Reviews (5)

Whatever It Takes
This is a fantastic book that demonstrates what a committed community of learners can accomplish to improve learning for all students.The ideas are testimonials of ways to bring about change through Professional Learning Communities (PLC's).The most interesting findings in this book are that lots of money was not available to bring about these changes, in fact, most of the strategies involved taking what already existed and using time or professionals in a different manner.I am spellbound by the changes shared in the schools featured in this book.I applaud the commitment of each staff member that embraced the clarity of purpose, the collaborative culture, the collective inquiry into best practice and current reality, the action orientation, the commitment to continuous improvement, the focus on results, the support of strong principals who empower teachers, and those that remained committed to face adversity, conflict, and anxiety.BRAVO!!!

Well presented
Good ideas, well presented with real life examples and explanations for some of the easy criticisms. As stated in the book, this is not a new math or reading program, it is a strategy for reaching all students.

Putting the effort where it counts most
Studies of this sort seem most relevant when the overall budgets decrease the numbers of those professionals with time to concentrate on the poor performers. With specific kinds of testing and follow through individual students can be identified and helped before too much time has passed and the road to recovery looks too difficult. There are some excellent suggestions and descriptions of tried and true programs in this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Education    3. Education / Teaching    4. Educational change    5. Effective teaching    6. Philosophy & Social Aspects    7. School improvement programs    8. United States   

Reviews (1)

Develops six guiding principles for creating and sustaining high-performing schools
Failure Is Not An Option: Six Principles That Guide Student Achievement In High-performing Schools is an impressive introduction to enhancing student performance which directly addresses transforming theory into practice and illustrating diverse applications with case studies and vignettes. Failure Is Not An Option develops six guiding principles for creating and sustaining high-performing schools. Also available in a hardcover edition, Failure Is Not An Option is especially commended to the attention of administrators and faculty responsible for providing primary leadership in developing curriculum and policies for meeting enhanced federal and state standards for individual school and school district criteria under the "no child left behind" education standards for student academic performance levels.
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Subjects:  1. Academic achievement    2. Administration - General    3. Aims & Objectives    4. Education    5. Education / Teaching    6. Educational leadership    7. Leadership    8. School improvement programs    9. United States    10. Education / Leadership    11. Organization & management of education   

Reviews (3)

Good Perspective
We used this book in our doctoral level Urban Education class this semester. Very informative.

Really difficult to read, but it was a requirement!
Such a difficult book to read.It felt as if the authors had 2 chapters of concrete evidence and then took these 2 chapters and tried to expand them to fill an entire book.I felt as if I was having deja-vu throughout my entire reading of it.Some topics that I thought had been clarified again kept popping up and restasted the same idea in a couple pages worth. Excellent tool for a touchy topic
I've used this book teaching 10 classes in Multicultural Education for California State University at Hayward.It covers some "hot spots" like gender, special education, race, and social class.I'venever had a student who expressed dislike for the book.It provokesdissent, emotions, and great discussions but maintains a well researchedand professional style.I would recommend it to any professor ofmulticultural education and I eagerly await the 4th edition, coming thisJuly! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Education    3. Education / Teaching    4. General    5. Multicultural Education    6. Education / Aims & Objectives    7. Education / General    8. Educational equalization    9. Philosophy of education   

Reviews (6)

Sociopolitical?
I found this book to primarily address the issues of eastern seaboard minority studentsrather than the issues faced in the southwestern US. Here in AZ there is a very strong prejudice against Immigrant students of Spanish speaking origin. Did you realize that in most workplaces in AZ we are not allowed to speak in a language other than English to a co-worker? Some paranoid person, usually a transplanted Anglo from out of state thinks we are talking about them. Ms Nieto needs to make her text more of a national treasure by not just focusing on those in the Midwest and Eastern seaboard nothern states. This book is due for an update!

Ineffective Approach and Little Practical Advice
I found this book of little use. The major problems created by using race as the main focus of the book include:
SociopoliticalMarxism
Well now, I know where some of the true Marxist are hiding.In this book, Nieto is trying to create equity policies in schools using taxpayer dollars.If she had her way, she would get rid of capitalism, social classes, and distribution of wealth.Of course, we have already seen how that works in the former Soviet Union (it doesn't work at all).Yes, in a democratic-republic (Nieto always forgets the republic part) there is a dominant culture.Kind of why we call this a nation state, we have national culture.Unfortunately, Nieto is too busy saying the dominant culture is based on White European ideals.In fact, the ideals are based on Judaism, which is not European at all.Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Case studies    3. Education    4. Education / Teaching    5. Multicultural Education    6. United States    7. Education / Multicultural Education   

Reviews (26)

Challenging
I read this book for a graduate studies class.The critical padagogy Freire gives is excellent and we had deep discussions in class.The reading is challenging because some points are repeated and one wonders whether one is making any headway at times.The ideas re education are basic to understanding current educational trends.

