Policy Books

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

Clayton Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, Michael B. Horn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A crash course in the business of learning-from the bestselling author of The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution�

. .

�A brilliant teacher, Christensen brings clarity to a muddled and chaotic world of education.�
-Jim Collins, bestselling author of Good to Great

. .

According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive-academically, economically, and technologically-we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our educational system, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need �disruptive innovation.�

. .

Now, in his long-awaited new book, Clayton M. Christensen and coauthors Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson take one of the most important issues of our time-education-and apply Christensen's now-famous theories of �disruptive� change using a wide range of real-life examples. Whether you're a school administrator, government official, business leader, parent, teacher, or entrepreneur, you'll discover surprising new ideas, outside-the-box strategies, and straight-A success stories.

You'll learn how

.

.
• Customized learning will help many more students succeed in school.
• Student-centric classrooms will increase the demand for new technology.
• Computers must be disruptively deployed to every student.
• Disruptive innovation can circumvent roadblocks that have prevented other attempts at school reform.
• We can compete in the global classroom-and get ahead in the global market.

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Filled with fascinating case studies, scientific findings, and unprecedented insights on how innovation must be managed, Disrupting Class will open your eyes to new possibilities, unlock hidden potential, and get you to think differently. Professor Christensen and his coauthors provide a bold new lesson in innovation that will help you make the grade for years to come.

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The future is now. Class is in session.

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Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

James W. Loewen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 423 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Winner of the American Book Award and the Oliver C. Cox
Anti-Racism Award of The American Sociological Association

Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past.

In this revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in today's climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality and relevance it truly possesses.

Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high school teachers, history buffs, and enlightened citizens across the country.

The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--And What We Can Do About It

Tony Wagner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Despite the best efforts of educators, our nation’s schools are dangerously obsolete. Instead of teaching students to be critical thinkers and problem-solvers, we are asking them to memorize facts for multiple choice tests. This problem isn’t limited to low-income school districts: even our top schools aren’t teaching or testing the skills that matter most in the global knowledge economy. Our teens leave school equipped to work only in the kinds of jobs that are fast disappearing from the American economy. Meanwhile, young adults in India and China are competing with our students for the most sought-after careers around the world.

Education expert Tony Wagner has conducted scores of interviews with business leaders and observed hundreds of classes in some of the nation’s most highly regarded public schools. He discovered a profound disconnect between what potential employers are looking for in young people today (critical thinking skills, creativity, and effective communication) and what our schools are providing (passive learning environments and uninspired lesson plans that focus on test preparation and reward memorization).

He explains how every American can work to overhaul our education system, and he shows us examples of dramatically different schools that teach all students new skills. In addition, through interviews with college graduates and people who work with them, Wagner discovers how teachers, parents, and employers can motivate the “net” generation to excellence.

An education manifesto for the twenty-first century, The Global Achievement Gap is provocative and inspiring. It is essential reading for parents, educators, business leaders, policy-makers, and anyone interested in seeing our young people succeed as employees and citizens.

For additional information about the author and the book, please go to www.schoolchange.org


 

Teaching With Love and Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom

Jim Fay, David Funk

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Useful Book 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I found the first few chapters of this book very useful for my teaching practice but I never finished it. The truth is it started to get too indirect with the illustrations - the paedagogical links were not clear. And generally the book slowed up as it progressed from easy reading to something else.

Teaching with Love and Logic 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A full comprehensive guide to Love and Logic. It provides numerous examples of classroom situations and how to implement the 9 essential skills of Love and Logic.

Editorial Review:

Teachers often find themselves facing a variety of classroom situations never covered in initial training. This valuable resource helps teachers increase skills, enhance professional development and maximise classroom learning time. Discover why Love and Logic works in the school environment and understand the psychological reasons for its effectiveness. Jim Fay and David Funk's truly positive approach and time-tested ideas and strategies will empower teachers to effectively manage classroom dynamics while bringing the joy back to teaching.

