Subjects:  1. Administration - General    2. Administration - School Plant Management    3. Aims and objectives    4. Curricula    5. Education    6. Education / Teaching    7. Educational Policy & Reform    8. Educational change    9. School improvement programs    10. Testing & Measurement    11. United States   

Reviews (4)

Hidden Gem!
I happened to find this book while browsing the teaching section.It has truly been a great resource that every (new) teacher should have.Unlike most of our teacher ed. programs, this book gives practical information about how to run a classroom.You won't regret buying this book, it is a wonderful resource!

A great resource for any teacher!
My school district gave every new teacher a copy of this book.The new teacher that I am mentoring shared it with me.After reading through it I was excited to find a book that focuses on instruction instead of some silver-bullet discipline plan.The instructional strategies are written clearly and consisely.Both of us bring our copies of Why Didn't I Learn This in College? and use them as we plan our units and lessons every Monday for the following week.I highly recommend this book to any teacher.

An ESSENTIAL for All Educators!
Practical, positive, and pure Paula! WHY DIDN'T I LEARN THIS IS COLLEGE? is an ESSENTIAL professional resource for educators at all levels of experience! Paula Rutherford applies her 30 years of teaching and educational leadership to create this book of research-based teaching tips and user-friendly tools that will help increase student achievement in our classrooms. She offers a logical framework for creating learning-centered environments, planning "with the 'end' in mind", and organizing learners and professional tasks for positive results for students, parents, and teachers. Read more

Subjects:  1. Classroom management    2. Education    3. Education / Teaching    4. Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / General    5. Educational Policy & Reform    6. First year teachers    7. Higher    8. Professional Development    9. Teaching    10. Teaching Methods & Materials - General   

Reviews (2)

Professional Learning Communities at Work (Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement)
Professional Learning Communities at Work (Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement) by Dr. Richard Dufour and Dr. Robert Eaker, is a well-written/user-friendly piece of literature.This book may be useful as a text for graduate and/or post-graduate level students who are studying and/or working within the area of education, administration, and/or curriculum and instruction.It is also an excellent resource to have if you are dealing with staff and/or curriculum development.The basic premise of the book goes about showing how (via PLC's (Professional Learning Communities)/Small Learning Communities) school staff and administration can work collaboratively to help change, redefine, and/or shape their school's mission and goals.Through this teaming process and through the steps/best practices the authors suggest; school improvement, cultural change, and positive curriculum development and implementation can more likely be achieved.

Practices from some of the best schools in the country
The collaborative work of Richard DuFour (Superintendent of Adlai Stevenson High School District 125, Lincolnshire, Illinois) and Robert Eaker (Dean of the College of Education, Middle Tennessee State University), Professional Learning Communities At Work: Best Practices For Enhancing Student Achievement offers the reader informed and informative information on how to transform any private or public school into a results-oriented "professional learning community" based upon practices from some of the best schools in the country. Professional Learning Communities At Work covers curriculum development, teacher preparation, school leadership, professional development programs, school-parent partnerships, and assessment practices. Of vital interest to education professionals, Professional Learning Communities At Work is completely accessible and highly recommended reading for parents and other non-specialist general readers with an interest in improving their community schools and school systems.
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Subjects:  1. Education    2. Education / Educational Reform    3. Education / Teaching    4. Educational Policy & Reform    5. Educational change    6. Group work in education    7. Leadership    8. Professional Development    9. School improvement programs    10. Team learning approach in educ    11. Team learning approach in education    12. United States    13. Educational Reform   

Reviews (13)