MARVELOUS
This was one of the hardest reads I have gone through in my young 16 years of life. And at the same time, perhaps the most rewarding. You wanta make change? You wanta be a revolutionary? Great intro to liberating yourself and those who are oppressed around you. DO NOT TRY TO COMPARE TO MARX. Though you can draw similarities, this particular work is just to different. Go read it.

I'll make this short, he didnt.
So many words to say so little. This book could have been three pages long and that would have been sufficient. He goes on and on on the same topics of what its like to be oppressed and what the oppressed must do to brake free from oppression. This is all very much common sence, at least it seems so to me, having taken a college class here and there. Marx is taken far out of context and this book altogether preaches a utopian way of things thats as far fetched as communism functioning in a capitalist society. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1921-    2. Aims & Objectives    3. Critical pedagogy    4. Education    5. Freire, Paulo,    6. General    7. Philosophy    8. Philosophy Of Education    9. Popular education    10. Sociology    11. Sociology - Social Theory    12. Teaching    13. Teaching Methods & Materials - General    14. Freire, Paulo    15. Organization & management of education   

Reviews (8)

Mapping is new!
I wanted to learn mapping to help me with my career choices as I worked with a resume writer and career coach (http://www.callfranklyspeaking.com). This book really helped me understand the concept and apply not just to a job change, but to my new job and mapping out the possibilities for my department. Easy to learn!

Great Resource
Very visual book, excellant ideas.Hope to use it to help my kids in school.

Amazing read!
This book presents visual mapping in both written words and graphic form. The consistency between the two forms makes learning extraordinarily fast. I read it in one sitting and have begun to use the techniques already to facilitate my writing. My one wish was that the publisher had done it in color. Ah, but this would have increased the cost to something I might not want to have spent before seeing it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Cognitive Psychology    3. Education    4. Education / Teaching    5. Learning Styles    6. Teaching Methods & Materials - General    7. Thought and thinking    8. Visual learning    9. Educational psychology   

Reviews (1)

Great resource!
This book is very helpful for practitioners and chock-full of information. I especially enjoyed the section on regional teaching institutions. A must for all educators. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Administration    2. Aims & Objectives    3. Education    4. Education / Teaching    5. Higher    6. Strategic planning    7. Universities and colleges    8. Education / Higher    9. Educational administration    10. Management & management techniques    11. Universities / polytechnics   

Reviews (13)

true, cute, but v. short on solutions
Most anyone who works in the trenches of education-teachers especially-know that a good deal of our time is spent riding (or whipping) dead horses; doing things that just plain' ol' don't work year after year.
Just Read the Title
This book consists of exactly eighteen sentences; the title tells the whole story. I thought I was ordering a book that would provide some insights. It does not.
If you're riding a horse and it dies, get off
Those that have given this book poor reviews obviously do not work in public education or have taken the book too seriously.Constructed around the old saying of "don't beat a dead horse" this book illustrates that there comes a time when you must recognize that the proverbial horse is dead and you must move on to a new way of thinking.This book is excellent for staff development and illustrating that it is often important to step back from a problem and think outside of the box.It is a perfect illustration of the old saying "if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got" only with some humorous educational examples.Simple, but to the point. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Allegories    3. Education    4. Education / Educational Reform    5. Educational Reform   

Reviews (9)

Also Useful for Teachers of Color
This book was a nice surprise as a pre-service teacher in education classes where the realities of white supremacy is not discussed, the first hand experiences of teachers of color are silenced, black/Latino or "at-risk multicultural" students are demonized, poor white kids are invisible and the issues of other groups are addressed superficially through "practical strategies"mandated by here today/ gone tomorrow popular scholars. This book gave me as an African American educator a space to see how whiteness functions in everyone's lives in the public school system. Each page helped me understand better why white people sometimes act in certain ways.
great service
I recieved my book within 3 days by ordering on just the regular service.

A little long-winded but contains nuggets of usefulness
We read this book for a graduate class on teaching other cultures. While I was disappointed at the lack of practical applications of the book, it did help to open my eyes to the idea of White Dominance. There are factors of a white-dominated culture that are invisible to us whites, and Howard does a good job of bringing those to light.
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Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Discrimination & Racism    3. Discrimination (Educational Aspects)    4. Discrimination in education    5. Education    6. Education / Teaching    7. Leadership    8. Multicultural Education    9. Race identity    10. United States    11. Whites    12. Teaching of ethnic minorities   

Reviews (3)

PERFECT CONDITION
Thanks for an AWESOME BOOK!PERFECT CONDITION!Great Service.Fast Shipping!Thanks so much.Jessica

Promoting a reclaiming environment.
This book is wonderful in guiding teachers and administrators in developing an atmosphere that promotes the positive development of all children.After a large section devoted to describing the wrong-doings of Americans and the decay of our value system (at times a little extreme,) the latter part of the book gives great strategies for the development of positive classroom management and a "reclaiming environment."Worth a read.

