From Jacqueline Elliot, the passionate co-founder of the highly successful PUC charter school network in Los Angeles and a relentless advocate for excellence and equity in public education, comes a frank, inspirational memoir about her journey as a spirited activist for social justice who battles to reform the public education system. Jacqueline Elliot, often identified as an icon in the charter school movement in California, has a reputation of being a tenacious fighter who tirelessly defends the rights of all children to be provided with an education that provides them with the opportunity to achieve their potential and make their dreams a reality. Born in Glasgow, Scotland and emigrating to Los Angeles at age 13, Jacqueline experienced the anonymity that is often characteristic for students in large urban schools but emerged as an accomplished scholar and courageous warrior for educational equity. Her commitment to public school reform began in 1986 when she became a teacher in a public school in Pacoima, one of the most socio-economically challenged neighborhoods in Los Angeles, where the expectations for students and the conditions were abysmal. As a former public health care professional and new teacher, she did all she could to meet the needs of her students within the confines of the Los Angeles Unified School District system. Discovering California's charter school legislation in 1995, she ultimately galvanized one hundred families from the community as her partners in a relentless quest to create a better public school for their children. Rallying the support of others who believed in her vision, this fascinating memoir describes how Elliot was able to overcome a variety of daunting obstacles as a result of the positive relationships she developed. Her triumphant founding of the first public charter middle school in Los Angeles in1999, Community Charter Middle School, was historic and clearly demonstrated the power of what can be accomplished when a diverse group of individuals unite in one vision and refuse to give up until their dream is achieved. Drawn to the culture in the small school that was characterized by mutual respect, meeting the needs of all students, embracing of diversity, and high expectations for all, parents and community members beseeched Elliot to open more schools. Committed to meeting the needs of the community, Elliot responded accordingly.In this very personal, candid memoir, Elliot shares what led her to become a forward-thinking education entrepreneur and describes a number of the battles she fought and the seemingly insurmountable challenges she overcame in order to create and sustain the excellent schools she founded. Now, as the co-founder of a 20-year old network of high achieving schools in which over 100 former students serve as teachers and in other roles, Elliot addresses her struggles and battles, writing candidly about the people who have perpetuated failing public schools, the parents who desperately sought better schools for their children, and those who championed her cause and still fight by her side. Her leadership and accomplishments have served as an example and inspiration for a multitude of others who have followed. Elliot's insightful memoir is a passionate personal story and an urgent call to action for all who care about our children and future of America. Passionate Warrior: My Charter School Journey bluntly identifies forces that continue to work against efforts to improve the dysfunctional education system that has failed so many of our children. This memoir is sure to unify and inspire supporters, provide food for thought for teachers, parents and all who care about our public schools, and impact the national conversation about education.

Life As A Warrior is a groundbreaking treatise on strategy and competition. Borrowing from such classics as: The Art of War, The Book of 5 Rings, and On War, Life as a Warrior delves into such themes as focus and determination, discipline and self-control, as well as an emphasis on building from past experiences to achieve future success. Life as a Warrior will benefit not only those who are in competitive situations, but also anyone whos striving to incorporate strategic thought and vision into any endeavor. Simply put, Life as a Warrior is a must read for anyone who wants to win and succeed in life.

Named one of Vulture’s Top 10 Best Books of 2020! Leftist firebrand Fredrik deBoer exposes the lie at the heart of our educational system and demands top-to-bottom reform. Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: Academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved. In The Cult of Smart, educator and outspoken leftist Fredrik deBoer exposes this omission as the central flaw of our entire society, which has created and perpetuated an unjust class structure based on intellectual ability. Since cognitive talent varies from person to person, our education system can never create equal opportunity for all. Instead, it teaches our children that hierarchy and competition are natural, and that human value should be based on intelligence. These ideas are counter to everything that the left believes, but until they acknowledge the existence of individual cognitive differences, progressives remain complicit in keeping the status quo in place. This passionate, voice-driven manifesto demands that we embrace a new goal for education: equality of outcomes. We must create a world that has a place for everyone, not just the academically talented. But we’ll never achieve this dream until the Cult of Smart is destroyed.

Third book in a wordless trilogy that began with Journey.

In this deeply personal memoir, Nadia Davis addresses her three sons with brutal honesty, hope, and strength, revealing both her childhood and adult traumas that led to issues with addiction and dysfunctional relationships, as well as to discuss transformational healing, spirituality, intensive trauma therapy, chronic pain management, healthy co-parenting and intimacy, preventing learned toxic masculinity, and more. As a young high-profile lawyer, school board member in Southern California, county supervisor in the Bay Area, recipient of state and national public service awards, and former wife of California's attorney general and treasurer, Nadia Davis has been a public figure in California for over two decades. Her experience with addiction in the trenches of a non-marital highly publicized and abusive relationship led Davis through the challenges of public shaming, injustice, arrests, mandated treatment, and a total lack of privacy for personal issues. Home Is Within You details her courageous journey towards wholeness and health as a woman, mother, and former spouse/co-parent in a powerful homage to finding one's truth and worth. It is also a defense of privacy and motherhood, as well as a call to action against shaming of women and ineffective, often damaging policies towards families struggling with mental health and addiction, with suggestions for more compassionate methods of treatment and restorative justice enabling those struggling to ultimately find their personal truth and strength within.

From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, former U.S. assistant secretary of education, “whistle-blower extraordinaire” (The Wall Street Journal), author of the best-selling The Death and Life of the Great American School System (“Important and riveting”—Library Journal), The Language Police (“Impassioned . . . Fiercely argued . . . Every bit as alarming as it is illuminating”—The New York Times), and other notable books on education history and policy—an incisive, comprehensive look at today’s American school system that argues against those who claim it is broken and beyond repair; an impassioned but reasoned call to stop the privatization movement that is draining students and funding from our public schools. ​In Reign of Error, Diane Ravitch argues that the crisis in American education is not a crisis of academic achievement but a concerted effort to destroy public schools in this country. She makes clear that, contrary to the claims being made, public school test scores and graduation rates are the highest they’ve ever been, and dropout rates are at their lowest point. ​She argues that federal programs such as George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Barack Obama’s Race to the Top set unreasonable targets for American students, punish schools, and result in teachers being fired if their students underperform, unfairly branding those educators as failures. She warns that major foundations, individual billionaires, and Wall Street hedge fund managers are encouraging the privatization of public education, some for idealistic reasons, others for profit. Many who work with equity funds are eyeing public education as an emerging market for investors. ​Reign of Error begins where The Death and Life of the Great American School System left off, providing a deeper argument against privatization and for public education, and in a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, putting forth a plan for what can be done to preserve and improve it. She makes clear what is right about U.S. education, how policy makers are failing to address the root causes of educational failure, and how we can fix it. ​For Ravitch, public school education is about knowledge, about learning, about developing character, and about creating citizens for our society. It’s about helping to inspire independent thinkers, not just honing job skills or preparing people for college. Public school education is essential to our democracy, and its aim, since the founding of this country, has been to educate citizens who will help carry democracy into the future.