Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform features the most current empirical research about the successes and challenges of the small schools movement and the implications of such for urban public educational policy. Situated in a climate of hierarchical reform, many of the principles of the original small schools movement——which are rooted in community participation, innovative pedagogies and assessment, and equity and social justice——have become obscured by an educational agenda that emphasizes top-down mandates and standards-based reform. With the increased popularity and the rapid proliferation of small schools, the emphasis on ‘‘size only’’ has resulted in a bifurcation of the small schools movement; on one end are the small schools which have embraced the democratic, participatory, and self-governing nature of the original movement, while on the other end are schools that have simply reduced their size without rethinking school structures and practices. This book distinguishes the small schools featured and researched in this volume from schools that are simply small and labels them ““critical small schools.”” By documenting the practices that take place in various critical small schools in New York City, we show how these schools have narrowed the achievement gap and increased graduation and college acceptance rates. Although smallness is an essential feature in the design of these schools, it is certainly not the only one and this volume illuminates the other elements that contribute to these schools’’ successes and shortcomings. Critical Small Schools also challenges the recent emphasis on charter schools as a panacea for urban educational reform. By featuring research about the inner workings of public schools, this volume challenges this new direction that steers successful school development away from public education. Moreover, as every site is fraught with some tension, Critical Small Schools not only offers glimpses into intellectually vibrant and democratic learning communities, but also acknowledges that these concepts are not static and necessitate continual reflection and renewal. At this pivotal moment in educational reform, this volume provides keen insight into the challenges and possibilities of the small schools movement and is indispensable for anyone interested in comprehensive public school reform.

Enter the Alternative School is an in-depth examination of public school alternatives to traditional educational models in the US. This book analyses how urban education can respond to a system growing increasingly standardised and privatised. As an example, Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), a public alternative schooling model, successfully served predominantly low-income and minority students. It also changed the New York City public school system while promoting methods that allowed educational institutions to make changes in the lives of their students. Written by a sociologist who was both a student at CPESS and a teacher at a school developed from the CPESS model, the book analyses education from a range of vantage points, assesses outcomes, and invites readers to consider the potential of alternative educational models to address the challenges of reforms that attempt to provide quality education to the low-income and minority students otherwise under served by public schools.

Do street children go to school, and if not, why not? What kind of education can be 'meaningful' to young people affected by conflict? The contributors explore groups of children and young people who have no, or very limited, educational opportunities in various contexts, including Vietnam, Ukraine, the UK, the USA, and India. They explore a number of educational initiatives that have contributed to improving the lives of disadvantaged children, drawing on the perceptions and experiences of disadvantaged children and young people themselves. Each chapter contains contemporary questions to encourage active engagement with the material and an annotated list of suggested reading to support further exploration.

Critical Issues and Bold Visions for Science Education contains 16 chapters written by 32 authors from 11 countries. The book is intended for a broad audience of teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and policymakers. Interesting perspectives, challenging problems, and fresh solutions grounded in cutting edge theory and research are presented, interrogated, elaborated and, while retaining complexity, offer transformative visions within a context of political tensions, historical legacies, and grand challenges associated with Anthropocene (e.g., sustainability, climate change, mass extinctions). Within overarching sociocultural frameworks, authors address diverse critical issues using rich theoretical frameworks and methodologies suited to research today and a necessity to make a difference while ensuring that all participants benefit from research and high standards of ethical conduct. The focus of education is broad, encompassing teaching, learning and curriculum in pre-k-12 schools, museums and other informal institutions, community gardens, and cheeseworld. Teaching and learning are considered for a wide range of ages, languages, and nationalities. An important stance that permeates the book is that research is an activity from which all participants learn, benefit, and transform personal and community practices. Transformation is an integral part of research in science education. Contributors are: Jennifer Adams, Arnau Amat, Lucy Avraamidou, Marcília Elis Barcellos, Alberto Bellocchi, Mitch Bleier, Lynn A. Bryan, Helen Douglass, Colin Hennessy Elliott, Alejandro J. Gallard Martínez, Elisabeth Gonçalves de Souza, Da Yeon Kang, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Shruti Krishnamoorthy, Ralph Levinson, Sonya N. Martin, Jordan McKenzie, Kathy Mills, Catherine Milne, Ashley Morton, Masakata Ogawa, Rebecca Olson, Roger Patulny, Chantal Pouliot, Leah D. Pride, Anton Puvirajah, S. Lizette Ramos de Robles, Kathryn Scantlebury, Glauco S. F. da Silva, Michael Tan, Kenneth Tobin, and Geeta Verma.

Considers how Project Head Start, the federally funded preschool program, has operated (sometimes effectively and comfortably, sometimes not) with families, in communities, and with other institutions. An important look at the intersections of poverty, social programs, and education.

Special edition of the Federal Register, containing a codification of documents of general applicability and future effect ... with ancillaries.

In this book we considered new territory for educational leadership by looking to music for lessons and inspiration that may inform the next generation of schools leaders. Each chapter focuses on an artist or group whose work serves to refine, extend, and challenge our thinking in regards to educational leadership. You will find a vast array of musical forms of expression analyzed and described by an equally diverse collection of educational leadership scholars and practitioners. There may be some who question the academic appropriateness or relevance of a text such as this one. Our response is that part of our ongoing mission should be to break ourselves out of academic silos and forge meaningful connections between seemingly disparate disciplines. Furthermore, educational leadership stands to gain more by drawing from the arts and specifically musical influences. Finally, music is an obvious part of most of our lives; why not explore the ways in which it impacts us on an academic level and not just a personal level? In sum, we ask that as you read the chapters of this book, you reflect on your own musical tastes and favorite artists.

Special edition of the Federal register, containing a codification of documents of general applicability and future effect as of ... with ancillaries.

This open access book is the first of a two-volume series focusing on how people are being enabled or constrained to live well in today’s world, and how to bring into reality a world worth living in for all. The chapters offer unique narratives drawing on the perspectives of diverse groups such as: asylum-seeking and refugee youth in Australia, Finland, Norway and Scotland; young climate activists in Finland; Australian Aboriginal students, parents and community members; families of children who tube feed in Australia; and international research students in Sweden. The chapters reveal not just that different groups have different ideas about a world worth living in, but also show that, through their collaborative research initiative, the authors and their research participants were bringing worlds like these into being. The volume extends an invitation to readers and researchers in education and the social sciences to consider ways to foster education that realises transformed selves and transformed worlds: the good for each person, the good for humankind, and the good for the community of life on the planet. The book also includes theoretical chapters providing the background and rationale behind the notion of education as initiating people into ‘living well in a world worth living in'. An introductory chapter discusses the origins of the concept and the phrase.