New at the Library

You can get into the perfect school! You may think that getting an acceptance letter from selective colleges and universities is a mad dash to the top that only the very best students survive, and those who make it are just the lucky ones. Stress levels soar as it feels like the bar is rising higher and everything is out of your control. But that's not true! You can take control, and you can do it in a way that's as effective as it is empowering. From describing your extracurriculars to interviews with admission officers, it comes down to two questions: What matters most to you? How does it manifest in your life? The answers will give direction to every part of the admission process. Ethan Sawyer (the College Essay Guy), along with dozens of top admission experts, will help you stand out by showing colleges and universities how your values and your drive will change you, your alma mater, and the world. Inside you'll find... Advice and insight from a team of counselors, advisors, and deans of admission Interactive exercises that quickly and easily provide the best content for your application Access to a massive database of online resources, including organizational tools and in-depth guides Guidance for veterans, students with learning differences, LGBTQ+ students, students interested in women's colleges or HBCUs, and more www.collegeessayguy.com

For students who struggle with learning to read, time is of the essence. Dyslexia Defused: Reading Struggles and Reading Solutions offers an effective and efficient instructional plan to expedite mastery. Supplementing the strongest elements of research-based programs, the original strategies readily apply to all levels of reading instruction (developmental, corrective, remedial, and adult literacy). The novel and concise techniques address all task components: phonics, decoding, sight vocabulary, oral reading, fluency, contextual analysis, and comprehension. Furthermore, contributing factors that delay reading mastery and are most often overlooked in current reading programs are identified and treated. Finally, this book underscores the social and emotional impact of reading failure on the child and those who support him or her.

The surprising reasons parents are opting out of the public school system and homeschooling their kids Homeschooling has skyrocketed in popularity in the United States: in 2019, a record-breaking 2.5 million children were being homeschooled. In The Homeschool Choice, Kate Henley Averett provides insight into this fascinating phenomenon, exploring the perspectives of parents who have chosen to homeschool their children. Drawing on in-depth interviews, Averett examines the reasons why these parents choose to homeschool, from those who disagree with sex education and LGBT content in schools, to others who want to protect their children's sexual and gender identities.

We face constant choices about how we read. Educators must select classroom materials. College students weigh their textbook options. Parents make decisions for their children. The digital revolution has transformed reading, and with the recent turn to remote learning, onscreen reading may seem like the only viable option. Yet selecting digital is often based on cost or convenience, not on educational evidence. Now more than ever it is imperative to understand how reading medium actually impacts learning--and what strategies we need in order to read effectively in all formats.

Description: This collection offers practical approaches to using literature as a lens for teaching about climate change. Contributors share their classroom experiences and reflections to urge educators at all levels to prepare students for the challenges of a climate-changed world. Educators from different backgrounds and parts of the world share their experience using novels, short stories, drama, poetry, and nonfiction to help students understand the causes and consequences of climate change as well as how they can contribute to potential solutions. Includes lesson plans, teaching materials, and recommended reading lists. (publ.)

Modern Miss Mason is your invitation into an adventure, a call to turn a corner on your already incredible journey of parenting and let Leah Boden show you the fresh face of an age-old perspective on motherhood, childhood, and education. As a young mother and new home educator, Leah was overwhelmed by the breadth of available resources. How to know which to choose? What would best guide and inspire her children? Whose voices should she trust? That’s when she discovered the timeless work and words of Charlotte Mason. A ground-breaking and revolutionary voice in education, Charlotte breathed life and beauty back into childhood in a stiff, archaic age, opening the eyes of parent-teachers and the hearts of students―and changing the future of home education.

Pedagogy as Encounter consists of 120 vignettes arranged in eight chapters. Most of these are first person autobiographical stories that describe encounters with students and colleagues. They portray a teacher whose classroom disappointments lead him to radical experimentation. But there are also a few theoretical sections, as well as segments that are epigrammatic in nature. All of it is grounded in a Lacanian political psychology and in a critical global political economy. The theory, however, remains largely implicit and is confined to the footnotes. The body of the text is free of jargon and presented in a conversational voice"---Provided by publisher.

The account of one radically new school year for a Teacher of the Year and for his nonbinary, art-obsessed, brilliant child  Seven-year-old Ollie was researching local advanced school programs--because every second grader does that, right? Ollie, who used to hate weekends because they meant no school, was crying on the way to school almost every day. Sure, there were the slings and arrows of bullies and bad teachers, but, maybe worse, Ollie, a funny, anxious, smart kid with a thing for choir and an eye for graphic art, was gravely underchallenged and also struggling with identity and how to live totally as themselves. Ollie begged to switch to a new school with "kids like me," where they wouldn't feel so alone, or so bored, and so they made the change. Raising Ollie is dad Tom Rademacher's story (really, many stories) of that eventful and sometimes painful school year, parenting Ollie and relearning every day what it means to be a father and teacher.

In this sequel to his internationally acclaimed classic, The Call to Teach, David Hansen revisits the idea of teaching as a calling in light of contemporary expectations in education. Reimagining The Call to Teach brings to life an ethical approach to teaching that is informed by an understanding of teaching's great purpose: to help the next generation forge a spirit of mutual care and concern while supporting each student's distinctive way of being in the world. Hansen juxtaposes testimony from public school educators with ideas and examples drawn from philosophy, teacher education, research on teaching, literature, and other arts. He demonstrates that, despite pressing structural challenges in the educational system, teachers can bring their calling to life by supporting one another and by engaging in philosophical inquiry and self-cultivation.

Colleges and universities cannot ignore the increasingly diverse student population in their classrooms, and how a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion across disciplines trains students in the intercultural awareness they will need in competitive job markets. Yet while faculty may be aware of a need to understand EDI goals in relationship to their disciplines, and institutions may support EDI in theory, the onus of pedagogical training in EDI often falls on individual faculty. This book was written by faculty and administrators for educators who value the goals of EDI, and seek an intellectual community to help them develop their practice. Important to this book is an honest discussion of common challenges faculty may face when they engage in this difficult work, and effective strategies for addressing those challenges. The chapters are grouped according to six different themes: respect for divergent learning styles; inclusion and exclusion; technology and social action; affective considerations; reflection for critical consciousness; and safe spaces and resistance.

Reviewed: NYRB 22 Sept. 2022 p. 32.

Description: Donald Yacovone shows us the evidence of white supremacy’s deep-seated roots in our nation’s education system in a fascinating, in-depth examination of America’s wide assortment of texts, from primary readers to college textbooks and other higher-ed course materials. Sifting through a wealth of materials, from the colonial era to today, Yacovone reveals the systematic ways in which white supremacist ideology has infiltrated American culture and how it has been at the heart of our collective national identity. He lays out the arc of America’s white supremacy from the country’s inception and Revolutionary years to its 19th century flashpoint of civil war; to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and today’s Black Lives Matter. And, the author argues that it is the North, not the South, that bears the greater responsibility for creating the dominant strain of race theory, inculcated throughout the culture and in school textbooks, that restricted and repressed African Americans and other minorities, even as Northerners blamed the South for its legacy of slavery, segregation and racial injustice. (publ.)

This book offers hope and practical, proven tools to intentionally create a different reality for educators this school year. Teachers are being asked to do more than they ever thought they would, and that increase in workload and stress, compounded by a simultaneous decrease in solace from work, lack of opportunities to care for themselves, and waning compassion satisfaction is leading to widespread burnout and teachers leaving their once-beloved profession. If you are one of those teachers who is hanging on by a thread, this book will not just help you heal your burnout, it will help you increase compassion satisfaction and other proven techniques to build up long-term burnout resistance and resilience.

Recently, with the rise of online teaching and movements like #PlayApartTogether, games have become increasingly acknowledged as platforms for civic deliberation and value sharing. We the Gamers explores these possibilities by examining how we connect, communicate, analyze, and discover when we play games. Combining research-based perspectives and current examples, this volume shows how games can be used in ethics, civics, and social studies education to inspire learning, critical thinking, and civic change. We the Gamers introduces and explores various educational frameworks through a range of games and interactive experiences including board and card games, online games, virtual reality and augmented reality games, and digital games like Minecraft, Executive Command, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Fortnite, When Rivers Were Trails, Politicraft, Quandary, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The book systematically evaluates the types of skills, concepts, and knowledge needed for civic and ethical engagement, and details how games can foster these skills in classrooms, remote learning environments, and other educational settings. We the Gamers also explores the obstacles to learning with games and how to overcome those obstacles by encouraging equity and inclusion, care and compassion, and fairness and justice. Featuring helpful tips and case studies, We the Gamers shows teachers the strengths and limitations of games in helping students connect with civics and ethics, and imagines how we might repair and remake our world through gaming, together.

In 1885 Jane and Leland Stanford cofounded a university to honor their recently deceased young son. After her husband's death in 1893, Jane Stanford, a devoted spiritualist who expected the university to inculcate her values, steered Stanford into eccentricity and public controversy for more than a decade. In 1905 she was murdered in Hawaii, a victim, according to the Honolulu coroner's jury, of strychnine poisoning. With her vast fortune the university's lifeline, the Stanford president and his allies quickly sought to foreclose challenges to her bequests by constructing a story of death by natural causes. The cover-up gained traction in the murky labyrinths of power, wealth, and corruption of Gilded Age San Francisco.

