Educator Mike Schmoker paints a disturbing picture using “brutal facts” to explain why so many students are not learning at high levels. Cathy Gassenheimer says that reading Results Now 2.0 is disturbing but notes Schmoker includes a way out of “the current education quagmire.”
Small Changes, Big Impact can guide educators in making 10 research-based changes that will have a significant positive impact on the culture and learning in a school, writes middle level teacher Kristen Donnelly, who says the ideas are aimed primarily at schoolwide reform.
Novels about school are rare and often feature a lone heroic teacher defying the odds. Instead, NBCT Roxanna Elden’s fictional account of life at a struggling urban Texas school – “Adequate Yearly Progress” – is funny, often moving, and always authentic. Read Chapter 2.
To break through the complacency that often slows positive school change, author and middle level leader Ron Williamson turns to Harvard Business School professor John Kotter for four strategies school leaders can use to create urgency within their organizations.
In “Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools,” the authors provide a roadmap to help educators deconstruct a factory-style education system and introduce innovative approaches that empower students as learners, says reviewer Mackenzie Grate.
This is a must-read book for teacher leaders, says our reviewer, offering the stories of 8 educators who seek a new kind of teacher role in America’s schools.
Reviewer and math teacher Michelle Schwartze says the eight essential elements for school-wide math success identified by Chris Confer and Marco Ramirez in Small Steps, Big Changes: Eight Essential Practices for Transforming Schools Through Mathematics ring true.
