When Gertrude Williams retired in 1998, after forty-nine years in the Baltimore public schools,The Baltimore Sun called her "the most powerful of principals" who "tangled with two superintendents and beat them both." In this oral memoir, Williams identifies the essential elements of sound education and describes the battles she waged to secure those elements, first as teacher, then a counselor, and, for twenty-five years, as principal. She also described her own education - growing up black in largely white Germantown, Pennsylvania; studying black history and culture for the first time at Cheyney State Teachers College; and meeting the rigorous demands of the program which she graduated from in 1949. In retracing her career, Williams examines the highs and lows of urban public education since World War II. She is at once an outspoken critic and spirited advocate of the system to which she devoted her life.

Capturing the voices of Americans living with student debt in the United States, this collection critiques the neoliberal interest-driven, debt-based system of U.S. higher education and offers alternatives to neoliberal capitalism and the corporatized university. Grounded in an understanding of the historical and political economic context, this book offers auto-ethnographic experiences of living in debt, and analyzes alternatives to the current system. Chapter authors address real questions such as, Do collegians overestimate the economic value of going to college? and How does the monetary system that student loans are part of operate? Pinpointing how developments in the political economy are accountable for students’ university experiences, this book provides an authoritative contribution to research in the fields of educational foundations and higher education policy and finance.

Complete the Agenda in Higher Education: Challenge Beliefs about Student Success is a bold call to action to do more than just improve college completion rates. This book is for community college board members, administrators, faculty and staff who also want to: (1) foster beliefs that will enable students to finish what they start; (2) empower students to overcome daily challenges and real adversity; and (3) transform human potential into achievement, for a lifetime. Courageous educators, foundations, associations and researchers made community colleges better than we were a decade ago. Completion rates have improved somewhat as a result, but too many students still do not finish because the Completion Agenda is incomplete. This book describes compelling reasons why a shift from a “completion-only-mindset” to the Beliefs Agenda (completion with GRIT) is critical for the future of America. It provides practical implementation methods, offers engaging teaching tactics, and proposes sensible strategies.

This volume takes on the vital tasks of celebrating, challenging, and attempting to move forward our understanding of equity and diversity in science education. Organized thematically, the book explores five key areas of science education equity research: science education policy; globalization; context and culture; discourse, language and identity; and leadership and social networking. Chapter authors -- emerging to established US science education scholars -- present their latest research on how to make science interesting and accessible to all students. The volume includes international voices as well: Scholars from around the world crafted responses to each section. Together, authors and respondents attempt to refine our methods for examining equity issues across classrooms, schools, and policies, and deepen our understanding of ways to promote equity and acknowledge diversity in science classrooms. Moving the Equity Agenda Forward is endorsed by NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning Through Research. The volume gains authority from the fact that it was edited by one current and four former chairs of NARST’s Equity and Ethics Committee.

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) sits at the nexus of constant change, which makes it vitally important for language teachers to engage in continuous development and keep abreast of the sociopolitical milieu in which they are embedded. However, most teacher education activities are often associated with what is perceived as best practices that are expected to be adopted (often uncritically) for classroom application and practice, with the intention of training teachers to become technicians in their respective classrooms. In reality, TESOL practitioners often find themselves in situations that require them to be reflexive practitioners and to negotiate sites of political struggles and social injustice. Given that a socially situated understanding of TESOL teacher education is often overlooked, this volume highlights the sociopolitical dimensions of TESOL teacher education. In Part 1, the authors introduce the theoretical underpinnings of the sociopolitical agenda proposed by this volume. Building on these theories, Part 2 realizes the proposed agenda by situating it within actual TESOL teacher education contexts that are characterized by power imbalances and neoliberally inflected educational injustices.

Drawing on ten years of research into whole-of-school teaching improvement, this engaging text explains what teaching improvement requires, how it is achieved, and how to maintain it in your classroom and school. Based on studies involving real schools and real teachers, The Teaching Improvement Agenda is focused on what really matters for teachers and leaders in today’s schools. The book begins with an examination of the education field to identify the fundamental elements which inform and generate teaching improvement. This lays the foundations for an instructive set of innovative, research-informed strategies which have been designed to empower the teacher and school leader to improve teaching across the whole school. The book closes with a series of case studies that demonstrate these approaches in action. Answering the "what?" and "how?" questions of teaching improvement, this book is an essential guide for school leaders and teachers, as well as instructors and students in initial teacher education.

Focuses on African American, Hispanic American, Native American, and Asian-Pacific American women whose increased presence in senior level administrative and academic positions in higher education is transforming the political climate to be more inclusive of women of color.

Peer Coaching in Higher Education describes a simple, five-step method for the improvement of teaching in colleges and universities. Professors and instructors in small groups, as departmental faculty, or as inter- and intra-departmental partners can increase faculty collegiality and improve their teaching techniques for increases in student learning. Gottesman explains the theory and practice of peer coaching, specifically describing its application among the faculty and students of five universities. She provides directions for a faculty conducting its own peer coaching seminar, including necessary hand-outs and examples. Actual peer coaching exchanges give faculty ideas about the extended applications of this process.

Reach ALL students and prove how critical your counseling program is! For school counselors, using data effectively doesn’t have to be a burden. Data can make the difference for today’s embattled school counseling programs, and this insightful book shows how to collect and manage it. School counseling scholar and advocate Dr. Trish Hatch describes how K–12 counselors can replace "random acts of guidance" with intentional, well-timed interventions, based on student data. Aligned with current research and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) standards, this essential resource includes a complete set of tools and templates for data collection, action-planning and reporting. Readers will learn how to Develop a robust counseling curriculum that supports the Common Core Standards and drop-out prevention Measure progress through pre- and post-assessments Deliver compelling reports that demonstrate your program’s impact This well-timed book is designed to help school counseling programs make the most of limited resources and measurably demonstrate how their work improves school performance. "Trish Hatch provides extensive examples of how school counselors can enhance student achievement and well-being through the use of data. Not only does she provide useful examples and a framework from which counselors can explore data, she helps counselors understand some of the very common barriers to change within school systems." —Jennifer Betters-Bubon, Assistant Professor UW Whitewater, WI "As practicing school counselors, we rarely find a text that tells us what to do, why we should do it, and how to do it. Priceless!" —Franciene Sabens, School Counselor Chester High School, IL Looking for more resources on data in school counseling? Check out the online course Data! Data! Data!

With contributions from global leading scholars, this Research Agenda offers an interdisciplinary collection of ideas investigating gender and leadership, where we are today and where we are going. Using critical perspectives, chapters challenge the way we think about gender and leadership by questioning the status quo.