Description: This important volume brings together key writings from one of the most influential education scholars of our time. In this collection of her seminal essays on critical race theory (CRT), Gloria Ladson-Billings seeks to clear up some of the confusion and misconceptions that education researchers have around race and inequality. Beginning with her groundbreaking work with William Tate in the mid-1990s up to the present day, this book discloses both a personal and intellectual history of CRT in education. The essays are divided into three areas: Critical Race Theory, Issues of Inequality, and Epistemology and Methodologies. Ladson-Billings ends with a postscript that looks back at her journey and considers what is on the horizon for other scholars of education. Having these widely cited essays in one volume will be invaluable to everyone interested in understanding how inequality operates in our society and how race affects educational outcomes. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 7 Sept. 2021 (online; excerpt)
Description: In 2009, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was on top of the world. In the all-important athletic realm, the Tar Heels were the Coca-Cola of athletic brands. Resting upon the legacy of legendary basketball coach Dean Smith, UNC had carved out a reputation of excellence paired with squeaky-clean adherence to the rules. Supporters had a name for that irresistible ethos: the Carolina Way. The Tar Heels were climbing even higher. That year, they won their fifth national championship in men’s basketball and looked poised to climb the ranks in football under a new, high-powered coach. But within just a few years, it all came crashing down. The Tar Heels’ success, it turned out, was based on a foundation of deceit. Athletes were flocking to a slate of fake classes that advisers deftly used to keep them eligible to play. That revelation and others metastasized into one of the most damaging scandals ever to visit an American college. Journalist Andy Thomason provides a gripping and authoritative retelling of the scandal through the eyes of four of its key participants: the secretary who presided over the fake classes, the professor who directed players toward them, the literacy specialist turned whistleblower who sought to expose the system, and the chancellor who found his career suddenly on the line. The narrative reveals the toll of a college’s investment in major sports, and the amateurism myth upon which it is based. Based on dozens of original interviews and thousands of pages of documents, Thomason demonstrates just how far a university will go to preserve the athletic status quo.

With the 2020 closing of schools, libraries, playgrounds, etc children have been forced to spend a lot of time at home.This has left parents trying to juggle their own schedules to provide educational opportunities for them so that they will not fall too far "behind". This book of resource materials for parents of elementary and middle school children is not intended to replace or be a substitute for the standard curriculum of the grades. It offers parents resources that promote and engage children's thinking across various curriculum areas - critical thinking tools that can serve children at whatever grade level and give them a leg up to deal with whatever they will face. This book is a valuable asset to parents and caregivers that will provide some much needed help and information..

Drawing on decades of research and examples from their own practices, the authors provide best practices in race dialogue facilitation. Through concrete lesson plans and hands-on material, both experienced and novice facilitators can immediately use this inclusive and wide-ranging curriculum in a variety of classrooms, work spaces, and organizations with diverse participants.

Reviewed: CHE 10/19/2021 (online; referenced)
Description: How do we talk about Black history and racism in the United States on college campuses? In a series of essays, Professor Leonard Moore outlines how he has taught courses on African American history at colleges with a largely white student body. As an African American professor, he has had to find ways to teach to a diverse classroom, but one that is often dominated by white students with little prior knowledge of this history. Moore discusses how his love of history and drive to teach have emerged from his own experiences, and how those experiences have also shaped how he approaches the oft-challenging task of teaching history. He also discusses how racism and bias are ingrained in the African American experience throughout US history. (publ.) “Many of the white students who flock to Leonard N. Moore’s course on the history of the Black Power movement start the semester at the University of Texas at Austin saying they don’t see race. He makes sure that by the end of the semester, they do.” (CHE)

Description: This book argues that the current conversation about affirmative action and college admissions omits a key dimension: the conditions of racial inequality that students and their families experience from early childhood through high school, and which continue throughout postsecondary education. The moment of matriculation is part of a much longer process that begins in homes, schools, and communities, which prepares some students well and leaves others at a disadvantage. And when students attend college, they still might not have the resources to stay in school and graduate, particularly if their college cannot help with their financial needs. Drawing on extensive data, the authors argue that, historically, the only major breakthroughs on racial barriers to education and economic opportunity have come in periods of commitment to race-conscious policies. They argue that colorblind policies, by ignoring the racial realities of schools and society, have critically limited access to education for students of color. The authors propose a series of policies and practices that could make educational opportunity more equal. They argue that when it is impossible to implement race-conscious policies, educational institutions must implement “race-sensitive” policies built with an understanding of the roots of racial inequality, so as to avoid building a future with profound intergenerational racial inequality. (publ.)

This book addresses the urgent need for community colleges to prioritize entrepreneurship education both to remain relevant in a changing economy and to give graduate students the flexible and interdisciplinary mindsets needed for the future of society.

Fredrik deBoer exposes the lie at the heart of our educational system and demands top-to-bottom reform. Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively. Since cognitive talent varies from person to person, our education system can never create equal opportunity for all. Instead, it teaches our children that hierarchy and competition are natural, and that human value should be based on intelligence. This passionate, voice-driven manifesto demands that we embrace a new goal for education: equality of outcomes. We must create a world that has a place for everyone, not just the academically talented. But we'll never achieve this dream until the Cult of Smart is destroyed.

A vibrant history of the renowned and often controversial Iowa Writers' Workshop and its celebrated alumni and faculty. As the world's preeminent creative writing program, the Iowa Writers' Workshop has produced an astonishing number of distinguished writers and poets since its establishment in 1936. Its alumni and faculty include twenty-eight Pulitzer Prize winners, six U.S. poet laureates, and numerous National Book Award winners. Focusing on some of the exceptional authors who have participated in the program--such as Flannery O'Connor, Dylan Thomas, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Smiley, Sandra Cisneros, T. C. Boyle, and Marilynne Robinson--David Dowling examines how the Iowa Writers' Workshop has shaped professional authorship, publishing industries, and the course of American literature.

Keeping students focused can be difficult in a world filled with distractions. Why is it so hard to get students to pay attention? Conventional wisdom blames iPhones, insisting that access to technology has ruined students' ability to focus. The logical response is to ban electronics in class. But acclaimed educator James M. Lang argues that this solution obscures a deeper problem: how we teach is often at odds with how students learn. Classrooms are designed to force students into long periods of intense focus, but emerging science reveals that the brain is wired for distraction. In Distracted, Lang rethinks the practice of teaching, revealing how educators can structure their classrooms less as distraction-free zones and more as environments where they can actively cultivate their students' attention.

How our colleges and universities can respond to the changing hopes and needs of society. In recent decades, cognitive psychologists have cast new light on human development and given colleges new possibilities for helping students acquire skills and qualities that will enhance their lives and increase their contributions to society. In this landmark book, Derek Bok explores how colleges can reap the benefits of these discoveries and create a more robust undergraduate curriculum for the twenty-first century.

Reviewed: PW 1 June 2020 p. 51.
Description: Mary Cappello’s book is a song for the forgotten art of the lecture. Brimming with energy and erudition, it is an attempt to restore the lecture’s capacity to wander, question, and excite. Cappello draws on examples from Virginia Woolf to Mary Ruefle, Ralph Waldo Emerson to John Cage, blending rigorous cultural criticism with personal history to explore the lecture in its many forms–from the aphorism to the note–and give new life to knowledge's dramatic form. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 12 Oct. 2020 p. 65.
Description: When racist curriculum “goes viral” on social media, it is typically dismissed as an isolated incident from a “bad” teacher. Educator Bree Picower, however, holds that racist curriculum isn’t an anomaly. It’s a systemic problem that reflects how Whiteness is embedded and reproduced in education. … Drawing on her experience teaching and developing a program that prepares teachers to focus on social justice and antiracism, Picower demonstrates how teachers’ ideology of race, consciously or unconsciously, shapes how they teach race in the classroom. She also examines current examples of racist curricula that have gone viral to demonstrate how Whiteness is entrenched in schools and how this reinforces racial hierarchies in the younger generation. With a focus on institutional strategies, Picower shows how racial justice can be built into programs across the teacher education pipeline–from admission to induction. By examining the who, what, why, and how of racial justice teacher education, she provides radical possibilities for transforming how teachers think about, and teach about, race in their classrooms. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYRB 14 Jan. 2020 p. 36.
Reviewed: We are in the midst of a full-scale attack on our nation’s commitment to public education. From funding, to vouchers, to charter schools, public education policy has become a political football, rather than a means of fulfilling the most basic obligation of government to its citizens. As Derek W. Black vividly illustrates, this assault threatens not just public education, but democracy itself. Black offers both an illuminating history of our nation’s establishment of a constitutional right to education, and a trenchant analysis of how such a right is being undermined today. He looks at education history with a wide view, describing both periods when our democracy has been strengthened–when the commitment to public education has been strongest–and weakened, when such a commitment has been lacking. And today, such a commitment is sorely lacking. He shows what is at stake: not just the right to public education as guaranteed by the constitution, but an erosion of democratic norms. (pub.)

