítica razonada de la pedagogía oficial y una reflexión profunda sobre la educación. Contra la nueva educación pretende ejercer una crítica racional y razonada a una pedagogía oficial que desprecia el conocimiento y la cultura y apuesta, en opinión del autor, por la felicidad ignorante, y la empleabilidad de ocasión.

Teaching should never be color-blind. In her compelling and unapologetic memoir, Teaching While Black: A New Voice on Race and Education in New York City, teacher and writer Pamela Lewis urges her fellow educators not only to acknowledge race but to consider both the traumatic and healing impact that curriculum, pedagogical practice, and social interaction can have on students and colleagues of color.

NEA's Reach for Power exposes the National Education Association (NEA) for what it really is and provides a hands-on guide for teachers, parents, and communties to increase their voices in bringing education back to the children.

If you really want to know what is happening in America’s schools, do not ask the teachers. Do not ask the principals. And do not ask the bureaucrats in the Education Office. Ask the substitutes. They are where the ‘rubber meets the road.’ 2:45 FEVER is an in-the-weeds, nuts-and-bolts look at America’s schools from the point of view of the substitutes. Listen to the book and learn how bad our schools are – and how to fix them.

Why our current system of higher education is financially and morally unsustainable and how to address the crisis with the creative implementation of digital technologies. For too long, our system of higher education has been defined by scarcity: scarcity in enrollment, scarcity in instruction, and scarcity in credentials. In addition to failing students professionally, this system has exacerbated social injustice and socioeconomic stratification across the globe.