Review of Golden's _Price of Admissions_
This is a book full of handwringing and incessant whining.Golden, a Harvard alumnus, lacks any subtlety or literary range, not to mention consistency.He'll rail against "development cases" pushing out "well qualified" candidates from "top-tier" NYU and Georgetown then pages later treat both schools as inferior backups or consolation prizes.Which are they?Golden shoots so broadly that his complaint gets lost.Again and again he laments that a seat given a "development case" or alumni "legacy" could have gone to someone more deserving.Who would that be?He writes as if a champion of the oppressed but anyone sensible knows that these seats would most probably go to some other child prepped at Hotchkiss or Choate; or graduated from Greenwich or Beverly Hills public.In short, a seat given to SAT and GPA is no less a seat programmed for the perpetuation of wealth and social position -- just blander.Does Golden understand, like Groucho, that no one would care to attend HYP if there weren't wealthy and celebrated connections to be made?Golden doesn't see that a truer psychological intrigue is to be found in the alliance of court and commons when thrown into a mix with the carnivorous middle.In such circumstances it might be better to end the masquerade and simply have foreigners, legacies, celebrities, minorities and the poor appear daily on stage in Memorial Hall -- curio objects for collection and enlightened entertainment.It's all very silly, really!But, still he rails.How can Golden possibly conceive of affirmative action for intellectuals?Repeat:This is the United States of America.I am sure they read Hofstadter when Golden attended Harvard.I'm also certain they understood PT Barnum.Does Golden think today's economy offers better rewards for aesthetic beauty or intellect?He should reconsider as U-Tube scores billions but pure science waits on tables.If America really cared about intellect and talent it would eagerly fund gifted education in the public schools.If it really cared about equality it would step up and pay for better schools all around.If Golden really held dame egalite's torch he would befriend Jonathan Kozol.Even George Steinbrenner recognizes that teams composed from imbalanced talent, and ego, make far more satisfying stories.Holmes needed his Watson, many great scientific discoveries were accidental, and "gated communities" are extremely dull places to live.Real diversity is social, economic, racial, intellectual and talent broad.If Harvard falls short, it can afford to try harder -- and it will.The last thing an egalitarian should desire is to attack "legacy" or "development" or "celebrity" admits only to replace their peculiarities with admissions by the numbers. Listen up defenders of affirmative action: Do not call in the wolves to help you fight the dogs.

Right on
A brief stroll across the Porsche, BMW, Mustang, and SUV packed parking lot of a Stanford undergrad dorm shows that this book must have a kernel of truth, unfortunately.

It's Okay
I found this book to be a fascinating read.One thing I did not like though was Golden's characterization of affirmative action.Although this wasn't the explicit focus of his book, his brief references to it I think lead to false impressions.In fact, there aren't large numbers of black and Latino students walking around these schools.The majority of the "minorities" are Asians, particularly at the graduate level where the largest campus organization at one Ivy League school in particular is the Chinese Students Association.Most of the black and Latino students are immigrants or second-generation immigrants.Because of the "immigrant effect" (e.g. the high performance of Asian students), these kids generally have higher test scores and better grades than any Americans--white or black.I can count on one hand the number of Jamalsor Letitias growing up in the inner city walking around these schools.Therefore, it's kind of ignorant when whites say they are at a disadvantage because "they don't have race."It's too bad that they didn't get into the schools to be able to see that their impressions about how many spots were given to blacks and Latinos because of affirmative action is not really accurate.
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Subjects:  1. Admission    2. College choice    3. Costs    4. Economics Of Education    5. Education    6. Education / Teaching    7. Education, Higher    8. Educational Policy & Reform    9. Finance    10. Higher    11. Social Classes    12. Social Stratification    13. United States    14. Universities and colleges    15. Current Events / American   

Subjects:  1. Education    2. Education / Teaching    3. Educational Policy & Reform    4. Experimental Methods    5. Professional Development   

Reviews (8)

A lot of truth, but also a lot of willful oversight
Kohn leads off with some solid observations.Some children are given what seems to them and their parents to be a lot of homework.It is often more than the rule of thumb guideline of 10 minutes per day per grade.And, as Kohn points out, that rule of thumb has never been so subjected to any empirical test of reasonableness.
Good Ideas, Poor Presentation
In The Homework Myth, Alfie Kohn has some good things to say.Take this (from p. 59): "People are active meaning makers.They are not passive receptacles into which knowledge, or skills, or dispositions can be poured."This is a powerful statement which has wide implications in the field of education.And, in fact, Mr. Kohn has a number of other good things to say in this book beyond his insistent calls to eliminate homework.But he does little with his big ideas.They are hidden beneath his avowed purpose in this book: to convince us that homework is a bad idea. But, no matter how you feel about Mr. Kohn's thesis, it is a bitter pill to swallow since his tone is so stridently negative and he falls into the same traps that he accuses the supporters of homework of sliding into.
A Teacher's Point of View
As a second grade teacher with children of her own, I have to say that I disagree with the idea that homework is not a "valuable" educational experience.The issue of how valuable an experience it is happens to be a moot point.The true value of homework is in having a task, being responsible for doing that task, and doing it to the best of one's ability.It is also valuable to learn that sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do.My 2 cents... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Education    2. Education (General)    3. Education / Teaching    4. Educational Policy & Reform    5. Family And Child Development    6. General    7. Parenting - General    8. Research    9. Teaching skills & techniques   

Editorial Review

In a time when educators and politicians in the United States are fumbling for a fix--from vouchers to smaller class sizes--for ailing public schools, it's refreshing to read the more sophisticated take on what can be done to improve American education found in Read more

Reviews (12)