Sports Crazy: How Sports Are Sabotaging American Schools exposes the excesses of middle and high school sports and the detrimental effects our sports obsession has on American education. Institutions are increasingly emulating college and professional sports models and losing sight of a host of educational and health goals. Steven J. Overman describes how this agenda is driven largely by partisan fans and parents of athletes who exert an inordinate influence on school priorities, and he explains how and why school administrators shockingly and consistently capitulate to these demands. Overman recommends reforms in the context of a radical proposal to phase out interscholastic sports in favor of an intramural or club model. This approach would alleviate such problems as elitism and gender bias and reign in hypercompetitiveness while freeing schools to educate students rather than provide public entertainment.

Reviewed: CHE 24 Sept. 2020 (online)
Description: William Germano & Kit Nicholls take a fresh look at this essential but almost invisible bureaucratic document and use it as a starting point for rethinking what students–and teachers–do. What if a teacher built a semester’s worth of teaching and learning backward–starting from what students need to learn to do by the end of the term, and only then selecting and arranging the material students need to study? Thinking through the lived moments of classroom engagement–what the authors call “coursetime”–becomes a way of striking a balance between improv and order. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 31 Aug. 2020 p. 49.
Description: Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider, co-hosts of the popular education podcast Have You Heard, lay out the increasingly potent network of conservative elected officials, advocacy groups, funders, and think tanks that have aligned behind a radical vision to unmake public education. They describe the dogma underpinning the work of the dismantlers and how it fits into the current political context, giving readers an up-close look at the policies–school vouchers, the war on teachers’ unions, tax credit scholarships, virtual schools, and more–driving the movement’s agenda. Finally they look forward, surveying the world the dismantlers threaten to build. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYT/BR 25 Aug. 2019 p. 15.
Description: The former dean of Yale Law School surveys the full sweep of recent cam-pus controversies to show how these disputes threaten the best of America’s intellectual traditions–including democracy itself. In his tenure at Yale, Anthony Kronman has watched students march across campus to protest the names of buildings and seen colleagues resign over emails about Halloween costumes. He is no stranger to recent confrontations at American universities. But where many see only the suppression of free speech, the babying of students, and the drive to bury the imperfect parts of our history, Kronman recognizes in these on-campus clashes a threat to our democracy. As Kronman argues, the founders of our nation learned over three centuries ago that in order for this country to have a robust democratic government, its citizens have to be trained to have tough skins, to make up their own minds, and to win arguments not on the basis of emotion but because their side is closer to the truth. In other words, to prepare people to choose good leaders, you need to turn them into smart fighters, people who can take hits and think clearly so they’re not manipulated by demagogues. Kronman is the first to tie today’s campus debates back to the history of American values, drawing on luminaries like Alexis de Tocqueville and John Adams to show how these modern controversies threaten the best of our intellectual traditions. His tone is warm and optimistic, that of a humanist and a lover of the humanities who is passionate about educating students capable of living up to the demands of a thriving democracy. (publ.)

Written for parents and families of college-bound students, this book is the one tool they'll need to navigate the complex (and often emotional) challenge of getting their daughters or sons into--and through--college. From early childhood to setting up their dorm room, this book provides parents with insights, wisdom, and guidance about college (what it is and why it is a valuable experience), college preparation (including both academic and financial), and choosing a college (how to understand not only the process but also the right fit and value). Letters written by college and educational professionals, all with their own college-aged children, frame and illuminate each chapter. The letters offer advice about preparation for college gleaned from personal and professional experiences.

In an era of increasing accountability, tighter coupling, and the need to do ever more with fewer resources, mission focus is vital to college survival. This work explores such issues as: the unspoken social contract, transfer, developmental education, noncredit education, dual enrollment, workforce development, and planning for the future.

Octover 2 will be a date long remembered by the Nickel Mines community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. For it was on this date that ten young Amish school girls were gunned down in their one-room school by a local father deranged by troubling events in his own life. The terrible event captured the attention of the world as it dramatically unfolded on news media cameras. It was just another Monday morning, albeit an exceptionally lovely one. The people of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, went about their daily lives, tending their farms and heading off to work or school. Only one man had any idea what this particular Monday would hold-one man and the God in whom he no longer believed. The author chose to tell this gripping story through the eyes of an imaginary character, Rebecca Sue, who is a fictitious compilation of the survivors of the shooting.

The purpose of this issue of 'New Directions' is to describe the prevalence of hunger and homelessness among community college students, to explore its likely impact on students' academic success, and to offer examples of emerging practices that support students who may be experiencing food and housing insecurity.

Examine homeschooling's history, its methods, and the fundamental questions at the root of the heated debate over whether and how the state should oversee and regulate it. Analyzing the many arguments made for and against it, and set them in the context of larger questions about school and education. Homeschooling is the definitive study of a vexed question, one that ultimately affects all citizens, regardless of their educational background.

An inside look at America's most controversial charter schools, and the moral and political questions around public education and school choice.

Thoroughly updated to discuss the use of tools such as Skype and social media, this concise volume shows how effective communication--via written text and spoken presentations--can positively impact project management in professional environments.

The untold story of the root cause of America s education crisis and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty.

Reviewed: PW 16 Dec. 2019 p. 105.
Description: The untold story of the Harvard class of ’63, whose Black students fought to create their own identities on the cusp between integration and affirmative action. In the fall of 1959, Harvard recruited eighteen “Negro” boys as an experiment, an early form of affirmative action. Four years later they would graduate as African Americans. Some fifty years later, one of these trailblazing Harvard grads, Kent Garrett, began to reconnect with his classmates and explore their vastly different backgrounds, lives, and what their time at Harvard meant. Garrett and his partner Jeanne Ellsworth recount how these young men broke new ground. By the time they were seniors, they would have demonstrated against injustice, had lunch with Malcolm X, experienced heartbreak and the racism of academia, and joined with their African national classmates to fight for the right to form an exclusive Black students’ group. Part journey into personal history, part group portrait, and part narrative history of the civil rights movement, this is the remarkable story of brilliant, singular boys whose identities were changed at and by Harvard, and who, in turn, changed Harvard. (publ.)

Presenting major advances in understanding learning disabilities (LDs) and describing effective educational practices. With a focus on what works in the classroom, the book explores the full range of reading, mathematics, and writing disabilities. It synthesizes knowledge from neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and special and general education.

Though the transition from childhood to adolescence can be tough for kids, this time of rapid physical, intellectual, moral, social, and emotional change is a unique opportunity to proactively build character and confidence. Fagell helps parents use the middle school years as a low-stakes training ground to teach kids the key skills they'll need to thrive now and in the future, including making good friend choices, negotiating conflict, regulating their own emotions, be their own advocates, and more. To answer parents' most common questions and struggles with middle school-aged children, Fagell combines her professional and personal expertise with stories and advice from prominent psychologists, doctors, parents, educators, school professionals, and middle schoolers themselves.

As anyone who has done it knows, going back to school is a major undertaking. For younger and older adults alike, starting or returning to school presents different challenges than those encountered by teens fresh out of high school and heading straight to college. Countless Americans take on this task while working, raising kids, caring for parents, volunteering, serving in the military - and in some cases all of the above. This book includes practical advice for the busy moms, frustrated employees, and ambitious adults who are applying to college or hoping to finish earning a degree.

The most effective study technique that few students actually use. How slower learners are often underestimated, and can surpass expectations. What we can learn from the fun and curiosity children bring to learning. Why knowing your motivation and purpose is key when learning something new. What type of learner you are: exploratory generalist, project tackler, or curriculum developer Understand how learning works, and use it to your advantage.

Note: Faculty request (KC)
Description: Rather than putting the focus on technologies and offering perspective ad-vice based on anecdotal experiences and common sense, this book high-lights the proven online teaching practices that are anchored in solid re-search. Written for faculty, instructional designers, and administrators, this resource outlines the best practices in teaching and learning and the principles from cognitive science. The text’s practices and principles are presented in such a way as to aid all students in their effort to keep the pace, understand the material, and fulfill their true potential as learners. This book fills a gap in the literature by providing evidence-based practices for online teaching, online course design, and online student motivation, integrated with pedagogical and cognitive science to help build the distance learning courses and programs that all students deserve. Designed to be a practical resource, the text shows how to adopt new pedagogical techniques that are targeted specifically for online learning environments. The approaches outlined ensure strong course alignment and effective student learning for online classes and can help to increase student retention, build necessary support structures, and train faculty more effectively. The authors–noted experts in the field–provide an essential guide to developing online classes that measure up to the rigor and quality of excellence in teaching and assessment, build in the personal touch for developing a learning community, and equip all students to succeed in the next challenge. (publ.)
Acquisition Note: Gift of Calmar Library.

