Over a decade ago, the first edition of City Schools and the American Dream debuted just as reformers were gearing up to make sweeping changes in urban education. Despite the rhetoric and many reform initiatives, urban schools continue to struggle under the weight of serious challenges. What went wrong and is there hope for future change? More than a new edition, this sequel to the original bestseller has been substantially revised to include insights from new research, recent demographic trends, and emerging political realities. In addition to surveying the various limitations that urban schools face, the book also highlights programs, communities, and schools that are making good on public education’s promise of equity. With renewed commitment and sense of urgency, this new edition provides a clear-eyed vision of what it will take to ensure the success of city schools and their students. “City schools continue to play one of the most important roles in our quest to restore democracy. This is a must-read . . . again!” —Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison “The authors provide concrete examples of innovative strategies and practices employed by urban schools that are succeeding against all odds.” —Betty A. Rosa, chancellor, New York State Board of Regents “This is the book every teacher, parent, policymaker, and engaged citizen should read.” —Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, UCLA

With its hands-on focus now even more strongly emphasized, the new edition of this clearly-written, thoughtful book does and even better job of providing readers with what they need to support a program of moral education at either the elementary or secondary level. Coverage outlines the philosophical arguments for establishing classrooms and schools as sources of moral instruction, as well as exploring pertinent theories of how to accomplish this goal. The unique presentation of Reclaiming Our Schools: Teaching Character, Academics, and Discipline combines a comprehensive overview of theory with a complete hands-on guide to classroom techniques and schoolwide policies, thus supplying both the background and the tools needed to transform schools into sources of moral instruction. A thorough list of 100 suggestions for applying the principles within the book gives parents, teachers, and administrators a solid repertoire of ideas for use in each classroom and throughout the school. In addition, a 100-item evaluation checklist serves as a framework upon which a working character-development program may be constructed. Updated exercises within each chapter engage the reader in contemporary situations that are both plausible and realistic. Sex and character is now examined in a separate chapter. Reclaiming Our Schools: Teaching Character, Academics, and Discipline is a valuable tool for any parent, teacher, administrator, school board member, or politician who wishes to learn what it takes to establish classrooms and schools as sources of moral instruction.

This genre-busting book captures the heart, mind, and hope of education like no other. Through a series of interwoven stories, award-winning educator and principal Brad Gustafson reminds us of what we've known all along: Children are more than numbers, and we are called to teach and reach them accordingly.

Fact: Children are more anxious, aggressive, and shut down than ever. br> Faced with this epidemic of emotional health crises and behavioral problems, teachers are asking themselves what went wrong. Why have we lost our students? More importantly: how can we get them back? Hannah Beach, a celebrated educator and specialist in the field of emotional health, and Tamara Neufeld Strijack, Clinical Counsellor and Academic Dean of the acclaimed Neufeld Institute, provide a thoughtful guide to restoring the student-teacher relationship and creating the conditions for change. Reclaiming Our Students arms teachers with strategies to reassert their leadership role and build emotional safety in the classroom. The result: students can get back to learning, and teachers can get back to teaching You'll learn: - How to build, feed, and protect the student-teacher relationship - Why children are anxious or bossy, aggressive or checked out, and what teachers can do to address these behavioral issues at their root - How you can help students and classes shift their identity as the "problem student" or "bad class" - Experiential activities for students of all ages that preserve and restore emotional health and well-being Plus, you'll find special considerations and information for parents, principals, counsellors, and home educators for building safety and support in the learning environment. Combining Hannah's groundbreaking experiential approach to creating emotional health and community in the classroom with the Neufeld Institute's insightful approach to building relationships and making sense of children, Reclaiming Our Students is required reading for teachers who not only want to understand and overcome daily challenges, but also re-connect to their calling as educators.

Reclaiming the Teaching Profession gives educators (especially teachers and future teachers) and their allies a clear overview of the massive effort to dismantle public education in the United States, which includes a direct attack on teachers. The book details, and provides a systematic critique of, the shaky assumptions at the foundation of the market-based reform initiatives that dominate the contemporary education scene. It names and exposes the motives and methods of the powerful philanthropists, politicians, business moguls, and education entrepreneurs who are behind the reform movement. It provides counter narratives that public school advocates can use to talk back to those who would destroy the teaching profession and public education. It includes examples of successful acts of resistance and identifies resources for challenging reformers’ taken for granted primacy in the education debate. It concludes with strategies educators can use to “speak truth to power,” reclaim their professional status, and reshape the education landscape in ways that serve all of America’s children and preserve our democracy.

Why School? is a little book driven by big questions. What does it mean to be educated? What is intelligence? How should we think about intelligence, education, and opportunity in an open society? Drawing on forty years of teaching and research and "a profound understanding of the opportunities, both intellectual and economic, that come from education" (Booklist), award-winning author Mike Rose reflects on these and other questions related to public schooling in America. He answers them in beautifully written chapters that are both rich in detail and informed by an extensive knowledge of history, the psychology of learning, and the politics of education. This paperback edition includes three new chapters showing how cognitive science actually narrows our understanding of learning, how to increase college graduation rates, and how to value the teaching of basic skills. An updated introduction by Rose, who has been hailed as "a superb writer and an even better storyteller" (TLN Teachers Network), reflects on recent developments in school reform. Lauded as "a beautifully written work of literary nonfiction" (The Christian Science Monitor) and called "stunning" by the New Educator Journal, Why School? offers an eloquent call for a bountiful democratic vision of the purpose of schooling.