The Public School Advantage

The Public School Advantage PDF Author: Christopher A. Lubienski
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608907X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Nearly the whole of America’s partisan politics centers on a single question: Can markets solve our social problems? And for years this question has played out ferociously in the debates about how we should educate our children. From the growth of vouchers and charter schools to the implementation of No Child Left Behind, policy makers have increasingly turned to market-based models to help improve our schools, believing that private institutions—because they are competitively driven—are better than public ones. With The Public School Advantage, Christopher A. and Sarah Theule Lubienski offer powerful evidence to undercut this belief, showing that public schools in fact outperform private ones. For decades research showing that students at private schools perform better than students at public ones has been used to promote the benefits of the private sector in education, including vouchers and charter schools—but much of these data are now nearly half a century old. Drawing on two recent, large-scale, and nationally representative databases, the Lubienskis show that any benefit seen in private school performance now is more than explained by demographics. Private schools have higher scores not because they are better institutions but because their students largely come from more privileged backgrounds that offer greater educational support. After correcting for demographics, the Lubienskis go on to show that gains in student achievement at public schools are at least as great and often greater than those at private ones. Even more surprising, they show that the very mechanism that market-based reformers champion—autonomy—may be the crucial factor that prevents private schools from performing better. Alternatively, those practices that these reformers castigate, such as teacher certification and professional reforms of curriculum and instruction, turn out to have a significant effect on school improvement. Despite our politics, we all agree on the fundamental fact: education deserves our utmost care. The Public School Advantage offers exactly that. By examining schools within the diversity of populations in which they actually operate, it provides not ideologies but facts. And the facts say it clearly: education is better off when provided for the public by the public.

Preserving the Public in Public Schools

Preserving the Public in Public Schools PDF Author: Phil Boyle
Publisher: R&L Education
ISBN: 1610485432
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
The question that 23-year old Amalia Hastings wants the answer to is: What happens to men when they move to Manhattan? Life in the city gives Amalia a ride she is not expecting. As she tries to find her way on the little island that never sleeps, she discovers she has a harder time navigating through life then she does the streets of Greenwich Village and finds herself truly lost in the complex world of men, graduate school, money, family, and friendship. She thought she had everything she wanted - a new apartment in Manhattan, a first-rate education at NYU, a group of trusted friends and Nicholas, a boyfriend who she once believed was her soul-mate. But somehow, it isn't enough. Stumbling through her relationships, Amalia encounters Michael. An attractive classmate who quickly moves from being one of her close friends, to an inconsistent friend-with-benefits. After all, the only thing consistent about New York is its beauty. After getting terribly lost searching for love in all the wrong places, Amalia finds herself torn between the possibility of a relationship, and an adventure she's been planning all along. She eventually realizes that solely chasing love closes her off to all of the other good things life has to offer. Now she must decide - what is worth the chase? "Chase" is the debut novel from author Jill Knapp-Zitron and the first in the "Chase" series of novels.

Saving Our Schools

Saving Our Schools PDF Author: Kenneth S. Goodman
Publisher: RDR Books
ISBN: 9781571431028
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
"Saving Our Schools exposes the ugly side of President George Bush's "No Child Left Behind" mandate, which has threatened to close more than 6,000 public schools, to the detriment of dedicated teachers and disadvantaged children alike. Revealing how NCLB forces schools with strictly limited resources to teach its children test-taking skills in a desperate bid to pass high-stakes standardized testing, and how the government blacklists successful professors, institutions, and methods that balk the NCLB party line, and much more, Saving Our Schools warns of an immediate threat to the integrity of public education and urges the reader to take action. An eye-opening social commentary, of keen importance in determining the nation's future. -Midwest Book Review

America's Public Schools

America's Public Schools PDF Author: William J. Reese
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421401037
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
In this update to his landmark publication, William J. Reese offers a comprehensive examination of the trends, theories, and practices that have shaped America’s public schools over the last two centuries. Reese approaches this subject along two main lines of inquiry—education as a means for reforming society and ongoing reform within the schools themselves. He explores the roots of contemporary educational policies and places modern battles over curriculum, pedagogy, race relations, and academic standards in historical perspective. A thoroughly revised epilogue outlines the significant challenges to public school education within the last five years. Reese analyzes the shortcomings of “No Child Left Behind” and the continued disjuncture between actual school performance and the expectations of government officials. He discusses the intrusive role of corporations, economic models for enticing better teacher performance, the continued impact of conservatism, and the growth of home schooling and charter schools. Informed by a breadth of historical scholarship and based squarely on primary sources, this volume remains the standard text for future teachers and scholars of education.

The Harsh Truth about Public Schools

The Harsh Truth about Public Schools PDF Author: Bruce N. Shortt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781891375231
Category : Church and education
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
Bruce Shortt's book, The Harsh Truth about Public Schools, combines a sound Biblical basis, rigorous research, straightforward, easily read language, and eminently sound reasoning. Whether one is a parent or parent-to-be, pastor, church staff member, or educator, this book has much to offer. It is based, first of all, upon a clear understanding of God's educational mandate to parents. Its second foundation is a thoroughly documented description of the inescapably anti-Christian thrust of any governmental school system and the inevitable results: moral relativism (no fixed standards), academic dumbing down, far-left programs, near absence of discipline, and the persistent but pitiable rationalizations offered by government education professionals. - Foreword.