Reviewed: PW 16 Dec. 2019 p. 106.
Description: School choice, largely touted as a system that would ensure underprivileged youth have an equal opportunity in education, has grown in popularity in the past fifteen years. The rhetoric of school choice, however, resembles that of segregationists who closed public schools and funded private institutions to block African American students from integrating with their white peers in the wake of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision. Steve Suitts examines the parallels between de facto segregationist policies and the modern school choice movement. He ex-poses the dangers lying behind the smoke and mirrors of the so-called civil rights policies of Betsy DeVos and the education privatization lobbies. Economic and educational disparities have expanded rather than contract-ed in the years following Brown, and post-Jim Crow discriminatory policies drive inequality and poverty today. Suitts deftly reveals the risk that America’s underprivileged youth face as school voucher programs funnel public education funds into charter schools and predominantly white and wealthy private schools. (publ.)

Community colleges have open admissions policies, which allow for students that are not prepared for college-level work to enroll in college programs. As such, community college students often need remediation and academic assistance to succeed in college. In the past decade, community colleges have engaged in a number of new approaches designed to improve student progress in and completion of developmental coursework. The ultimate goals of reform are students' increased success in college coursework and increases in overall student success and completion outcomes.

Work hard in school, graduate from a top college, establish a high-paying professional career, enjoy the long-lasting reward of happiness. This is the American Dream--and yet basic questions at the heart of this competitive journey remain unanswered. Does realizing the American Dream deliver a good life? In Redefining Success in America, psychologist and human development scholar Michael Kaufman develops a fundamentally new understanding of how elite undergraduate educations and careers play out in lives, and of what shapes happiness among the prizewinners in America. This longitudinal study pioneers a new paradigm in happiness research, developmental science, and personality psychology that will appeal to scholars and students in the social sciences, psychotherapy professionals, and serious readers navigating the competitive journey.

How to obtain a successful College Degree in the Liberal Arts with Bible Study emphasis.

Reviewed: CHE 13 Sept. 2019 (online; cited); NYT/BR 25 Aug. 2019 p. 15.
Description: Michael S. Roth stakes out a pragmatist path through the thicket of issues facing colleges today to carry out the mission of higher education. With empathy, candor, subtlety, and insight, Roth offers a sane approach to the noisy debates surrounding affirmative action, political correctness, and free speech, urging us to envision college as a space in which students are empowered to engage with criticism and with a variety of ideas. Countering the increasing cynical dismissal–from both liberals and conservatives–of the traditional core values of higher education, this book champions the merits of different diversities, including intellectual diversity, with a timely call for universities to embrace boldness, rigor, and practical idealism. (publ.)

Description: As of 2019, Americans owed over 1.56 trillion dollars in stu-dent loan debt, and 69 percent of college students who graduated in 2018 had to take out student loans. Student debt has increased significantly over the past twenty years, but what factors have brought this about? Are students to blame for making irresponsible financial decisions, or is the price of education rising disproportionately to average income? How do variables like class and race impact student debt? What impact do these debts have on individuals and the economy? This volume examines the na-ture of America's student debt crisis and explores possible solutions. (publ.)
Note: Library Standing Order.

Using Authentic Assessment in Information Literacy Programs: Tools, Techniques, and Strategies offers teaching librarians practical resources and approaches that will help implement authentic assessment in any instructional setting, from one-shot instruction sessions or for-credit courses, in person or online.

Description: Historian Johann N. Neem offers a new way to think about the major questions facing higher education today, from online education to disruptive innovation to how students really learn. As commentators, reformers, and policymakers call for dramatic change and new educational models, this collection of lucid essays asks us to pause and take stock. What is a college education supposed to be? What kinds of institutions and practices will best help us get there? And which virtues must colleges and universities cultivate to sustain their desired ends? During this time of drift, Neem argues, we need to moor our colleges once again to their core purposes. By evaluating reformers’ goals in relation to the specific goods that a college should offer to students and society, this book connects public policy to deeper ethical questions. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 26 Apr. 2019 p. A15 (referenced)
Description: People have been reading on computer screens for several decades now, predating popularization of personal computers and widespread use of the internet. But it was the rise of eReaders and tablets that caused digital reading to explode. In 2007, Amazon introduced its first Kindle. Three years later, Apple debuted the iPad. Meanwhile, as mobile phone technology improved and smartphones proliferated, the phone became another vital reading platform. Naomi Baron, an expert on language and technology, explores how technology is reshaping our understanding of what it means to read. Digital reading is increasingly popular. Reading onscreen has many virtues, including convenience, potential cost-savings, and the opportunity to bring free access to books and other written materials to people around the world. Yet, Baron argues, the virtues of eReading are matched with drawbacks. Users are easily distracted by other temptations on their devices, multitasking is rampant, and screens coax us to skim rather than read in-depth. What is more, if the way we read is changing, so is the way we write. In response to changing reading habits, many authors and publishers are producing shorter works and ones that don't require reflection or close reading. (publ.)

Does college still work? Is the system designed just to protect the privileged and leave everyone else behind? Or can a college education today provide real opportunity to young Americans seeking to improve their station in life? The Years That Matter Most tells the stories of students trying to find their way, with hope, joy, and frustration, through the application process and into college. Drawing on new research, the book reveals how the landscape of higher education has shifted in recent decades and exposes the hidden truths of how the system works and whom it works for.

Note: Faculty request; DB, MG.
Description: Provide numerous tips, hints, and recommendations on how to make wise academic decisions, study effectively, and be successful in your classes. (publ.)
Acquisitions Note: Also available at publisher website: https://www.woodburnpress.com/51-tips-for-academic-success-college-edition.html.

Note: Faculty request; DB, MG.
Description: This oral history tells the story of the struggles as well as of the triumphs related to the fight for access and high quality in higher education. Thus, it provides a unique look at the past state of higher education, and at the measures that might be taken to improve our future educational system. It begins with a brief historical overview of what access to higher education looked like before the 20th century. Following chapters tell the actual stories and are organized around four themes: the power of belief in students; access with success; institutional commitment; and effective support systems. Finally, a set of recommendations is provided that will help to keep the doors open for those still wishing to enter. Educators at all levels, graduate students studying higher education, and interested readers in the general public will all find this book an invaluable resource. (publ.)

Reviewed: LJ Mar. 2019 p. 131; NYRB 12 Mar. 2020 p. 42.
Description: Over the past few decades, the job of college professor has been utterly transformed–for the worse. America’s colleges and universities were designed to serve students and create knowledge through the teaching, research, and stability that come with the longevity of tenured faculty, but higher education today is dominated by adjuncts. In 1975, only thirty per-cent of faculty held temporary or part-time positions. By 2011, as universities faced both a decrease in public support and ballooning administrative costs, that number topped fifty percent. Now, some surveys suggest that as many as seventy percent of American professors are working course-to-course, with few benefits, little to no security, and extremely low pay. In this book, Herb Childress draws on his own firsthand experience and that of other adjuncts to tell the story of how higher education reached this sorry state. (publ.)

Description: In an entirely fresh take on school reform, business journalist and bestselling author Andrea Gabor argues that Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and other leaders of the prevailing education-reform movement have borrowed all the wrong lessons from the business world. She explains how the market-based measures and carrot-and-stick incentives informing today’s reforms are out of sync with the nurturing culture that good schools foster and—contrary to popular belief—at odds with the best practices of thriving twenty-first-century companies as well. (publ.)

Description: This report assesses the impact of the Colorado Community College System colleges (CCCS colleges) on the state economy and the benefits generated by the colleges for students, taxpayers, and society. The results of this study show that CCCS colleges create a positive net impact on the state economy and generate a positive return on investment for students, taxpayers, and society. (publ.)
Note: Online document.

Note: Faculty Request; DB.
Description: Based on an exhaustive review of the scholarship, as well as the input of numerous academics at learning institutions around the country, this volume in the acclaimed New Directions for Institutional Research series provides faculty members and assessment teams with the tools they need to assess general education student learning outcomes. While Part 1 provides a broad overview of the subject, Part 2 delves into the six key general education learning outcomes, namely, critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, intercultural competence, teamwork, civic knowledge and engagement, and integrative and applied learning. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB.
Description: Because assessment and instruction are two sides of the same coin, it is critical for teachers to not only assess what students understand, but also use that information to adjust their teaching. Assessment-Centered Teaching (ACT) is a unique practice that allows teachers to gather information during instruction to uncover learning gaps and guide students toward deeper understandings of complex ideas. This resource describes how reflective practitioners can use the ACT portfolio to reflect on, modify, and improve their curriculum and instruction. The forms included on the CD-ROM guide teachers through the process. This book encourages educators to: (1) Reflect on their own practice; (2) Systematically examine student progress toward identified learning goals over time; & (3) Monitor instruction and assessment for continuous improvement. Assessment-Centered Teaching helps teachers, professional developers, and school teams establish quality instructional goals and implement ongoing formative assessment to promote student success. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 17 Dec. 2018 (online; commentary)
Description: The authors highlight an aspect of American politics that we know all too well: We are terrible at having informed, reasonable debates. We opt instead to hurl insults and accusations at one another or, worse, sit in silence and privately ridicule the other side. Wouldn’t an educational system that focuses on how to have such debates in civil and mutually respectful ways improve our public culture and help us overcome the political impasses that plague us today? To realize such a system, the authors argue that we need to not only better prepare our educators for the teaching of hot-button issues, but also provide them the professional autonomy and legal protection to do so. And we need to know exactly what constitutes a controversy, which is itself a controversial issue. The existence of climate change, for instance, should not be subject to discussion in schools: scientists overwhelmingly agree that it exists. How we prioritize it against other needs, such as economic growth, however–that is worth a debate. The authors show that our squeamishness over controversy in the classroom has left our students woefully underserved as future citizens. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB
Holdings: 1st ed. at Calmar Library; call no. 378.12 Bar.
Description: Evidence shows that students who learn in small groups together exhibit higher academic achievement, motivation, and satisfaction than those who don’t. Collaborative learning puts into practice the major conclusion from learning theory: that students must be actively engaged in building their own minds. In this book, the authors synthesize the relevant research and theory to support thirty-five collaborative learning activities for use in both traditional and online classrooms. This second edition reflects the changed world of higher education. New technologies have opened up endless possibilities for college teaching, but it’s not always easy to use these technologies effectively. Updated to address the challenges of today’s new teaching environments, including online, “flipped,” and large lectures, this is a reference for educators who want to make the most of any course environment. (publ.)

