Schools should be safe—but they are not always safe for everybody. Authors Pamela Wilcox, Graham Ousey, and Marie Skubak Tillyer studied crime among students located across diverse middle- and high-school settings to investigate why some students engage in delinquency—but others do not—and why some students are more prone to victimization. School Zone focuses on the three key interactional elements—context, victims, and offenders—to understand and explain the impact of common crim...

As Sergeant Oscar Wylton, a six-foot-two, 196-pound marine lines up to exit the rear door of a CH-53S Sea Dragon helicopter, he knows that he has less than a 10 percent chance of surviving his assignment. As he parachutes into a pit of darkness over the rough terrain near the AfghanistanPakistan border, Wylton has no idea that what he thinks is his final mission as an assassin will not be his last.Wylton has served his country well, distinguishing himself in high-risk conflicts in ...

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, Jesus passes by Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. Bartimaeus calls out, "Master, let me see again." Jesus cures him and gives him back his sight. So many things in life depend on the way we see things. This book is an invitation to look at the way we see things in life. We may not be physically blind like Bartimaeus, but each of us can be blind in our own ways. Reading through these pages will hopefully give you the opportunity to change the way you look at som...

In their second collaboration, Wilcox and Angelis tell the stories of high school educators who embody best practices in their day-to-day activities—practices that consistently lead to higher student academic achievement across the core subjects for all students. This book shares results of a multi-case study of how some high schools consistently deliver better student performance, including improved four-year graduation rates. These schools have learned how to successfully ...

The English writer G. K. Chesterton once wrote: "Nothing taken for granted; everything received with gratitude; everything passed on with grace." These reflections are the author's effort, as an older father, to pass on to his daughter, with grace, what he believes is truly important in life. When his daughter was young, he used to tell her that his constant prayer was to live long enough so that "I can get you raised!" Thankfully, that prayer has been answered. But parenting is a life-lon...

When we think about the lives of the saints, we can easily forget that they were people just like us--with all the same struggles, temptations, joys, and sorrows we experience in life. They were not born saints; they became saints. And in the course of their journeys through life, other people helped them become the people that God wanted them to be. A Sheltering Tree offers stories of faith, fidelity, and friendship from both Christian and non-Christian writers that explore the importance...

In St. Teresa of Avila's classic spiritual book Interior Castle she describes a difficult period of time in her spiritual journey when she said, "When I think of myself, I feel like a bird with a broken wing." When I left the monastery thirty-eight years ago, this was exactly how I felt. I Was Gone Long Before I Left is the story about my interior struggle to leave the monastery after living this lifestyle for over twenty-five years. It explores the reasons why I went to the monastery, why...

Probably one of the least known characters in the passion narrative of Jesus is Simon of Cyrene. Very little is said or known about this man who briefly helped Jesus carry his cross. It isn't known how long he trudged through the streets with Jesus or even if Simon and Jesus ever spoke to each other. What was going through Simon's mind as he helped Jesus? What happened when he arrived at Golgotha? Did he stay or disappear back into the crowd, not wanting to look upon the horror? More impor...

Abraham Joshua Heschel said that, "We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we have the answers." He believed that to be a Christian is not to be a person who knows all the answers but one who "lives in the part of the self where the question is constantly being born." Most of us don't think very much about our questions. In our culture, we are accustomed to being able to find out answers to nearly any question just by typing it into Google search or asking Siri. But beh...

Relentless Journeys is a collection of literacy stories shared by three women in Canada who are adult literacy learners. They have joined together to help bring awareness about literacy issues that 42% of Canadians face every day. Carey Rigby-Wilcox Carey’s struggles with literacy issues did not stop her; she has risen above those challenges to achieve a full life. She was someone who found reading a struggle, but because of her volunteer tutor she has discovered a deep love for reading. C...

This edited collection explores how science can be taught to English language learners (ELLs) in 21st century classrooms. The authors focus on the ways in which pre-service and in-service science teachers have developed—or may develop—instructional effectiveness for working with ELLs in the secondary classroom. Chapter topics are grounded in both research and practice, addressing a range of timely topics including the current state of ELL education in the secondary science classroom, appro...

Three policy innovations at the heart of this book – the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), and data driven instruction (DDI) provide a timely opportunity to join school and district improvement and policy implementation research with improvement science. This book is not just a collection of findings about odds-beating schools (those with higher than predicted student performance trends and higher than average poverty and diversity) and ...