Breaking Ranks

Breaking Ranks

Author: Colin Diver

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2022-04-12

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1421443066

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Some colleges will do anything to improve their national ranking. That can be bad for their students—and for higher education. Since U.S. News & World Report first published a college ranking in 1983, the rankings industry has become a self-appointed judge, declaring winners and losers among America's colleges and universities. In this revealing account, Colin Diver shows how popular rankings have induced college applicants to focus solely on pedigree and prestige, while tempting educators to sacrifice academic integrity for short-term competitive advantage. By forcing colleges into standardized "best-college" hierarchies, he argues, rankings have threatened the institutional diversity, intellectual rigor, and social mobility that is the genius of American higher education. As a former university administrator who refused to play the game, Diver leads his readers on an engaging journey through the mysteries of college rankings, admissions, financial aid, spending policies, and academic practices. He explains how most dominant college rankings perpetuate views of higher education as a purely consumer good susceptible to unidimensional measures of brand value and prestige. Many rankings, he asserts, also undermine the moral authority of higher education by encouraging various forms of distorted behavior, misrepresentation, and outright cheating by ranked institutions. The recent Varsity Blues admissions scandal, for example, happened in part because affluent parents wanted to get their children into elite schools by any means necessary. Explaining what is most useful and important in evaluating colleges, Diver offers both college applicants and educators a guide to pursuing their highest academic goals, freed from the siren song of the "best-college" illusion. Ultimately, he reveals how to break ranks with a rankings industry that misleads its consumers, undermines academic values, and perpetuates social inequality.


Breaking Ranks

Breaking Ranks

Author: Ronit Chacham

Publisher: Other Press, LLC

Published: 2003-12-17

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9781590510995

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Originally published in 2003 following the Second Intifada, a series of powerful conversations with Israeli soldiers who refused to serve in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2002, fifty-two members of the Israel Defense Forces signed an open letter, published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, detailing why they refused to serve in Gaza and the West Bank. A year later, the movement counted more than five hundred of these “refuseniks.” In a series of moving and provocative conversations, nine members of the movement tell why they refused “to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve, and humiliate an entire people.” These nine refuseniks are sergeants, majors, or lieutenants; their names are Guy, Assaf, Rami, Yaniv, Tal, Shamai, Yuval, Ishay, and David. They tell of their individual family backgrounds and beliefs, and as they share their stories of personal and moral struggle, they also raise the disturbing issue of human rights abuses by the Israeli army in the occupied territories. Through these personal accounts, the refuseniks offer new perspectives on entrenched ideas about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Their voices carry a message that is much needed and sorely lacking in our discourse about the current crisis: one of hope and humanity.


Breaking Rank

Breaking Rank

Author: Norm Stamper

Publisher:

Published: 2005-01

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 9781560256939

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The former chief of the Seattle Police Force offers a hard-hitting, candid assessment of law enforcement, discussing issues of gun control, prostitution, narcotics, and race in the process.


Breaking Ranks

Breaking Ranks

Author: Matthew C. Gutmann

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2010-08-04

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 0520266374

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"Breaking Ranks eloquently documents the many ways that militarism infiltrates ordinary lives, and is a powerful reminder of the personal costs of war. A model of sensitive and perceptive analysis of oral history interviews, Breaking Ranks reaches its audience on many levels. It is essential reading for anyone concerned about better connecting intellectually and humanly with the current political moment."—Robert A. Rubinstein, The Maxwell School of Syracuse University "Breaking Ranks is extraordinarily well written, lively and compelling. This is the first book to combine gripping, personal stories of anti-war Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with rigorous academic analysis."—Aaron Glantz, author of The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans "As Matthew Gutmann and Catherine Lutz show in this timely and important book, soldiers can and do think on their own and come to political and ethical conclusions that often run contrary to what the military might want, expect, or portray. In Breaking Ranks, Gutmann and Lutz give us a valuable addition to our understanding of soldiers, politics, and ethics."—Andrew Bickford, George Mason University


Political Conversion

Political Conversion

Author: Don Waisanen

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2018-04-20

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1498575730

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Stories of religious conversion have been told for millennia. Yet many prominent figures such as Ronald Reagan, Hillary Clinton, and Rick Perry have also used stories of their change from one political worldview to another as a communication strategy aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the public. This book is about political conversion stories in public discourse, in their evolution from and interactions with religion. From a historical perspective, it charts the development of conversion narratives from religious contexts to their contemporary applications as specifically political messages. Since these narratives continue to be used in the culture wars, this book examines several related autobiographies that contributed to the use of this strategy in contemporary U.S. politics. Each case shows how shifts during the postwar period called for conversion texts under varying guises, and illustrates how and why the majority of these stories have been of conversions from the ideological left to the right. Examining political conversion as a form of public persuasion, Political Conversion ultimately provides insight into what these types of civic-religious stories mean for democratic communication and communities.


Creating the High Schools of Our Choice

Creating the High Schools of Our Choice

Author: Tim Westerberg

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 1317923243

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This book provides strategies, tools, and examples to help high school principals achieve the goals put forward in the No Child Left Behind legislation.With its clear examples of best practices in leadership, personalization, and strategic use of data, it will show you how to achieve your school's academic mission.


Mailer

Mailer

Author: Peter Manso

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2008-11-18

Total Pages: 770

ISBN-13: 1416562869

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For more than 50 years, Norman Mailer was at the forefront of American letters and popular culture. In this work, originally published to acclaim 20 years ago, Manso reveals the man behind the legend like never before--or since. Photos throughout.