Note: Faculty request; DB.
Description: Making clear what students must learn is being stressed by Federal and State governments and by professional and national accreditation organizations. This book is designed to help faculty and institutions of higher education meet these demands by obtaining, managing, using, and reporting valid outcome attainment measures at the course level; and mapping out-come attainment from the course level to departmental, degree program, and institutional levels, and beyond. It demonstrates how to communicate clearly what students are supposed to know and be able to do; write assessments that measure the expectations; and produce test scores that are valid for their intended use and interpretation, so that valid inferences can be made about students and programs. (publ.)

Description: What does university teaching–as a craft–look like? What changes does a craft perspective suggest for higher education? Peter Lindsay addresses these questions in both a general sense–and with respect to the practical, everyday tasks of university professors, such as the use and misuse of technology, the handling of academic dishonesty, the assignment of course reading, and the instilling of enthusiasm for learning. Intended for professors of all academic disciplines who either enjoy teaching or wish to enjoy it more, this book is a provocative and accessible book containing practical advice gleaned from the academic literature on pedagogy. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB, MG.
Description: This is a book for all faculty who are concerned with promoting the persistence of all students whom they teach. Most recognize that faculty play a major role in student retention and success because they typically have more direct contact with students than others on campus. However, little attention has been paid to role of the faculty in this specific mission or to the corresponding characteristics of teaching, teacher-student interactions, and connection to student affairs activities that lead to students’ long-term engagement, to their academic success, and ultimately to graduation. … This book addresses the lack of specific guidance by providing faculty with additional evidence-based instructional practices geared toward reaching all the students in their classrooms, including those from groups that traditionally have been the least successful, while maintaining high standards and expectations. Recognizing that there are no easy answers, Kathleen Gabriel offers faculty ideas that can be incorporated in, or modified to align with, faculty’s existing teaching methods. She covers topics such as creating a positive and inclusive course climate, fostering a community of learners, increasing engagement and students’ interactions, activating connections with culturally relevant material, reinforcing self-efficacy with growth mindset and mental toughness techniques, improving lectures by building in meaningful educational activities, designing reading and writing assignments for stimulating deep learning and critical thinking, and making grade and assessment choices that can promote learning. (publ.)

Description: What makes a good college teacher? This book provides an evidence-based answer to that question by presenting a set of “model teaching characteristics” that define what makes a good college teacher. Based on six fundamental areas of teaching competency known as Model Teaching Characteristics outlined by The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP), this book describes how college faculty from all disciplines and at all levels of experience can use these characteristics to evaluate, guide, and improve their teaching. Evidence based research supports the inclusion of each characteristic, each of which is illustrated through example, to help readers master the skills. Readers learn to evaluate their teaching abilities by providing guidance on what to document and how to accumulate and organize the evidence. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB.
Description: This book offers answers by describing the different theoretical models available for coaching and mentoring and by looking at how these models are applied in practice. Robust theory is backed up by practical advice and numerous practical exercises, case studies, templates–including a Training Workshop template–learning partner handouts, and a questionnaire for selecting prospective mentors are included. Advice is also included on sensitive areas such as the boundary between mentoring or coaching and therapy, and the desirability of supervision and codes of practice. (publ.)

Note: Faculty request; DB.
Acquisition Note: Also available at publisher website: https://nrcfye.presswarehouse.com/browse/book/9781889271675/A-Faculty-and-Staff-Guide-to-Creating-Learning-Outcomes
Description: For more than a decade, educators have focused on illustrating the effectiveness of educational interventions by measuring changes in grade point averages, retention, satisfaction, and participation. What such measures don’t tell us is what students know or are able to do as a result of their educational experiences. Yet, this is the kind of data colleges and universities are increasingly asked to report by state legislatures, regional accrediting agencies, and a number of other stakeholders. Responding to this call requires new assessment vehicles that report success through the eyes of students using measurable learning outcomes for courses, programs of study, and cocurricular experiences. This book presents a framework for developing and assessing student learning outcomes in a brief, accessible format. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB, MG.
Description: In the recent push to help more students not only access but also achieve their college dreams, one thing is clear-students need more than just academic skills for college and career success. They need to develop the habits of mind that lead to lifelong, integrative learning. Intellectual qualities like curiosity, openness, flexibility engagement, and persistence are the key to transferrable competencies; yet, these qualities are seldom given direct attention in college classrooms. This lack of instructional focus on the “soft skills” critical to postsecondary success poses a challenge for many students who enter college. This contributed volume aims to pull back the curtain on the behind-the-scenes processes that go into academic brain-work. The chapters present a progressive instructional cycle, which starts with students discovering their assets and ends with students transferring their learning to new tasks and situations. Throughout this book, readers will and habits-of-mind-based strategies for helping all students-including low-income, multilingual, and first-generation college students-overcome obstacles on the path to degree completion. (publ.)

Description: Over the course of ten audacious essays, Reichman explores the theory, history, and contemporary practice of academic freedom. He pays attention to such varied concerns as the meddling of politicians and corporate trustees in curriculum and university governance, the role of online education, the impact of social media, the rights of student protesters and outside speakers, the relationship between collective bargaining and academic freedom, and the influence on research and teaching of ideologically motivated donors. Significantly, he debunks myths about the strength of the alleged opposition to free expression posed by student activism and shows that the expressive rights of students must be defended as part of academic freedom. (publ.)

Description: At a time when mass shootings in schools and other public spaces have be-come commonplace, it might seem surprising that American college campuses are not magnets for murderers but sanctuaries from them. Because of remarkably effective gun-safe policies, deaths by firearms on college campuses are 1,000 times less frequent than in the U.S. public at large. Drawing on crime data submitted in compliance with the Clery Act and public reports of those crimes, this study inventories every documented homicide at a U.S. college or university between 2001 and 2016, making a compelling argument for using gun-safe campuses as guides for broader public safety. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB.
Description: This handbook acts as an essential guide to understanding and using re-flective and experiential learnin–whether it be for personal or professional development, or as a tool for learning. As well as the theory, the book pro-vides practical ideas for applying the models of learning, with tools, activi-ties and photocopiable resources which can be incorporated directly into classroom practice. It is essential reading to guide any teacher, lecturer or trainer wanting to improve teaching and learning. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB. Faculty book discussion group selection.
Ordering Note: 15 copies ordered (2 HC & 13 PB)
Description: In his earlier book, journalist Paul Tough introduced us to research showing that personal qualities like perseverance, self-control, and conscientiousness play a critical role in children’s success. Now he takes on a new set of pressing questions: What does growing up in poverty do to children’s mental and physical development? How does adversity at home affect their success in the classroom, from preschool to high school? And what practical steps can the adults who are responsible for them–from parents and teachers to policy makers and philanthropists–take to improve their chances for a positive future? Tough once again encourages us to think in a brand new way about the challenges of childhood. Rather than trying to “teach” skills like grit and self-control, he argues, we should focus instead on creating the kinds of environments, both at home and at school, in which those qualities are most likely to flourish. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB.
Description: A culmination of over two years of efforts by faculty and association leaders from six disciplines, this book distills the national conversation into a delineated set of fundamental ideas and practices, and advocates for the development and use of rigorous assessment tools that are valued by faculty, students, and society. This book brings faculty voices to the fore of the conversation and offers an insightful look at the state of higher education, and a realistic strategy for better serving our students. (publ.)

Description: What would it take to transform industrial-era schools into modern organizations capable of supporting deep learning for all? Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine’s quest to answer this question took them inside some of America’s most innovative schools and classrooms–places where educators are re-thinking both what and how students should learn. The story they tell is alternately discouraging and hopeful. Drawing on hundreds of hours of observations and interviews at thirty different schools, Mehta and Fine reveal that deeper learning is more often the exception than the rule. And yet they find pockets of powerful learning at almost every school, often in electives and extracurriculars as well as in a few mold-breaking academic courses. These spaces achieve depth, the authors argue, because they emphasize purpose and choice, cultivate community, and draw on powerful traditions of apprenticeship. These outliers suggest that it is difficult but possible for schools and classrooms to achieve the integrations that support deep learning: rigor with joy, precision with play, mastery with identity and creativity. (publ.)