Do The Easy Things First!
American middle-school and high-school pupils continually lag their peers in other developed countries - especially in mathematics - despite years of decreasing class size, building ornate new structures, "new" math, etc.However, these efforts are bound to fail if what goes on inside the classrooms is poorly structured.
It may not be correct, but...
After reading the book and the previous posters, even if the Japanese mathematics classes were not representative of the education system as a whole, the implications of this study and the ideas that the authors came up with are what we should be focusing on.
Interesting for a Education Student
I am in a program to become a High School math teacher. Our professor recommended this book. I found it to be pretty interesting. The authors do a detailed analysis of a video study from the TIMSS study. Their analysis compares how math is taught in the US, Germany and Japan. Their conclusion is that the US approach focuses on teaching terms and procedures where as the other countries emphasize understanding concepts. They go onto to propose a system of "lesson planning" to improve teaching in the US. Lesson planning calls for teachers to work in teams and develop a single lesson plan (maybe one per semester). The process of developing the lesson plan and refining it imparts to the teachers involved a kind of "best practices" that they can then use in their everyday planning. I am not sure if this is practical, but it sure sounds reasonable to me. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comparative Education    2. Education    3. Education / Teaching    4. Educational Policy & Reform    5. Educational Reform    6. Germany    7. Japan    8. Mathematics    9. Study and teaching    10. Teaching Methods & Materials - Classroom Planning    11. Teaching Methods & Materials - Mathematics    12. United States    13. Central government policies    14. Education / General    15. Organization & management of education   

Reviews (31)

A House Divided
"The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America" will challenge any illusion the reader holds that America has left her divided and racist history far behind. Truly a heart rending account of apartheid schooling that bridges the larger social implications of racial and economic disparity with the daily life and dreams of our children.

A voice for those who do not have a say right now.
Promises made are not always promises kept.We all say that we want education to be a priority for all.Do we all really support that?The Shame of the Nation exposes the compliancy that many Americans have when it comes to actually promoting equal opportunities for all.We want our professional athletes and Olympic contestants to be able to compete and train in the best facilities and with the best practices.This enables them to reach their fullest potential and beyond.We should all be willing to support this endeavor for the education of all of our students.This book helps us to walk in another's shoes and truly empathize with the inequaties that so many children must deal with.Reading this book should open ones eyes to how many future adult American are set up for failure.Brown vs. Board of Education may have imposed laws for equality but it must go further into the mindset of funding agencies.If we are truly to become equal, we must alleviate the barriers that cause the fragmentation of opporutnity and success.
Opened my eyes to problems in our public education system
This book explains how racial segregation in the public schools has been getting worse and why that is a problem.If children interact with other races at a young age, they're less likely to have racist ideas as adults.When people extol the legal and political victories that allowed integrated schools, Kozol finds it ironic because even though apartheid is not the law, current public policy discourages integration.Well-meaning parents in affluent school districts lobby against any zoning change that would include children from poorer areas.The result is that school districts are unintentionally set up to segregate the poor from the middle class and dark-skinned from the ligher-skinned.This makes our society seem horribly unfair to the children going through the segregated, inferior schools.
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Subjects:  1. Administration - General    2. De facto school segregation    3. Discrimination & Racism    4. Education    5. Education / Teaching    6. Educational Policy & Reform    7. General    8. Multicultural Education    9. Philosophy & Social Aspects    10. Sociology Of Education    11. United States    12. Education / General   

Reviews (1)

Golden Dancer
In the movie Inherit the Wind, the story of Golden Dancer is related to the audience.Golden Dancer was a beautiful and expensive wooden rocking horse that a family bought for its child after saving for it.The first time the child rode the horse, it collapsed as the wood was rotten to the core;so, is the DuFour premise as found on page 37.His conclusion that all students can achieve at the same level (learn specified topics) is asinine.He argues that all that is needed for struggling students is more time and support.He refuses to take into account intelligence and student effort (responsibility) in his equation.If his premise has any chance of coming true, teachers will have to dumb down what they teach to the lowest common denominator. Additionally, he and his colleagues lump all "traditional schools" into the same problem heap.His approach is simplistic and insulting.I would give this book zero stars, but that is not an option. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Education    2. Education / Teaching    3. General   

Reviews (9)

Responsible Teaching
Research Professor Derek Bok's "Our Underachieving Colleges" (2006, hardback) presents a new way of thinking about education in American colleges.Understanding that his presentation could create academic criticism, Bok builds his argument upon a substantial foundation of convincing research (with 49 pages of endnotes).
Excellent, complex look at the problems of undergrad education
In this book, Derek Bok does an incredible job of laying out the shortcomings in undergraduate education.However, he does this without failing to acknowledge the good being achieved.As a former college president Dr. Bok speaks from a position of authority on the subject.The problems he identifies he backs up with thorough, thought provoking research.He does not just leave the problems as they stand but offers helpful, realistic suggestions for improvement.The greatest strenght of Dr. Bok's book is that he appreciates the complexity of the problem.The issues he raises as well as the solutions he proposes are not simplistic answers to superficial issues.This book is a must read for anyone involved in education.On top of all that, it is well written and thus a pleasure to read.In fact, I recommend it for anyone who enjoys reading a well written book.

