Issues in Education
If you are interested in learning more about this content area, but don’t know where to begin or would like a suggestion, take a look at these items recommended by our staff:
Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices
Drawing upon decades of research and myriad authentic classroom experiences, Kathleen M. Budge and William H. Parrett dispel harmful myths, explain the facts, and urge educators to act against the debilitating effects of poverty on their students. They share the powerful voices of teachers—many of whom grew up in poverty—to amplify the five classroom practices that permeate the culture of successful high-poverty schools: (1) caring relationships and advocacy, (2) high expectations and support, (3) commitment to equity, (4) professional accountability for learning, and (5) the courage and will to act.\\Readers will explore classroom-tested strategies and practices, plus online templates and exercises that can be used for personal reflection or ongoing collaboration with colleagues. Disrupting Poverty provides teachers, administrators, coaches, and others with the background information and the practical tools needed to help students break free from the cycle of poverty.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
For any teacher who links education to social change, this is a required reading. This book is a guide for teaching and everyday life. This book is also referenced in Jim Knight's Radical Learners blog.
School Culture Recharged: Strategies to Energize Your Staff and Culture
Why do some schools succeed while others struggle? Why do policies and programs often fail to deliver what they promise? In this follow-up to their insightful School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It, authors Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker offer practical advice and strategies that help you build positive energy to reinvigorate your school's culture and staff.\Written as a standalone guide, School Culture Recharged clarifies the difference between culture and climate and zeroes in on key school improvement efforts, including\* Moving from the culture you have to the culture you want;\* Using the school's culture to improve teaching, job satisfaction, and morale;\* Maximizing the intentions of professional learning communities; and\* Developing organizational habits—rules and rituals—that can contribute to positive change.\For education leaders at all levels, this book delivers a compelling message: Understanding and harnessing the transformative power of school culture can propel your school into the kind of place where teachers want to work, administrators can focus on what matters most, and students can thrive.
Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom
In this galvanizing book for all educators, Kristin Souers and Pete Hall explore an urgent and growing issue—childhood trauma—and its profound effect on learning and teaching. Grounded in research and the authors' experience working with trauma-affected students and their teachers, Fostering Resilient Learners will help you cultivate a trauma-sensitive learning environment for students across all content areas, grade levels, and educational settings. The authors—a mental health therapist and a veteran principal—provide proven, reliable strategies to help you\* Understand what trauma is and how it hinders the learning, motivation, and success of all students in the classroom.\* Build strong relationships and create a safe space to enable students to learn at high levels.\* Adopt a strengths-based approach that leads you to recalibrate how you view destructive student behaviors and to perceive what students need to break negative cycles.\* Head off frustration and burnout with essential self-care techniques that will help you and your students flourish.\Each chapter also includes questions and exercises to encourage reflection and extension of the ideas in this book. As an educator, you face the impact of trauma in the classroom every day. Let this book be your guide to seeking solutions rather than dwelling on problems, to building relationships that allow students to grow, thrive, and—most assuredly—learn at high levels.
A School Leader's Guide to Tackling Attendance Challenges
Citing extensive research, Sprick and Sprick share details about the shocking prevalence of chronic absence in U.S. schools and its effects on students, teachers, families, and the school community. They explain how to replace punitive approaches to absenteeism with effective methods that begin with universal supports and continue through Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions for students with more persistent problems. Specifically, they explain how to build an effective school team to address absenteeism; create systems to collect accurate data and set priorities; develop an attendance initiative that generates student enthusiasm as well as staff, parent, and community support; design and implement strategies that are tailored to specific schoolwide concerns and demographics that reach all students. Equipped with the information and tools presented in this book, educators can ensure wise use of staff and other resources—and create a culture of attendance that is the foundation of successful schools.
Instructional Rounds in Education: A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning
The authors of this book have pioneered a new form of professional learning known as instructional rounds networks. Through this process, education leaders and practitioners develop a shared understanding of what high-quality instruction looks like and what schools and districts need to do to support it.
Supervising Paraeducators in Educational Settings: A Team Approach (2nd Edition)
This book is intended to provide teachers, related services personnel (including physical and occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists), and administrators with the knowledge necessary to work more effectively with paraeducators in the schools. It is intended to provide guidelines and methods to prepare school professionals to understand the contributions paraeducators make to the delivery of education services, and the need for role clarification, effective supervision and management, good communication, and teamwork.