Reviewed: Choice (Jun. 2019 vol. 56 no. 10) Top 75 books recommended for community college libraries.
Description: This book will significantly benefit those interested in learning more about diversity and inclusion at community colleges and will provide insight into strategic diversity leadership. It provides an in-depth view of the roles and responsibilities of the chief diversity officer, diversity strategic planning, and examines the various roles of diversity leaders at community colleges.
Note: Published in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges.

Description: Publicly funded agricultural and technical educational institutions were first founded in the mid-nineteenth century with the Morrill Act, which established land grants to support these schools. They include such prominent names as Cornell, Maryland, Michigan State, MIT, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Texas A&M, West Virginia University, Wisconsin, and the University of California–in other words, four dozen of the largest and best public universities in America. Add to this a number of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges–in all, almost 300 institutions. Their mission is a democratic and pragmatic one: to bring science, technology, agriculture, and the arts to the American people. In this book, Stephen M. Gavazzi and E. Gordon Gee discuss present challenges to and future opportunities for these institutions. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB.
Description: Provides 50 easy-to-implement active learning techniques that gauge student learning across academic disciplines and learning environments. Using Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning as its organizational frame-work, it embeds assessment within active learning activities. Each technique features: purpose and use, key learning goals, step-by-step implementation, online adaptation, analysis and reporting, concrete examples in both on-site and online environments, and key references–all in an easy-to-follow format. The book includes an all-new Learning Goals Inventory, as well as more than 35 customizable assessment rubrics, to help teachers determine significant learning goals and appropriate techniques. This book also provides access to a downloadable worksheet to guide teachers through the seven steps of the Learning Assessment Techniques planning and implementation cycle. College teachers today are under increased pressure to teach effectively and provide evidence of what, and how well, students are learning. An invaluable asset for college teachers of any subject, this text provides a practical framework for seamlessly integrating teaching, learning, and assessment. (publ.)

Description: This book offers a mentoring model that illuminates how students can navigate the hidden curriculum of higher education. In addition, the author provides practical strategies on how to avoid academic minefields in order to thrive in college. Written for administrators, faculty, student affairs professionals, and students to promote retention and academic success, and to create a more transparent, inclusive, and equitable higher education system. (publ.)
Note: Former NICC Disability Services Collection.

Description: A manual for creating dynamic, holistic student peer mentoring programs. While giving practical information about how to train mentors and supervise a mentoring program, the author asserts that spirit, personally defined, is an ally in waiting for every student–a powerful resource for academic achievement. This book provides the reader with a field-tested way to use holistic peer mentoring and spirit as powerful resources for increasing student retention, persistence, and well-being. (publ.)
Note: Former NICC Disability Services Collection.

Description: In everyday life we are learning continually from each other. Whatever the situation, most of us draw on the knowledge, skills and experience of our friends and colleagues. Within any educational setting learners naturally engage in informal peer learning to make sense of their course, test their ideas and share their concerns. This book explores how educators can formalise the use of this powerful approach to learning and shows how to understand, encourage and make explicit reciprocal peer learning. It investigates how peer learning can be integrated into the design and delivery of courses in higher education, and looks at what role it can play in encouraging more effective learning. (publ

Description: This text prepares upper-class students to work directly with first-year students in a student success or first-year experience course, an orientation program, or as a resident advisor. The text outlines the best practices for implementing a peer mentor program on campus, provides instructors with a core text that illustrates what a peer mentor is and how to train students to be peer mentors. With nearly a decade of experience training peer mentors for a large first-year experience program, the authors use this experience to provide case studies in every chapter to depict real-life problems that mentors will encounter. (publ.)
Note: Former NICC Disability Services Collection.

Description: Anthony Jack reveals that the struggles of less privileged students contin-ue long after they’ve arrived on campus. In their first weeks they quickly learn that admission does not mean acceptance. In this bracing and necessary book, Jack documents how university policies and cultures can exacerbate preexisting inequalities, and reveals why these policies hit some students harder than others. If we truly want our top colleges to be engines of opportunity, university policies and campus cultures will have to change. Jack provides concrete advice to help schools reduce these hidden disadvantages. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB
Description: Written for teachers, administrators, and professional development specialists in schools and universities, this book is an educators’ guide to reflective practice. In clear, accessible language, the authors explain the potential to create meaningful change in schools and show how to integrate reflective practice effectively into the daily work of schools. The book: (1) Explains reflective practice as a professional development strategy and its importance for school reform; (2) Offers ideas and practical strategies to facilitate collaborative, data-based inquiry, dialogue, and problem-solving in schools; (3) Describes reflective practice in action and illustrates its power to create meaningful change in classrooms; & (4) Shows how reflective practice is an important step in creating professional learning organizations. Reflective practice has the potential to renew your sense of optimism, commitment, and efficacy as you learn how to support meaningful professional growth, shape a culture of learning, and make important changes in students’ learning. (publ.)

Description: The issues and arguments surrounding school choice are sometimes hijacked to make political points about government control, democratic ideals, the public good, and privatization. David Garcia avoids partisan arguments to offer an accessible, objective, and comprehensive guide to school choice. He first outlines the different types of school choice, including home schooling, private schools, freedom-of-choice plans, magnet schools, charter schools, vouchers, and education savings accounts. Two themes emerge as particularly resonant in the American school choice debate: the long history of school desegregation, and debates over the roles and responsibilities of government. Is education a public good, for the collective benefit of society, or a private good, to benefit the individual? Garcia describes and evaluates the major arguments supporting school choice policies: the elimination of government bureaucracies, the introduction of competition into education through market forces, the promotion of parental choice, and the casting of school choice as a civil right. He examines the research on the effects of school choice and summarizes general trends. Finally, he considers how school choice policies are likely to evolve. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 18 J une 2018 p. 97.
Description: Students deriving lessons about citizenship from the Supreme Court’s decisions over the last four decades would conclude that the following actions taken by school officials pass constitutional muster: inflicting severe corporeal punishment on students without any procedural protections; searching students and their possessions, without probable cause, in bids to uncover violations of school rules; engaging in random drug testing of students who are not suspected of any wrongdoing; and suppressing student speech solely for the viewpoint that it espouses. Taking their cue from such decisions, lower courts have validated a wide array of constitutionally dubious actions, including: repressive student dress codes; misguided “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies; degrading student strip searches; and harsh restrictions on off-campus speech in the internet age. Justin Driver dramatically and keenly surveys this battlefield of constitutional meaning and warns that impoverished views of constitutional protections will only further rend our social fabric. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 9 July 2018 p. 84.
Description: Thirty years after the culture wars, identity politics is now the norm on college campuses–and it hasn’t been an unalloyed good for our education system or the country. Though the civil rights movement, feminism, and gay pride led to profoundly positive social changes, William Egginton argues that our culture’s increasingly narrow focus on the individual puts us in a dangerous place. The goal of our education system, and particularly the liberal arts, was originally to strengthen community; but the exclusive focus on individualism has led to a new kind of intolerance that degrades our civic discourse and fatally distracts progressive politics from its commitment to equality and inclusivity. Egginton argues that our colleges and universities have become exclusive, expensive clubs for the cultural and economic elite instead of a national, publicly funded project for the betterment of the country. Only a return to the goals of community, and the egalitarian values underlying a liberal arts education, can head off the further fracturing of the body politic and the splintering of the American mind. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 11 June 2018 p. 60
Description: Did you know that beginning professors typically have no teaching experience or training? They may be experts in their academic field–but they are completely ignorant of the art of teaching it to a class of undergraduates. This slim guide, written by a master teacher/professor, aims to correct this problem. If you are a rookie professor, this book is for you. Read it before you walk into that classroom on day one. (publ.)

Note: Faculty Request; DB
Description: This book is about understanding the nature and application of reflection in higher education. It provides a theoretical model to guide the implementation of reflective learning and reflective practice across multiple disciplines and international contexts in higher education. The book presents research into the ways in which reflection is both considered and implemented in different ways across different professional disciplines, while maintaining a common purpose to transform and improve learning and/or practice. Readers will find this book innovative and new in three key ways. First, in its holistic theorisation of reflection within the pedagogic field of higher education; Secondly, in conceptualising reflection in different modes to achieve specific purposes in different disciplines; and finally, in providing conceptual guidance for embedding reflective learning and reflective practice in a systematic way across whole programmes, faculties or institutions in higher education. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYT 30 Sept. 2018 p. 24 (referenced)
Description: College fraternity culture has never been more embattled. Once a main-stay of campus life, fraternities are now subject to withering criticism for reinforcing white male privilege and undermining the lasting social and economic value of a college education. No fraternity embodies this problem more than Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a national organization with more than 15,000 undergraduate brothers spread over 230 chapters nationwide. While SAE enrollment is still strong, it has been pilloried for what John Hechinger calls “the unholy trinity of fraternity life”: racism, deadly drinking, and misogyny. Hazing rituals have killed ten undergraduates in its chapters since 2005, and, in 2015, a video of a racist chant breaking out among its Oklahoma University members went viral. That same year, SAE was singled out by a documentary on campus rape, The Hunting Ground. Yet despite these problems and others, SAE remains a large institution with strong ties to Wall Street and significant political reach. In this book, Hechinger embarks on a deep investigation of SAE and fraternity culture generally, exposing the vast gulf between its founding ideals and the realities of its impact on colleges and the world at large. (publ.)

