Urban Schools: Crisis and Revolution describes America's inner-city public schools and the failure of most to provide even a minimally adequate education for their students. With numerous examples, James Deneen and Carm Catanese argue that these failures are preventable. Early chapters document the two-tiered character of American public schools, the tragic consequences of failing schools for millions of students—mostly Black and Hispanic—and the financial costs to American society. In lat...

Schools That Succeed, Students Who Achieve compares the academic achievements of students in the United States to those of students in other countries. Examining fundamental questions and educational issues, James Deneen identifies what all students should learn and discusses what American students currently learn.Deneen argues that failing schools can become successful by studying examples of successful schools with similar demographic features. To that end, he presents pr...

In The Science of Leadership, Julian Barling takes an evidenced-based approach, relying primarily on the knowledge generated from research on organizational leadership conducted around the world and personal reflections based on two decades of involvement in leadership research and leadership development with executives. While leadership has been studied within all the major social sciences, Barling mainly focuses on findings from psychological research. The first part of the book...

Bridge the great divide between distanced administrative duties and daily classroom impact. This book introduces a top-down power mechanism called defined autonomy, a concept that focuses on district-defined, nonnegotiable, common goals and a system of accountability supported by assessment tools. Defined autonomy creates an effective balance of centralized direction and individualized empowerment that allows building-level staff the stylistic freedom to respond quickly and effectively to ...

Linda Darling-Hammond is the 2023 National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) Policy Leader of the YearIn this bestseller and Grawemeyer Award winner, Linda Darling-Hammond offers an eye-opening wake-up call concerning America’s future and vividly illustrates what the United States needs to do in order to build a system of high-achieving and equitable schools that ensures every child the right to learn.Today in the United Sta...

This e-book, a collection of articles from Educational Leadership and other ASCD publications explores what it means to “support the whole child.” In these articles, authors ponder the various meanings of support in the classroom, school, and community. This third in a four-book series exploring whole child education ends by emphasizing another maxim of good teaching: Hold high expectations for your students. Our authors agree: With the right supports, students are capable of doing more th...

Create and sustain a learning environment where students thrive and stakeholders are accurately informed of student progress. Clarify the purpose of grades, craft a vision statement aligned with this purpose, and discover research-based strategies to implement effective grading and reporting practices. Identify policies and practices that render grading inaccurate, and understand the role grades play in students’ future success and opportunities.

Teacher evaluation systems are being overhauled by states and districts across the United States. And, while intentions are admirable, the result for many new systems is that good—often excellent—teachers are lost in the process. In the end, students are the losers. In her new book, Linda Darling-Hammond makes a compelling case for a research-based approach to teacher evaluation that supports collaborative models of teacher planning and learning. She outlines the most current research info...

Following the recent major school reform of Race to the Top, schools, teachers, and students are increasingly evaluated through high-stakes achievement test scores. In six concise chapters, Teacher and Student Evaluation explores the historical rise and modern landscape of accountability in American education, and the current models of teacher evaluation. The authors provide realistic and useful suggestions for responding to current accountability demands.The authors explo...

How can educators make sense of the complexities of research?Making Sense of Research brings together the best of two worlds—the "real" world where education is practiced daily and the "ivory tower" world where research is ongoing. The authors have written this book for practitioners at all levels, from teachers making site-specific decisions such as allocating time, to administrators making schoolwide and policy decisions such as reducing class s...

What will it take to move your high school to the next level?In Becoming a Great High School, former principal Tim Westerberg emphasizes that significant improvement in any high school must start with improving the quality of instruction in the classroom. But the isolated efforts of individual teachers aren't enough. If your school is functioning like "a collection of educational entrepreneurs held together by a common parking lot," it's time for teachers and administrator...

"In this highly readable book, Allan Odden vividly illustrates many of the most important practices for creating strong professional communities. From the organization of time to the development of productive curriculum and instruction, school leaders will learn how to create a framework for school reform grounded in research and the wisdom of practice."—Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of EducationStanford University"Odden not only th...