Improve Schools and Transform Education In order for educational systems to change, we must reevaluate deep-seated beliefs about learning, teaching, schooling, and race that perpetuate inequitable opportunities and outcomes. Hatch, Corson, and Gerth van den Berg challenge the narrative when it comes to the "grammar of schooling"--or the conventional structures, practices, and beliefs that define educational experiences for so many children—to cast a new vision of what school could be. The book addresses current systemic problems and solutions as it: Highlights global examples of successful school change Describes strategies that improve educational opportunities and performance Explores promising approaches in developing new learning opportunities Outlines conditions for supporting wide-scale educational improvement This provocative book approaches education reform by highlighting what works, while also demonstrating what can be accomplished if we redefine conventional schools. We can make the schools we have more efficient, more effective, and more equitable, all while creating powerful opportunities to support all aspects of students’ development. "You won’t find a better book on system change in education than this one. We learn why schools don’t change; how they can improve; what it takes to change a system; and, in the final analysis, the possibilities of system change. Above all, The Education We Need renders complexity into clarity as the writing is so clear and compelling. A powerful read on a topic of utmost importance." ~Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus, OISE/Universtiy of Toronto "I cannot recommend this book highly enough – Tom tackles long-standing and emerging educational issues in new ways with an impressive understanding of the challenging complexities, but also feasible possibilities, for ensuring excellence and equity for all students." ~Carol Campbell, Associate Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

The New York Times bestseller that celebrates the dreams, acceptance, and love that parents have for their children . . . now and forever. This is the perfect heartfelt gift for kids of all ages, plus a great choice for baby showers, birthdays, graduations, and other new beginnings! From brave and bold to creative and clever, Emily Winfield Martin's rhythmic rhyme expresses all the loving things that parents think of when they look at their children. With beautiful, lush illustrations, this is a book that families will love reading over and over. The Wonderful Things You Will Be has a loving and truthful message that will endure for lifetimes and makes a great gift to the ones you love for any occasion.

In this wildly amusing, unconventional shape concept book, Trapezoid is here to declare that he's a shape, too. He's NOT a type of dinosaur! Shape up, shapes! Triangle is hosting auditions for all the best shapes to be in his play. Circle, Square, and Star each get a part. But Trapezoid just doesn't "fit in." Is he even a shape? The others think he sounds like a type of dinosaur. Determined to show off his usefulness, Trapezoid tries to act like the other shapes, to no avail. Eventually, though, Trapezoid celebrates his own distinct shape properties in order to become part of the performance.

This book tells the story of 15,000 wool workers who went on strike for more than a year, defying police violence and hunger. The strikers were mainly immigrants and half were women. The Passaic textile strike, the first time that the Communist Party led a mass workers’ struggle in the United States, captured the nation’s imagination and came to symbolize the struggle of workers throughout the country when the labor movement as a whole was in decline during the conservative, pro-business 1920s. Although the strike was defeated, many of the methods and tactics of the Passaic strike presaged the struggles for industrial unions a decade later in the Great Depression.

High school English teacher Abigail Brennan-DiBlasi can't imagine life without her husband Joe. After 25 years of marriage and four children they can finish each other's sentences, but their once vibrant and loving union is disintegrating. It seems fear has replaced love as the emotion that keeps them together and their bitter verbal battles make Abby long for something else. As she watches the sunset through the maple tree in her backyard, she feels the sunset is beckoning her to another life and she fantasizes about a man who is Joe's opposite. A trip to Los Angeles is exactly what Abby needs until she gets more than she bargained for with a serial rapist on the loose and an encounter with handsome Detective Kristoffer Larsen who interviews her as a potential witness to a rape. Sparks fly between Abby and Kris, and they begin a whirlwind romance. But years of dealing with rape, domestic violence, and child abuse as a member of the Special Assault Section of the LAPD have taken their toll on Detective Larsen and he is haunted by his past: a fiancee's unsolved murder, a partner's death, and the incarceration of his police officer father. Abby's years with Joe also threaten the pair's budding relationship for Joe can still tug at her heartstrings. As Kris and his colleagues get ever closer to capturing the elusive rapist, Abby must look into her heart to discover the promise the sunset holds. AUTHOR BIO This is the first novel for Elizabeth Dolan-Cancian who began writing short stories and poetry in high school. She studied at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and worked as an administrative assistant before putting her career aside to raise her four children. She went back to school, earning a degree in literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey and has taught high school English in public and private schools in Tucson, Arizona and northern New Jersey where she lives with her husband and children. Elizabeth's writing accolades include being a finalist at the Beacon Conference for Academic Writing in 2006 and receiving the Dean's Award for Writing Excellence in 2007 for a one-act play and poem. She is working on her next novel and considering publishing two children's books she has already written."