Description: Crushing student debt, rapidly eroding state funding, faculty embroiled in speech controversies, a higher-education market disrupted by online competition–today’s headlines suggest that universities’ power to advance knowledge and shape American society is rapidly declining. But Steven Brint, has tracked numerous trends demonstrating their vitality. After a recent period that witnessed soaring student enrollment and ample research funding, universities, he argues, are in a better position than ever before. Focusing on the years 1980–2015, he details the trajectory of American universities, which was influenced by evolving standards of disciplinary professionalism, market-driven partnerships (especially with scientific and technological innovators outside the academy), and the goal of social inclusion. Conflicts arose: academic entrepreneurs, for example, flouted their campus responsibilities, and departments faced backlash over the hiring of scholars with nontraditional research agendas. Nevertheless, educators’ commitments to technological innovation and social diversity prevailed and created a new dynamism. (publ.)

Reviewed: LJ 15 Oct. 2018 p. 66.
Description: The dramatic expose of how the University of Oregon sold its soul to Nike–and what that means for the future of academics and college sports. In the world of college sports, winning means big dollars. But that money often comes at a cost. Journalist Hunt explores the University of Oregon’s relationship with its corporate partner, Nike, and how the arrangement has undermined the school’s academic integrity, transparency, and campus culture. Through tenacious reporting and riveting storytelling, this book investigates how learning in Oregon, and America more generally, has come so thoroughly and openly under the sway of private, for-profit interests. (publ.)

Note: Faculty recommendation; DB.
Description: The authors explain why it is counterproductive to view collecting and using evidence of student accomplishment as primarily a compliance activity. Today’s circumstances demand a fresh and more strategic approach to the processes by which evidence about student learning is obtained and used to inform efforts to improve teaching, learning, and decision-making. Whether you’re in the classroom, an administrative office, or on an assessment committee, data about what students know and are able to do are critical for guiding changes that are needed in institutional policies and practices to improve student learning and success. … Gauging student learning is necessary if institutions are to prepare students to meet the 21st century needs of employers and live an economically independent, civically responsible life. (publ.)

Description: Let’s start with two truths about our era that are so inescapable as to have become clichés: We are surrounded by more readily available information than ever before. And a huge percentage of it is inaccurate. Some of the bad info is well-meaning but ignorant. Some of it is deliberately deceptive. All of it is pernicious. With the internet at our fingertips, what’s a teacher of history to do? Sam Wineburg has answers, beginning with this: We can’t stick to the same old read-the-chapter-answer-the-question snoozefest. If we want to educate citizens who can separate fact from fake, we have to equip them with new tools. Historical thinking, Wineburg shows, has nothing to do with the ability to memorize facts. Instead, it’s an orientation to the world that cultivates reasoned skepticism and counters our tendency to confirm our biases. Wineburg lays out a mine-filled landscape, but one that with care, attention, and awareness, we can all learn to navigate. (publ.)

Description: American higher education is at a crossroads. Technological innovations and disruptive market forces are buffeting colleges and universities at the very time their financial structure grows increasingly fragile. Disinvestment by states has driven up tuition prices at public colleges, and student debt has reached a startling record-high of one trillion dollars. Cost-minded students and their families–and the public at large–are questioning the worth of a college education, even as study after study shows how important it is to economic and social mobility. And as elite institutions trim financial aid and change other business practices in search of more sustainable business models, racial and economic stratification in American higher education is only growing. In this book, Goldie Blumenstyk, who has been reporting on higher education trends for 25 years, guides readers through the forces and trends that have brought the education system to this point, and highlights some of the ways they will reshape America’s colleges in the years to come. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 29 Sept. 2017 (new books)
Description: Examines public schools and charters schools through a polit-ical science lens, asking whether there are organizational variances between the schools that foster dissimilar teaching climates. Presents an example of how privatization affects the delivery of public services and provides insights that can inform public policy in education. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 1 Sept. 2017 (new books)
Description: What makes a school a “good” school? It’s hard to say, and our current methods of measuring school quality are crude and often misleading. Parents who face the problem of where to matriculate their children are often left to surf websites that only offer one or two metrics by which to measure school accomplishment. Or they ask around among neighbors, work colleagues, and so on; the problem, of course, is that nearly everyone thinks the school their children attend is a “good” school. Lawmakers and education reformers review spreadsheets containing data that only confirm what we already know: high average test scores, the metric most often used to indicate school quality, are merely a reflection of the socioeconomic status of students who attend the school. But which schools improve scores the most? Which are best at protecting kids from bullying and harassment? Which schools are best at science, at the arts? Which schools are best at preparing underserved groups for college and the job market? None of the metrics for school quality that are currently widely available are helpful at answering these questions. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 7 Aug. 2017 p. 64; NYT/BR 17 Sept. 2017 p. 11.
Description: Interviewing both accusers and accused, administrators, parents, and researchers, National Magazine Award winning journalist Grigoriadis charts a narrative path through conflicting statistics and often controversial and highly-charged reporting to clear up confusion, recount testimony, and suggest remedies.

Description: Degree completion rates remain low for nontraditional students—students who are older, low-income, or have poor academic achievement—even at community colleges that endeavor to serve them. What can colleges do to reduce dropouts? In Bridging the Gaps, education scholars James Rosenbaum, Caitlin Ahearn, and Janet Rosenbaum argue that when institutions focus only on bachelor’s degrees and traditional college procedures, they ignore other pathways to educational and career success. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYT/BR 27 Aug. 2017 p. 21
Description: Marginalized. Over-reviewed. But one fact remains: The success of your education depends on them. Part industry expose and part call for a return to engaged teaching, Campus Confidential shows how the noble project of higher education fell so far and how we can redeem it. (publ.)

Reviewed: Choice Oct. 2017 vol. 55 no. 2 (Highly recommended; recommended for community college libraries)
Description: A collection of stories, strategies, advice, and documents for teachers who are using or planning to use materials or implement policies they know may be controversial. It is for any teacher dedicated to engaging their students in the complex, challenging, and rewarding activities of reading and writing–for any teacher committed to speaking honestly with students.

Reviewed: CHE 1 Mar. 2018 (online; article mention)
Description: Despite being immensely popular–and immensely lucrative education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students’ skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee. (publ.)

Reviewed: Choice Oct. 2017 vol. 55 no. 2 (Highly Recommended; Recommended for community college libraries)
Description: Countering the perception that the humanities are unessential, this volume contends that their well-being has not only academic but also cultural, political, and existential ramifications. Our technologically-driven world possesses the means of its own destruction, while economic and financial policies undermine the very existence of our democracy. …It is within this context that the humanities provide essential paths through which the teaching and knowledge of other academic fields such as STEM and economics must be re-envisioned. In short, the humanities must be brought back to the center of academic life. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 13 Oct. 2017 (new books)
Description: West Charlotte opened in 1938 as a segregated school that embodied the aspirations of the growing African American population of Charlotte, North Carolina. In the 1970s, when Charlotte began court-ordered busing, black and white families made West Charlotte the celebrated flagship of the most integrated major school system in the nation. But as the twentieth century neared its close and a new court order eliminated race-based busing, Charlotte schools resegregated along lines of class as well as race. West Charlotte became the city's poorest, lowest-performing high school–a striking reminder of the people and places that Charlotte's rapid growth had left behind. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 23 Feb. 2018 (new books)
Description: The Common Core State Standards Initiative is one of the most controversial pieces of education policy to emerge in decades. Detailing what and when K12 students should be taught, it has led to expensive reforms and displaced other valuable ways to educate children. In this nuanced and provocative book, Nicholas Tampio argues that, though national standards can raise the education bar for some students, the democratic costs outweigh the benefits. To make his case, Tampio describes the history, philosophy, content, and controversy surrounding the Common Core standards for English language arts and math. He also explains and critiques the Next Generation Science Standards, the Advanced Placement US History curriculum framework, and the National Sexuality Education Standards. Though each set of standards has admirable elements, Tampio asserts that democracies should disperse education authority rather than entrust one political or pedagogical faction to decide the country's entire philosophy of education. (publ.)

Reviewed: Economist 17 Feb. 2018 p. 76; LR 2/2018 p. 48; NYT/BR 8 Apr. 2018 p. 13; TLS 13 Apr. 2018 p. 28.
Description: Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag.” In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. As a way out, Tara began to educate herself, learning enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University. Her quest for knowledge would transform her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Tara Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes, and the will to change it. (publ.)

