In urban American school systems, the children of recent immigrants and low-income parents of color disproportionately suffer from overcrowded classrooms, lack of access to educational resources, and underqualified teachers. The challenges posed by these problems demand creative solutions that must often begin with parental intervention. But how can parents without college educations, American citizenship, English literacy skills, or economic stability organize to initiate change on behalf of their children and their community? In Mothers United, Andrea Dyrness chronicles the experiences of five Latina immigrant mothers in Oakland, California—one of the most troubled urban school districts in the country—as they become informed and engaged advocates for their children’s education. These women, who called themselves “Madres Unidas” (“Mothers United”), joined a neighborhood group of teachers and parents to plan a new, small, and autonomous neighborhood-based school to replace the overcrowded Whitman School. Collaborating with the author, among others, to conduct interviews and focus groups with teachers, parents, and students, these mothers moved from isolation and marginality to take on unfamiliar roles as researchers and community activists while facing resistance from within the local school district. Mothers United illuminates the mothers’ journey to create their own space—centered around the kitchen table—that enhanced their capacity to improve their children’s lives. At the same time, Dyrness critiques how community organizers, teachers, and educational policy makers, despite their democratic rhetoric, repeatedly asserted their right as “experts,” reproducing the injustice they hoped to overcome. A powerful, inspiring story about self-learning, consciousness-raising, and empowerment, Mothers United offers important lessons for school reform movements everywhere.

The long-awaited sequel to the number one bestselling THE BAD MOTHER'S HANDBOOK. Before Yummy Mummies and Slummy Mummies, before the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, before we wondered How She Does It, there was THE BAD MOTHER'S HANDBOOK. Hundreds of thousands of readers lived a year in the life of Charlotte, Karen and Nan as they struggled with becoming mothers for the first time. And now they are back. Certainly older, probably not wiser, and definitely as hilariously catastrophic as before. For all those who have asked how to be a woman, here is HOW TO BE...A BAD MOTHER. A storyteller in the Joanna Trollope league, Long writes astutely and comically about the complexities of motherhood' Independent 'Warm, witty and wise' Red 'One of the authors that I rush out to buy straight away. I find her work challenging, witty, fresh and real' Adele Parks

Presents national trends in health statistics. Includes a chartbook & detailed tables. This year socioeconomic status & health was selected as the subject of the chartbook, which includes sections on the population, children's health, & adults' health. The sections on health include subsections on health status, risk factors, & health care access & utilization. The chartbook is followed by 149 detailed tables organized around 4 major subject areas: health status & determinants, utilization of health resources, health care resources, & health care expenditures. The tables report data for selected years to highlight major trends in health statistics.