A Mind at a Time

Mel Levine

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Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Different minds learn differently," writes Dr. Mel Levine, one of the best-known learning experts and pediatricians in America today. Some students are strong in certain areas and some are strong in others, but no one is equally capable in all. Yet most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. As a result, many children struggle because their learning patterns don't fit the way they are being taught.

In his #1 New York Times bestseller A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows parents and those who care for children how to identify these individual learning patterns, explaining how they can strengthen a child's abilities and either bypass or help overcome the child's weaknesses, producing positive results instead of repeated frustration and failure.

Consistent progress can result when we understand that not every child can do equally well in every type of learning and begin to pay more attention to individual learning patterns -- and individual minds -- so that we can maximize children's success and gratification in life. In A Mind at a Time Dr. Levine shows us how.

Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality

Charles Murray

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Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With four simple truths as his framework, Charles Murray, the bestselling coauthor of The Bell Curve, sweeps away the hypocrisy, wishful thinking, and upside-down priorities that grip America’s educational establishment.

Ability varies. Children differ in their ability to learn academic material. Doing our best for every child requires, above all else, that we embrace that simplest of truths. America’s educational system does its best to ignore it.

Half of the children are below average. Many children cannot learn more than rudimentary reading and math. Real Education reviews what we know about the limits of what schools can do and the results of four decades of policies that require schools to divert huge resources to unattainable goals.

Too many people are going to college. Almost everyone should get training beyond high school, but the number of students who want, need, or can profit from four years of residential education at the college level is a fraction of the number of young people who are struggling to get a degree. We have set up a standard known as the BA, stripped it of its traditional content, and made it an artificial job qualification. Then we stigmatize everyone who doesn’t get one. For most of America’s young people, today’s college system is a punishing anachronism.

America’s future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. An elite already runs the country, whether we like it or not. Since everything we watch, hear, and read is produced by that elite, and since every business and government department is run by that elite, it is time to start thinking about the kind of education needed by the young people who will run the country. The task is not to give them more advanced technical training, but to give them an education that will make them into wiser adults; not to pamper them, but to hold their feet to the fire.

The good news is that change is not only possible but already happening. Real Education describes the technological and economic trends that are creating options for parents who want the right education for their children, teachers who want to be free to teach again, and young people who want to find something they love doing and learn how to do it well. These are the people for whom Real Education was written. It is they, not the politicians or the educational establishment, who will bring American schools back to reality.

Twenty-four years ago, Charles Murray’s Losing Ground changed the way the nation thought about welfare. Real Education is about to do the same thing for America’s schools.

The Mis-Education of the Negro (An African American Heritage Book)

Carter G. Woodson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I ordered book, paid for same, received same ... my kind of transaction, smooth and uneventful! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is book a must have for anyone studying African American History. If you are building a library, it cannot be complete without this writing - this is one of the foundational cornerstones.

The MIS-EDUCATION of the NEGRO 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful book. I read it many years ago as a young person. And after becoming an adult I purchased it and read it again. My son read it when he was younger and he still keeps a copy at his home.
His son is reading it now. This is a book that everyone should read. It's a great read for blacks, because it's about blacks. However, this book is enlightening for anyone who dares to pick it up.
Great read!

Editorial Review:

The Mis-Education of the Negro is one of the most important books on education ever written. Carter G. Woodson shows us the weakness of Euro-centric based curriculums that fail to include African American history and culture. This system mis-educates the African American student, failing to prepare them for success and to give them an adequate sense of who they are within the system that they must live. Woodson provides many strong solutions to the problems he identifies. A must-read for anyone working in the education field.

Drive: 9 Ways to Motivate Your Kids to Achieve

Janine Walker Caffrey

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A book for our times 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Finally, a resource that gets to the point! Parents will love it- kids will wonder what hit them. In a world of excess and overindulgence, Caffrey shows us how to become parents again. In a world lacking common sense, she demonstrates an abundance of it. It is refreshing to be reminded that we have a responsibility to raise independent young men and women who will feel the need to make contributions to the world because they have a sense of pride, not entitlement!