Underachieving
Former Harvard President tells how and where the faults lie in our college system and the reason for change to stay ahead in the world. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Academic achievement    2. Aims and objectives    3. Education    4. Education / Teaching    5. Education, Higher    6. Educational Policy & Reform    7. Higher    8. United States    9. Economics    10. Education / Higher    11. Higher & further education    12. Philosophy of education    13. Political Science and International Relations    14. Sociology   

Reviews (13)

Good observations, good data, but the conclusion is a bit overdrawn
The authors open with a number of anecdotes about the ways in which excessive homework interferes with family dinners, vacations, family conversations, conversations among siblings, pleasure reading, and a variety of other activities that teenagers are normally engaged in.This sets the tone for the whole book; the authors rely extensively on anecdotes to carry their story.
Let children play!
"What can I say-- thank you, thank you so much Nancy Kalish for all
Children Are Fleeing The Dinner Table To Rush To Finish Homework Assignments?
Whether there is too much homework, or not enough, assigned to public school students is debatable, but what is becoming more evident is that Sara Bennett and Alfie Kohn share the same crib notes.
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Subjects:  1. Child Care/Parenting    2. Education    3. Education (Specific Aspects)    4. Educational Policy & Reform    5. Family & Relationships    6. Family / Parenting / Childbirth    7. Homework    8. Life Stages - School Age    9. Parent participation    10. Parenting - General    11. Parents And Education    12. United States    13. Family & Relationships / Parenting   

Reviews (7)

Working on the Work
After reading the reviews given to this book, it is obvious to me who are the ones who were told to read the book and who are the ones who were asked to read it as well as offered support with the content.It is just like our students.If we just say "read the book", how engaging is that?If we are given the support to utilize the theory, the book makes much more sense.So, I can understand both ways of seeing the book.I, fortunately, am in a district where we were asked to look into this program (which is really what Working on the Work is) and decide if we would like to use it, as a district.We first, though, were given the opportunity to attend a conference where the presenter was from the Schlechty school.This was where the "practicality" came from.The reviewers are correct in that the book does not give those practical, concrete examples and studies we, as teachers, crave for our own learning.But, that is exactly the point of the program.How can we make our tasks as engaging as we are?The standards at the back of the book are going to be the most useful for teachers.Those are how you structure a lesson to be most engaging.So, I highly recommend that if you get this book that you pair it with some kind of support or research, so that the practical part can be understood along with the theory.

Working on the Work
The thesis of the author, offer students work that is meaningful and engaging, is a paradigm shift.The usual way of improving students' experience in the classroom is to offer professional development seminars to teachers so that they might become better educators.However, Schlechty shifts the focus away from improving instruction to working on the work that we require students to do.
Edu-speak
This is the sort of book school administrators love and teachers hate.It's long on vague, lofty sounding goals and absolutely no specifics to help teachers get there.What teacher wouldn't want to be more engaging?Who wouldn't want to inspire their students?Simply stating "be more engaging" doesn't get a teacher there any more than the teacher telling their student to "be smarter".But admin types love Schlechty's program.It puts the burden on the teacher to "work smarter, not harder...", "work the work" and "be more engaging and entertaining",and absolves students, parents and administrators from any responsibility for student improvement.
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Subjects:  1. Academic achievement    2. Administration - General    3. Curriculum change    4. Education    5. Education / Teaching    6. Educational Policy & Reform    7. School Management And Discipline    8. School environment    9. School improvement programs    10. Teaching Methods & Materials - General    11. United States    12. Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / General    13. Teaching skills & techniques   

Reviews (33)

A Dream to Keep Alive
Though Ladon-Billings leans towards idealism constructing a perfect model of societal bliss, this book does show the underlying lack of knowledge many people have regarding educational issues. Those who say that the African-Americans' educational problems are their own fault show incredible short-sightedness to the truth of history. Have we forgotten that the Africa diaspora of colonialism was a forced migration to this country that treated blacks as inferior, and thus that it was a waste of time to educate them? In order for racism to stop, people have to recognize that there is no one race better than any other. All races have value and thus all races should be celebrated. God created them all. An understanding of this will lead to advances in the educational system which often has curricula that have no connection to many of its students. Ladson-Billings book, though primarily focused on African-Americans, is still an important blueprint toward removing some of the blinders people wear when it comes to historical truth. This book is for those who have ears to hear.