A Must -Have for Teachers and Administrators
As Education Director at an alternative high school for American Indian students, I find this book a valuable and useable resource.In a succinct fashion, the authors lay out a philosphy for creating school environmentsthat reclaim students at risk.The Reclaiming model integrates traditionalNative American aproaches to discipline and child development.The bookdoes a nice job of explaining and illustrating each of its principles.Thebook offers an intuitive and very old model as well as a rationale forimplementing it.For its accessibility and ideas, Reclaiming Youth At Riskshould be read by everyone working with young adults. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Education / Teaching    3. Indian youth    4. Problem youth    5. Psychology    6. Sociology    7. Teaching Methods & Materials - General    8. United States    9. Youth   

Reviews (5)

Light in their eyes
Excellent. Nieto has great insights into issues on diversity,
The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Com
I read this book for a graduate level Multicultural Education course.We were given the option to choose between Sonia Nieto's book or another book.I blindly chose Nieto's, based on the reviews I read on Amazon.com.As it turns out, that was a HUGE mistake.It was one of the hardest books I have ever read! If I were writing my dissertation for my Ph.D. in education, perhaps I would have a better knowledge of the jargon Nieto uses. However, it was a struggle to get through how repetitive she tends to be, as well as deciphering much of her vocabulary.In the beginning I was having a lot of self-doubt about my ability to read.As it turns out, nine of the ten classmates who chose this book also suffered the same trouble I had.
a must read for educators!
sonia nieto does an extraordinary job of conveying not only the notion of multiculturalism, but also the understanding of what it takes to teach in a multicultural arena. nieto accurately describes the learning process as a reciprocal process between students and teachers, and students as teachers. nieto discusses the notion of "culture" as a verb, which i think is quite appropriate. the use of personal narratives, as well as her own experience as an educator in poor, urban areas, was very insightful and uplifting. one thing that struck me as prophetic, while seemingly obvious, was her statement "in order to become a multicultural teacher you must first be a multicultural person." well said. and well written. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Children of minorities    3. Education    4. Education / Teaching    5. Essays    6. Multicultural Education    7. Teaching Methods & Materials - General    8. United States    9. Educational psychology    10. Philosophy of education   

Reviews (2)

A very straightforward book
This book takes issue with how the teaching business is the only business where it's practitioners, teachers, expect and are expected to work in isolation. Mr. Schmoker does not take issue with teachers, nor does he blame them for this problem. Rather, he blames the institution of teaching for the problem. Why did you leave teaching since you have the answers?
Great book.I did not see addresssed the WHY ARE KIDS SCORING LOW in schools of low sociaeconomic students.How do you account for this besides blaming teachers for using "regrograde and ineffective methods ofteaching in urban and rural areas?"I thought that was very weak. Also, what you suggest looks doable but why don't schools from highsocioeconocimic areas have the same testing problems as those you sight inyour book?WHY don't these kids learn?Why don't we look for some ofthese answers?It feel punative for teachers of schools that score poorly. It's not the kids.It's the lack of life esperiences that hold them back. This is totally test driven.I doubt that these kids who will have bettertest scores from Result will be better educated.It's just a politicalmove, at best. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Administration - General    2. Aims & Objectives    3. Aims and objectives    4. Education    5. Education / Teaching    6. Educational Policy & Reform    7. Educational change    8. School improvement programs    9. United States    10. Examinations & assessment    11. Teaching skills & techniques   

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Education    3. Education / Teaching    4. Multicultural Education    5. Pluralism (Social sciences)    6. Social aspects    7. United States    8. Education / Multicultural Education    9. Multicultural studies   

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Developmental - Child    3. Early childhood education    4. Education / Teaching    5. Educational Policy & Reform    6. Preschool & Kindergarten    7. Psychology    8. Psychology & Psychiatry / Child Development   

Subjects:  1. Administration    2. Administration - General    3. Aims & Objectives    4. Day care centers    5. Education    6. Education / Teaching    7. Elementary    8. Parenting - Child Rearing    9. Preschool & Kindergarten    10. United States    11. Child welfare    12. Education / Elementary   

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Education    3. Education / Teaching    4. General    5. Minorities    6. Multicultural education    7. Social aspects    8. Teachers    9. Training of    10. United States    11. Education / General   

Reviews (5)

Classroom Community Can Happen
If you are a teacher or a person who cares about children this is the book for you. As a teacher I have used this book and have had fantastic results.Creating an environment for students that is positve and inclusive is theonly way teachers can end violence and negativity in their classrooms. This book is pack full of activities that will help build a caringcommunity of students in the classroom.The activities also transcend theschool environment. It is perfect for companies who want to build employeerelationships that are positive and productive.If I could only describethe author in one word it would be Amazing. I have met her and she is ascaring in person as she in the book. This woman has dedicated her life tomaking a difference and it shows. Buy the book it will be the best thingyou ever did!