Editorial Review:

The quality of drive provides the momentum for a person to dream and achieve, creating a unique, independent life. Without it, a person is like a rudderless boat, drifting around a flat lake. In Drive, nationally renowned educator Dr. Janine Caffrey shows how to inspire your children and develop this vital characteristic. How do I get my child excited about learning? To enroll in a good college? To move out of the house? To create his own life? Designed to assist parents, educators, and counselors to get kids of all ages off the couch and into the world, Drive outlines nine specific steps proven to beat boredom and foster self-motivation and resourcefulness. Filled with quizzes, anecdotes, and practical strategies, Drive helps parents turn “Generation Me” into “Generation Move.”

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

John Taylor Gatto

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Total reviews: 123 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great for the most part 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book for the most part. Although I agree with many of his points, I disagree in the part where he proposes a reform that requires mandatory community service. In the book he mostly says that people do well when they aren't made to do something, and yes community service is great but it shouldn't be forced on people, and people should have the option to decide if that is what they want to do. That's what freedom is all about.

He's right about school. My experience in school felt like a prison, where my teachers didn't take me seriously, they sometimes liked humiliating me and my classmates, and honestly to this day, I have zero respect for teachers. I can't look back on a teacher that I actually liked. Many of them just made me follow dumb rules that had nothing to do with learning but about respecting authority.

Even as a college student, I feel that college is just another scam, its not about learning but about getting that degree so you can get a good job. Getting As and Bs isn't a sign of intelligence, but a sign that you did the work the way that your teacher wanted you to. I think true learning occurs when you are accountable to yourself for your own education.

Editorial Review:

A highly praised bestseller for over a decade, Dumbing Us Down is a radical treatise on public education that concludes that compulsory government schooling does little but teach young people to follow orders like cogs in a machine. This Special Collector's Hardcover Edition celebrates 100,000 copies of the book in print, and the book's on-going importance and popularity.

John Gatto was a teacher in New York City's public schools for over 30 years and is a recipient of the New York State Teacher of the Year award. A much-sought after speaker on education throughout North America, his other books include A Different Kind of Teacher (Berkeley Hills Books, 2001) and The Underground History of American Education (Oxford Village Press, 2000).

Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (Book & CD-ROM)

Richard Dufour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas Many

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great Resource for PLCs 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Professional Learning Communities are the big buzz currently. Does your school district have professional learning communities? Have you wondered where to start? Have you wondered how your professional learning communities are doing? If you've wondered about any of those, then this is the book for you.

Learning by Doing is a great handbook for administrators and teachers to use as they implement professional learning communities in their school. This handbook gives an overview of the different components of the professional learning community process. As schools implement the professional learning community process this handbook is also a useful tool to assist in self reflection and evaluation.

As a school is developing professional learning communities, this handbook is a great resource to use through the process. It begins by giving advice on how to clarify the purpose of professional learning communities, how to build collaborative teams, and how to establish team norms. The collaborative foundation is essential to the success of the professional learning communities. The professional learning communities must collaborate in order to increase student achievement.

The handbook also shares information about how to collect data, how to use the data to improve results, and how to implement interventions in order to improve student achievement. These components help the professional learning community develop strategies to help each individual learner in their classroom. Schools must develop and support a pyramid of interventions in order to meet the students' needs.

This handbook includes many useful reproducible handouts and continuums which help analyze the progress of each professional learning community. The continuums are great conversation starters for the professional learning communities to use to evaluate their progress. This handbook can help your school improve the PLC process through self reflection and evaluation.

If you are looking for tools to help your Professional Learning Communities improve, this book is for you.

Editorial Review:

Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work helps educators close the knowing-doing gap as they transform their schools into professional learning communities (PLCs). This handbook is a guide for action that will: · Help educators develop a common vocabulary and consistent understanding of key PLC concepts. · Present a compelling argument that the implementation of PLC concepts will benefit students and educators alike. · Help educators assess the current reality in their own schools and districts. · Convince educators to take purposeful steps to develop their capacity to function as PLCs.