Public Schools, Public Menace

Public Schools, Public Menace PDF Author: Joel Turtel
Publisher: Shawn K. Hall
ISBN: 0964569329
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
The book explains why public schools are a menace to our children and waste their precious time. The book also shows why public schools are beyond repair, and simply cannot give children the education they need and deserve The author reveals how public schools cripple children's ability to read and indoctrinate innocent children with anti-parent, anti-American, and anti-Judeo-Christian values. The books also explores why public-school authorities now pressure millions of parents to give their children mind-altering drugs like Ritalin. The good news is that parents don't have to put up with a third-rate, mind-numbing public-school education for their kids any longer. The author gives parents a wealth of practical advice, strategies, and resources about quality, low-cost education alternatives parents can use to give their kids a great education, if they decide to take their kids out of public school. He gives detailed lists of quality, low-cost Internet schools, teaching books, and home-schooling resources parents can use to give their kids a great education. Dr. Laura Schlessinger, syndicated radio talk-show host said about "Public Schools, Public Menace" that , "This book is a must read for every parent . . ."

Learning in Public

Learning in Public PDF Author: Courtney E. Martin
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316428256
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
This "provocative and personally searching"memoir follows one mother's story of enrolling her daughter in a local public school (San Francisco Chronicle), and the surprising, necessary lessons she learned with her neighbors. From the time Courtney E. Martin strapped her daughter, Maya, to her chest for long walks, she was curious about Emerson Elementary, a public school down the street from her Oakland home. She learned that White families in their gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school. As she began asking why, a journey of a thousand moral miles began. Learning in Public is the story, not just Courtney’s journey, but a whole country’s. Many of us are newly awakened to the continuing racial injustice all around us, but unsure of how to go beyond hashtags and yard signs to be a part of transforming the country. Courtney discovers that her public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, is a powerful place to dig deeper. Courtney E. Martin examines her own fears, assumptions, and conversations with other moms and dads as they navigate school choice. A vivid portrait of integration’s virtues and complexities, and yes, the palpable joy of trying to live differently in a country re-making itself. Learning in Public might also set your family’s life on a different course forever.

Is There a Public for Public Schools?

Is There a Public for Public Schools? PDF Author: Forrest David Mathews
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Originally published in 1996, there still remains a public for Is There A Public For Public Schools? In this book, David Mathews reports on troublesome trends in public education, which suggest that the historical compact between Americans and their public schools is rapidly eroding. School reform efforts often fail because they assume a public commitment that may no longer exist, he writes. Real improvement of the schools can only be achieved when citizens reclaim ownership of them as part of an effort to build community. The Kettering Foundation published a new book reporting on Kettering research in 2006, titled Reclaiming Public Education by Reclaiming Our Democracy. David Mathews, secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Ford administration and a former president of The University of Alabama, is president of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. About the Kettering Foundation The Kettering Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. Kettering's primary research question is: What does it take to make democracy work as it should? Kettering's research is distinctive because it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do collectively to address problems affecting their lives, their communities, and their nation. For more information about Kettering research and publications, see the Kettering Foundation's website at www.kettering.org.

Another Kind of Public Education

Another Kind of Public Education PDF Author: Patricia Hill Collins
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 9780807000182
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In this fiercely intelligent yet accessible book, one of the nation's leading sociologists and experts on race calls for "another kind of public education"--one that opens up more possibilities for democracy, and more powerful modes of participation for young people of color.

Can Public Schools Learn from Private Schools?

Can Public Schools Learn from Private Schools? PDF Author: Richard Rothstein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Book Description
This book examines case studies of eight public and eight private schools that investigated different identifiable and transferable private school practices that public schools could adopt to improve student outcomes. Data came from interviews with administrators, teachers, parents, and students from diverse schools. Chapter 1, "Accountability to Parents," discusses resistance to parents, structural limits to parent accountability, managing participation at parochial schools, lower-income parent participation, cases of formal accountability to parents, and observations about accountability to parents. Chapter 2, "Clarity of Goals and Expectations," discusses the religious character of parochial schools, broader educational goals versus testable outcomes, anchoring expectations in scripture, and clarity of goals. Chapter 3, "Behavioral and Value Objectives," discusses different approaches to discipline and the teaching of ethical and religious values in public and private schools. Chapter 4, "Clear Standards for Teacher Selection and Retention," includes faculty collegiality, hiring standards and teacher quality, formal and informal teacher evaluation, teacher retention and dismissal, and observations on selection and retention. Chapter 5, "Similarity of Curriculum Materials," discusses formal curricular similarities. Chapter 6 discusses "Competitive Improvements." Chapter 7, "Conclusions," suggests that similarities between public and private schools and the problems they face outweigh the differences. Differences are determined mainly by parent socioeconomic and cultural factors. Case study descriptions are appended. (Contains 17 references.) (SM)