THINK Together: How YOU can play a role in improving education in America
THINK Together: How YOU can play a role in improving education in America

Author: Randy Barth

Publisher: Wheatmark, Inc.

Published: 2015-02-10

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1627871934

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We are having the wrong conversations about improving public education in America. Some say teachers unions are the main problem, and if we just get rid of them and create more choice and competition, the market will take care of itself. Another view is that corporate reformers are trying to privatize education and profiteer from America's second largest industry. If we would just feed the system with more taxpayer money, and add universal preschool, the system would perform just fine. Neither approach is likely to meet with broad, sustained success. If America is going to fulfill its economic potential and rebuild its middle class, a high performing public education system is foundational. If you look past the superficial debate, there is more common ground (and reason for hope) than you might think. And in places you might have overlooked. Randy Barth offers a unique perspective. A former stockbroker and corporate CEO, he founded a nonprofit organization called THINK Together. In little more than a decade, it has grown into the top half of one percent of all nonprofit organizations in America. A fusion of business people and educators, THINK Together works in partnership with more than 450 traditional public schools serving low-income kids. The outsider-insider perspective Randy's gained along the way, supported by data that shows what's working, needs to be heard if we are serious about looking for systemic solutions. This is a book for everybody. It describes Randy and his colleagues' personal and spiritual journey to the frontiers of hope. If you are a citizen, taxpayer, parent or grandparent, community volunteer, mentor, philanthropist, school board member, teacher, administrator, a classified school employee, a policy maker or influencer, or a person of faith; this book is a must-read as together we look for solutions that will make our schools, and our country, great again. It all starts with you!

Learning How to Learn
Learning How to Learn

Author: Barbara Oakley, PhD

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 052550446X

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A surprisingly simple way for students to master any subject--based on one of the world's most popular online courses and the bestselling book A Mind for Numbers A Mind for Numbers and its wildly popular online companion course "Learning How to Learn" have empowered more than two million learners of all ages from around the world to master subjects that they once struggled with. Fans often wish they'd discovered these learning strategies earlier and ask how they can help their kids master these skills as well. Now in this new book for kids and teens, the authors reveal how to make the most of time spent studying. We all have the tools to learn what might not seem to come naturally to us at first--the secret is to understand how the brain works so we can unlock its power. This book explains: Why sometimes letting your mind wander is an important part of the learning process How to avoid "rut think" in order to think outside the box Why having a poor memory can be a good thing The value of metaphors in developing understanding A simple, yet powerful, way to stop procrastinating Filled with illustrations, application questions, and exercises, this book makes learning easy and fun.

All American Boys
All American Boys

Author: Jason Reynolds

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-09-29

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1481463357

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A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature. In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension. A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement? There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before. Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this four-starred reviewed tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken directly from today’s headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.

Learning to Improve
Learning to Improve

Author: Anthony S. Bryk

Publisher: Harvard Education Press

Published: 2015-03-01

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 161250793X

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As a field, education has largely failed to learn from experience. Time after time, promising education reforms fall short of their goals and are abandoned as other promising ideas take their place. In Learning to Improve, the authors argue for a new approach. Rather than “implementing fast and learning slow,” they believe educators should adopt a more rigorous approach to improvement that allows the field to “learn fast to implement well.” Using ideas borrowed from improvement science, the authors show how a process of disciplined inquiry can be combined with the use of networks to identify, adapt, and successfully scale up promising interventions in education. Organized around six core principles, the book shows how “networked improvement communities” can bring together researchers and practitioners to accelerate learning in key areas of education. Examples include efforts to address the high rates of failure among students in community college remedial math courses and strategies for improving feedback to novice teachers. Learning to Improve offers a new paradigm for research and development in education that promises to be a powerful driver of improvement for the nation’s schools and colleges.