Individuals from Vastly Different Political Perspectives Agree That There Is a Crisis in Education Education is the foundation of every nation's success or failure; it produces upstanding citizens, lifts people out of poverty, and catalyzes change. Crisis in the Classroom is full of captivating, insightful essays by renowned Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump; neurosurgeon and former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson; and serial entrepreneur and media personality Armstrong Williams that expose the harsh realities of the current state of education in the United States and its repercussions on underserved and marginalized communities. Crisis in the Classroom presents the unvarnished realities of poor educational outcomes, a topic that is frequently missing from the headlines, and how these have led communities and generations of future leaders to descend into poverty and devastation. Crisis in the Classroom demonstrates that when the education of our children is jeopardized, so are our families, communities, and nation. Despite the grim realities depicted in Crisis in the Classroom, the authors show us that faith and unity, paired with an apolitical, solution-based approached to the education crisis, can provide hope for a brighter future.

Today's teachers are faced with unprecedented challenges. Students arrive with critical family and personal problems. School-wide emergencies such as shutdowns, campus violence and loss bring unanticipated stress. Community events impact the classroom, and there are threats of disaster, terror and war.

"In this bold new book, the result of a three-and-a-half-year study commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charles E. Silberman examines the problems that beset American education with the same intelligence, compassion, and uncompromising honesty that marked his award-winning best seller Crisis in Black and White." "Anyone who is concerned with the nation's public schools and with its colleges and universities will be disturbed by the picture of current practice which Mr. Silberman paints in vivid and painful detail. Many will agree with his insistence that it is not enough merely to ask, "How can we bring the worst institutions up to the level of the best?"--For all too often, the best is simply not good enough."--Jacket.

First published in 1995, Crisis in the Primary Classroom redefines the crisis plaguing primary classrooms by challenging many of the educational and political orthodoxies of the nineties. The book is set during a particular period in the nineties when primary education was under attack from the Government and sections of the media, with accusations that reading standards had fallen, the National Curriculum was not being taught well and training colleges had failed to produce sufficient teachers of quality. In response to these concerns, the Government commissioned a report, which presented a series of solutions. Maurice Galton argues that the report failed to identify the root causes of the problems facing primary schools. He examines critically whether the National Curriculum was necessary, and whether teaching methods and classroom organization really needed to be changed radically. He also addresses the issue of quality among teachers, suggesting ways in which this might be developed. Crisis in the Primary Classroom deserves to be read by all concerned with the planning, administration and practice of primary education. Teachers will be encouraged by the message that methods found to be successful in the past must be accommodated in new patterns of organization and classroom practice.

Answers the calls of grassroots communities pressing for integration and increased education funding with a complete rethinking of school discipline In the era of zero tolerance, we are flooded with stories about schools issuing draconian punishments for relatively innocent behavior. One student was suspended for chewing a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun. Another was expelled for cursing on social media from home. Suspension and expulsion rates have doubled over the past three decades as zero tolerance policies have become the normal response to a host of minor infractions that extend well beyond just drugs and weapons. Students from all demographic groups have suffered, but minority and special needs students have suffered the most. On average, middle and high schools suspend one out of four African American students at least once a year. The effects of these policies are devastating. Just one suspension in the ninth grade doubles the likelihood that a student will drop out. Fifty percent of students who drop out are subsequently unemployed. Eighty percent of prisoners are high school drop outs. The risks associated with suspension and expulsion are so high that, as a practical matter, they amount to educational death penalties, not behavioral correction tools. Most important, punitive discipline policies undermine the quality of education that innocent bystanders receive as well—the exact opposite of what schools intend. Derek Black, a former attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, weaves stories about individual students, lessons from social science, and the outcomes of courts cases to unearth a shockingly irrational system of punishment. While schools and legislatures have proven unable and unwilling to amend their failing policies, Ending Zero Tolerance argues for constitutional protections to check abuses in school discipline and lays out theories by which courts should re-engage to enforce students’ rights and support broader reforms.