Building community
This is simply the best all round book on building community in schools available. The author wonderfully integrates practical strategies on the education of very diverse learners together -- in terms of ability, race,culture, language. It is a book filled with gentleness and grace yetsolidly based on research and practical information. This book should beread and daily used by every elementary teacher!

A book that can make a difference
I really enjoyed the way Mara Sapon-Shevin writes -- everything flows, everything is connected, and her choice of words is apt and evocative.It's also very well organized.Her ideas are elegant and yet simple,clear, and concise.She names the problems that exist and ways to addressthem, and illustrates them well with clear examples.Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Classroom Management    3. Classroom environment    4. Cooperation    5. Education    6. Education / Teaching    7. Preschool & Kindergarten    8. Secondary    9. Study and teaching    10. Teaching Methods & Materials - General    11. United States    12. Education / Bilingual Education    13. Teaching skills & techniques   

Reviews (6)

View from Inside a Cocoon
After a twenty year career as a college professor, I continue to read books that challenge the academic world.
Big surprise
My best friend from first grade went to Harvard College in 1971. Since the Ivy League at that time was still all-male, I went to Mount Holyoke College. We met again at Tufts, him in the Medical School and myself in the Dental School. Don said the hardest part of Harvard was getting in; no course he took in the pre-med department could hold a candle to the AP Chemistry course he took at our public high school.I feel he sold out his considerable abilities as a paper-pusher for an HMO, but he may disagree.But the fact remains that although he has an MD he doesn't see many patients.Classmates of mine who spent semesters at the Ivy League schools also commented on the easy courses and high grades.Granted, at MHC some students took the easy way out; our class valedictorian was a French major who was from France!And for that you paid what?This book doesn't tell other college grads anything they didn't already suspect.My daughter graduated from Quinnipiac, and my son is a sophomore at Centenary College in New Jersey.The only parents I met who wanted their son to go to Harvard weren't interested in what he wanted or if he belonged there.That's the trouble with being Harvard: so many people just want the name.Both my kids had interests and looked for the schools that had the programs they wanted.The book is well-written and a good read, and it will make you glad your kids didn't want to go to Harvard!

of course
Of course, we all know Harvard sucks. Take the entering first-year class, from the highest income brackets in the world, and still them in any situation, and they'll be fine. Harvard doesn't add any educational value - it just isn't messing the students up. Besides, the college exists to serve the needs of the professors, not the students. This book is a biting indictment of a meaningless and benign institution that does little to help the students who walk through its doors and adds little, if any, value to society. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Academic achievement    2. Aims & Objectives    3. Aims And Objectives Of Education    4. Aims and objectives    5. College And University Administration    6. Education    7. Education / Teaching    8. Education, Higher    9. Higher    10. History    11. Philosophy & Social Aspects    12. United States    13. Universities and colleges    14. Higher & further education    15. Philosophy of education   

Reviews (6)

Waste of time
While I can't imagine anybody buying this book unless required to for a class, let me warn you away just in case. It's bad. I mean really bad. The writing is completely without any sort of character or flair. It's only point seems to be that white men are all super lucky and they suck. Personal agenda by the authors, perhaps? Anyway, if it is a required text for a class, complain to the instructor. I wish I had.

wonderful condition
The book was what I had ordered and the condition of the book was perfect.Thanks for the fast delivery.

Very dissapointed
I am an undergrad, and I was ready to compose a lament upon reading this work. I can't imagine why grad students would be exposed to this book, it's not very good. The authors are tackling a very real problem - given the pluralism prevalent in most public (and many private) classrooms, how does an educator go about maneuvring within that classroom to successfully engage and instruct all it's members? Read more

Subjects:  1. Aims & Objectives    2. Education / Teaching    3. Multicultural Education    4. Curriculum planning & development    5. Multicultural studies   

Reviews (1)

A Guide to Teachers and to the College Bound
This book really has two goals. It's original and main intent is aimed at high school teachers who are preparing students for college. In this vein it addresses what should be tought to students and how they should be taught.
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Subjects:  1. Academic achievement    2. Administration - General    3. Aims & Objectives    4. College Entrance    5. College student orientation    6. Education    7. Education / Teaching    8. United States    9. Advice on education    10. Education / Administration    11. Higher & further education