The education problem is never a one race or one minority problem
Author Ladson-Billings (1994) book "The Dreamkeepers", gave me valuable inside on examples of various challenging and rigorous classrooms, and the emphasis the author put in presenting the cultural and social aspects of schooling when framing education as a whole, was evident. However the author makes the problems of African American children the main issue at stake in her book. Therefore I was presented with a fact and a different point of view based on statistics while conducting my research: One cannot lobby to change the system for one type of minority, to be successful at change. One has to see the "spreading tumor' per se, as a culturally diverse illness, affecting all of us. We, as a diverse society cannot try to make only one minority the beneficiary of our input, improvement, and educational reform. According the U.S. Department of Education (2004) NCLB (No child left behind) report, it showed that among the reading and math proficiency levels of performance for 4th graders in 2003, African American children were slightly lower, by one to five percent, under performing the Hispanics, meaning Hispanics proficiencies in reading and math are slightly better, just slightly, but this does not justify viewing the problem of minority children as being only an African American one. To be successful at change, one has to be more objective and start change for all minorities, why is it so vital to start with only one? I know poverty and lack of social skills are a major factor, but imagine how difficult it is to learn with a new language too.
a useful book
The Dreamkeepers isn't a necessarily groundbreaking book, but i think white teachers (or any teachers for that matter) who haven't had much experience working with african american children will find the book helpful.If you've read any other stuff that falls under anti-racist or critical pedagogy, there won't be much that is new in terms of concepts.But what i found most useful are her sketches of the eight or so teachers who are very successful with african american children.She talks about their their upbringing, how that has influenced their teaching practices, and why they are successful in the classroom. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult & Continuing Education    2. African Americans    3. Education    4. Education / Teaching    5. Educational anthropology    6. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General    7. Multicultural Education    8. Teaching    9. United States    10. Black studies    11. Education / Multicultural Education    12. Educational administration    13. Educational systems    14. Philosophy of education    15. Teaching of ethnic minorities    16. USA    17. Urban communities   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (23)

A good history of education in America
This book does a good job of covering the last hundred years of the debate about education in America. A seemly simple question has been at the root of this debate: "What is the purpose of education?"
Read This Short Thought
I just finished reading THE MOST AMAZING BOOK in the Excellent on telling us what's wrong, short on solutions
Diane Ravitch has done an excellent job of researching the roots of the current malaise in public schools. I once heard that early educational theorists actually wrote in terms of school being a means of social control, but I couldn't believe that people supposedly interested in educating the country's youth could be so insidious. Much to my dismay, Ms. Ravitch dispelled my skepticism.

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Education    3. Education / Teaching    4. Educational Policy & Reform    5. Educational Reform    6. Educational change    7. History    8. Public schools    9. Teaching Methods & Materials - General    10. United States    11. United States - General    12. Education / General   

Reviews (7)

Practical ideas for facilitators
I have worked with adult learners for more than fifteen years and have always tried to incorporate whole-brained, participative learning.This book provided some excellent theoretical background as well as a lot of new instantly usable ideas.I wasn't even all the way through before I applied a couple of the techniques and got an excellent response from my client.

excellent training tool
I was getting ready to prepare a training program for 44 persons when I read this book.Immediately! after I used the guidelines to prepare my session.Preparation was fast and easy -and fun! I really couldn't believe that it was that easy to apply and it has been one of my best sessions to date. I refer to it when I need a refresher or a new perspective. I definately reccomend this book for trainers who need to keep their material fresh and interesting (esp. in-house trainers).

Accelerated Learning Handbook
Finally, teachers and administrators have a useful tool to recharge their classrooms/schools. We have become so test oriented that many times we forget that the process of learning comes from the doing. The statement comes to mind that we utter with new approaches," When do I have the time to get it all in?". That is where the problem lies! We are so pressured with these new demands that we loose sight of what is important, the process. This book will give us a clearer picture of how we can recharge our teaching and can provide the key so we can use the ideas to change the way we teach or approach the students' learning who are in our care. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business/Economics    3. Cognitive Psychology    4. Education / Teaching    5. Educational acceleration    6. Employee Training And Development    7. Experimental Methods    8. Handbooks, manuals, etc    9. Teaching Methods & Materials - Workbooks    10. Training    11. United States    12. Business & Economics / Human Resources & Personnel Management    13.