Reviewed: Choice Oct. 2017 vol. 55 no. 2 (Highly Recommended; Recommended for community college libraries)
Description: An edited book with contributions that represent the diversity in foreign language education today, including perspectives from elementary, middle schools, high schools, university-level courses, summer programs, federal government, and international learning. This is a practical guide to the state of the field for scholars, researchers, administrators, and practitioners who are looking for a resource that describes effective practices across the field. (publ.)

Description: A psychology professor specializing in the cognitive and neurological bases of language and reading discusses why children and adults have been incorrectly taught how to read and offers suggestions on how to vastly improve this vital life skill. Over half of our children read at a basic level and few become highly proficient. Many American children and adults are not functionally literate, with serious consequences. Poor readers are more likely to drop out of the educational system and as adults are unable to fully participate in the workforce, adequately manage their own health care, or advance their children’s education. In this book, cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg reveals the underexplored science of reading, which spans cognitive science, neurobiology, and linguistics. As Seidenberg shows, the disconnect between science and education is a major factor in America's chronic underachievement. How we teach reading places many children at risk of failure, discriminates against poorer kids, and discourages even those who could have become more successful readers. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 2 Oct. 2017 p. 128; NYT/BR 28 Jan. 2018 p. 9; LJ Jan. 2018 p. 114.
Description: Follows the lives of twenty-two immigrant teenagers through-out the course of the 2015-2016 school year as they land at South High School in Denver, Colorado, in an English Language Acquisition class created specifically for them. Speaking no English, unfamiliar with American culture, their stories are poignant and remarkable as they face the enormous challenge of adapting. These newcomers, from fourteen to nineteen years old, come from nations convulsed by drought or famine or war. Many come directly from refugee camps, after experiencing dire forms of cataclysm. Some arrive alone, having left or lost every other member of their original family. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYT/BR 21 Jan. 2018 p. 15
Description: An exploration of child genius through the stories of fifteen exceptionally gifted young people, from cybernetics founder Norbert Wiener and chess master Bobby Fischer to movie icon Shirley Temple and African-American musician Philippa Schuyler. … Also offers an inside look at Lewis Terman's study of high-IQ children, the SAT-based talent search be-gun decades later at Johns Hopkins, and Amy Chua's Tiger Mother manifesto. (publ.)

Note: Faculty request.

Reviewed: Choice Oct, 2017 vol. 55 no. 2 (Highly Recommended; Top 75 Titles recommended for community college libraries)
Description: Schools across the U.S. look very different today than they did a generation ago. Police officers, drug-sniffing dogs, surveillance cameras, and high suspension rates have become commonplace. This book uncovers the unintended but far-reaching effects of harsh school discipline climates. Evidence shows that current school security practices may do more harm than good by broadly affecting the entire family, encouraging less civic participation in adulthood, and garnering future financial costs in the form of high rates of arrests, incarceration, and unemployment. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 21 Aug. 2017 p. 106.
Description: Over the past decade, educational instruction has become increasingly digitized as districts rush to dole out laptops and iPads to every student. Yet the most important question, “Is this what is best for students?” is glossed over. Veteran teachers Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse has been to our kids. On a mission to educate and empower parents, they show how screen saturation at home and school has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people. They lift the veil on what’s really going on in schools: teachers who are often powerless to curb cell phone distractions; zoned-out kids who act helpless and are unfocused, unprepared, and unsocial; administrators who are influenced by questionable science sponsored by corporate technology purveyors. They provide action steps parents can take to demand change and make a compelling case for simpler, smarter, more effective forms of teaching and learning. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 8 Sept. 2017 (new books)
Description: Argues in that the whole idea of test-based accountability has failed—it has increasingly become an end in itself, harming students and corrupting the very ideals of teaching. In this powerful polemic, built on unimpeachable evidence and rooted in decades of experience with educational testing, Koretz calls out high-stakes testing as a sham, a false idol that is ripe for manipulation and shows little evidence of leading to educational improvement. Rather than setting up incentives to divert instructional time to pointless test prep, he argues, we need to measure what matters, and measure it in multiple ways—not just via standardized tests. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 6 Apr. 2018 (new books)
Description: In 1889, Sitting Bull addressed the formal, Western-style education of his people. “When you find something good in the white man’s road, pick it up,” he intoned. “When you find something that is bad . . . leave it alone. We shall master his machinery, and his inventions, his skills, his medicine, his planning, but we will retain our beauty and still be Indians.” Sitting Bull’s vision–that cultural survival and personal perseverance derive from tribal resilience–lies at the heart of this book. Basing his account on the insights of six veteran American Indian educators who serve in three reservation schools on the Northern Plains, Terry Huffman explores how Native educators perceive pedagogical strengths rooted in their tribal heritage and personal ethnicity. (publ.)

Description: Offers an inspiring vision of what our teachers and students can accomplish if trusted with the challenge of developing the skills and ways of thinking needed to thrive in a world of dizzying technological change. Innovation expert Ted Dintersmith took an unprecedented trip across America, visiting all fifty states in a single school year. He originally set out to raise awareness about the urgent need to reimagine education to prepare students for a world marked by innovation–but America's teachers one-upped him. All across the country, he met teachers in ordinary set-tings doing extraordinary things, creating innovative classrooms where children learn deeply and joyously as they gain purpose, agency, essential skillsets and mindsets, and real knowledge. Together, these new ways of teaching and learning offer a vision of what school could be–and a model for transforming schools throughout the United States and beyond. (publ.)

Description: The publication in 2009 of Mark McGurl’s The Program Era (see below) provoked a sea change in the study of postwar literature. Even though almost every English department in the United States housed some version of a creative writing program by the time of its publication, literary scholars had not previously considered that this institutional phenomenon was historically significant. McGurl’s groundbreaking book effectively established that “the rise of the creative writing program stands as the most important event in postwar American literary history” … this collection looks beyond the traditional MFA writing program to explore the prehistory of writing programs in American universities, as well as alternatives to the traditionally structured program that have emerged along the way. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 12 Feb. 2017.

Reviewed: CHE 21 Oct. 2016

Reviewed: CHE 21 Apr. 2017 (new books)

Reviewed: NYRB 13 Oct. 2016 p. 28

Reviewed: CHE 9 Dec. 2016
Description: Suburban high school study of female-centered bullying.

Reviewed: Choice Oct 2016 vol. 54 no. 2 (Essential; Recommended for Community College Libraries)

Reviewed: NYRB 8 Dec. 2016 p. 58

Reviewed: CHE 16 Dec. 2016

Reviewed: NYRB 13 Oct. 2016 p. 28

Reviewed: LJ 15 Nov. 2016 p. 98; Choice Nov 2017 vol. 55 no. 3 (Highly Recommended; recommended for community college libraries)

Reviewed: CHE 31 Mar. 2017 p. A37
Description: Offers advice on helping students succeed, particularly during the crucial first year; draws on the author’s experience with a Retention Task Force established at the University of Mississippi. (CHE)

Reviewed: NYRB 6 Apr. 2017 p. 21; TLS 10 Mar. 2017 p. 12; LRB 10 May 2018 p. 31.
Description: As the tumultuous decade of the 1960s ended, a number of very traditional, very conservative, highly prestigious colleges and universities in the United States and the United Kingdom decided to go coed, seemingly all at once, in a remarkably brief span of time. Coeducation met with fierce resistance. As one alumnus put it in a letter to his alma mater, "Keep the damned women out." Focusing on the complexities of institutional decision making, this book tells the story of this momentous era in higher education. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYT/BR 12 Mar. 2017 p. 10; NYT/M 17 Sept. 2017 p. 15

Note: Faculty Request.

Reviewed: TLS 21 Apr. 2017 p. 17.

Reviewed: NYT/BR 30 Apr. 2017 p. 13 (mention/Viet Thanh Nguyen; Pulitzer Prize author)
Description: McGurl argues that far from occasioning a decline in the quality or interest in American writing, the rise of the creative writing program [in higher education] has instead generated a complex and evolving constellation of aesthetic problems that have been explored with energy and at times brilliance by authors ranging from Flannery O’Connor to Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, and Toni Morrison.

Reviewed: NYRB 8 Dec. 2016 p. 58

Reviewed: CHE 5 May 2017 (new books)
Description: Focuses on Newark, St. Louis, and three other cities in a study of how a wave of teacher strikes in the 1960s and 70s eroded the liberal-labor coalition in the United States and contributed to a growing negative perception of unions.

Reviewed: Choice Aug 2016 vol. 53 no. 12 (Essential; Top 75 Titles for Community College Libraries; Outstanding Academic Title)

Reviewed: WSJ 11 Apr. 2017 p. A15
Description: From a highly regarded feminist, cultural critic, and professor comes a polemic arguing that the stifling sense of sexual danger sweeping American campuses doesn’t empower women, it impedes the fight for gender equality. “…[Kipnis’] broader theme is the disservice done to women by narratives that turn them into victims. This narrative … paints a ‘world of dastardly men with the nefarious power to bend passive damsels to their wills, a world out of storybooks.’” (WSJ)

Description: Twenty-seven professors from various disciplines explain their fields and what it is that they do. The result is an accessible, entertaining, and enlightening survey of the ideas and subjects that contribute to a liberal education.