Can the U.S. keep its dominant economic position in the world economy with only 30% of its population holding bachelor’s degrees? If the majority of U.S. citizens lack a higher education, can the U.S. live up to its democratic principles and preserve its political institutions? These questions raise the critical issue of access to higher education, central to which are America’s open-access, low-cost community colleges that enroll around half of all first-time freshmen in the U.S. Can thes...

This book examines the idea of educational accountability, which has become a new secular gospel. But do accountability policies actually make schools better? Do business management theories and practices make organizations more effective? What if the most widely used management theories and assessment tools don’t work? What if educational accountability tools don’t actually measure what they’re supposed to? What if accountability data isn’t valid, or worse, what if it’s meaningless? What ...

This book defines the concept and practices of literacy through a discussion of knowledge, information media, culture, subjectivity, science, communication, and politics. Examining the ways in which the spread of literacy and education have caused culture wars in pluralist societies since the 16th century, the author reviews an interdisciplinary array of scholarly literature to contend that science, and more broadly evidence-based inductive arguments, offer the only reliable source informa...

The Ultimate Western Collection surveys the imaginative territories of the American West and its borderlands through adventure tale, historical romance, frontier realism, detective fiction, humor, and the hard-edged Western yarn. Its capacious selection moves from mythic landscapes and encounters at the edge of settlement to cattle drives, mining camps, military outposts, and contested communities. Canonical frontier narratives sit beside popular serial fiction and lesser-known regional vi...

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: 175+ Western Novels & Short Stories in One Edition is a comprehensive anthology that captures the essence of the Western genre through a diverse tapestry of narratives. This collection delves into the themes of rugged individualism, frontier justice, and the unyielding spirit of the American West. It spans a broad range of literary styles, from action-packed adventures and moral tales to poignant character studies and satirical reflections on frontier life....

Stories of Sports: Critical Literacy in Media Production, Consumption, and Dissemination discusses how media demonstrates privilege, policing, stereotypes, confirmation bias, and objectification in a world where the role of athletics in Western society speaks to privilege and power. Contributors use a critical media lens to analyze texts, including newspapers, magazines, film, television, social media, and sportscasts to demonstrate to readers the ways in which sports stories rein...

Monastic experience in twelfth-century Germany provides a rare window on to monastery life in the tumultuous world of twelfth-century Swabia. From its founding in 992 through the great fire that ravaged it in 1159 and beyond, Petershausen weathered countless external attacks and internal divisions. Supra-regional clashes between emperors and popes played out at the most local level. Monks struggled against overreaching bishops. Reformers introduced new and unfamiliar customs. Tens...

A gangster who liked music too much. A nude skier. The power of Alaska matchmaking, Yoism, and birthday party magic. Twenty-one weird and comical tales from J. Robert Lennon, author of SEE YOU IN PARADISE and PIECES FOR THE LEFT HAND, paired with twenty-one surreal images by Lou Beach, author of 420 CHARACTERS

Boynton Beach, located on South Florida�s Atlantic coast, is known as the �Gateway to the Gulf Stream.� Ernest Hemingway once called these great ocean currents the last wild country left. Fishermen who study navigational charts understand that Boynton Beach is unique as the closest community to the Gulf Stream. Just minutes from the Boynton Inlet, water reaches a depth of 800 feet. Maj. Nathan Boynton came to the area in 1894, built a hotel, and envisioned a prosperous future for the idyll...

In 1958 the Canadian Political Science Association established a committee to look into ways and means of improving statistical research in the social sciences in Canada. One of the ways in which the committee thought this could be done was by establishing an annual forum where papers could be presented and discussed. Eight papers given at the first Conference at Queen's University are contained in this volume. Diverse alike in subject and statistical method---as indeed a collection of pap...

Seeking to integrate the large volume of clinical research on relational processes and mental health disorders with other scientific advances in psychiatry, Relational Processes and DSM-V builds on exciting advances in clinical research on troubled relationships. These advances included marked improvements in the assessment and epidemiology of troubled relationships as well the use of genetics, neuroscience, and immunology to explore the importance of close relationships in clinical practi...

Despite the many jokes and stereotypes about New Jersey and its residents, in reality the state is a wildly diverse place, home to a vast variety of landscapes, cultures, and people. There is no singular New Jersey experience, and the stories that its residents have to share about the state will surprise you.New Jersey Fan Club: Artists and Writers Celebrate the Garden State is an eclectic anthology featuring personal essays, interviews, and comics from a broad group of es...