Shares the voices of students speaking out against the failures of urban education "Our schools suck." This is how many young people of color call attention to the kind of public education they are receiving. In cities across the nation, many students are trapped in under-funded, mismanaged and unsafe schools. Yet, a number of scholars and of public figures have shifted attention away from the persistence of school segregation to lambaste the values of young people themselves. Our Schools Suck forcefully challenges this assertion by giving voice to the compelling stories of African American and Latino students who attend under-resourced inner-city schools, where guidance counselors and AP classes are limited and security guards and metal detectors are plentiful—and grow disheartened by a public conversation that continually casts them as the problem with urban schools. By showing that young people are deeply committed to education but often critical of the kind of education they are receiving, this book highlights the dishonesty of public claims that they do not value education. Ultimately, these powerful student voices remind us of the ways we have shirked our public responsibility to create excellent schools. True school reform requires no less than a new civil rights movement, where adults join with young people to ensure an equal education for each and every student.

A wicked concoction of down-home hilarity and scathing political satire is served up in this provocative and entertaining look at the South's pervasive influence on America from one of the nation's funniest political observers.

Sketches of Democracy is a captivating book that chronicles the first year in the life of a new urban high school. Based on journal entries and educational literature, this booktraces the author's challenging journey toward creating a democratic community of learners within a tangle of socio-economic and political issues. An experienced public school teacher and university educator, DeLorenzo brings a unique perspective to the teaching/learning process. Her poignant anecdotal stories, along with information from authoritative sources, provide a narrative that is deeply reflective and affecting. This book is a must-read for teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher educators who share a passion for teaching those on the margins of society.

In Smart Kids, Bad Schools, award-winning author and educator Brian Crosby draws on his twenty years as a high school English teacher to offer a candid appraisal of why our schools are failing and what we must do to save them. Crosby's no-holds-barred critique of the broken education system leaves no stone unturned: he is unapologetic and uncompromising in his exposé of how teachers, administrators, unions, and parents all play a part in this national tragedy. Crosby offers 38 ideas to save America's future and his proposed remedies are revolutionary. He recommends bold measures, such as lengthening the school day and school year, forcing parents to volunteer at schools, abolishing homework, outlawing teachers unions, and cutting special education funding. The result is a book that is likely to inflame passions on all sides of the political spectrum, and, in the process, introduce new ideas to a debate that is in dire need of them.

Phil Beadle has been described as The scourge of education policy makers and A prolific writer of articles challenging the status quo in education. Bad Education is an anthology of his best columns. Written in his trademark, simple, luminous and down-to-earth style, this collection is a wry look at more or less every element of educational change over the last five years.

Consider school days the worst days. Don't consider school a necessary evil because we don't need school. Break free from school. Unschooling is the way out so these poems hopefully will inspire you to unschool yourself and the world. 42 pages; 40 poems.

This study explores the experiences of women of color who attended an elite, predominantly white public high school in the Northeastern United States through one of three points of entry: as town residents attending their local high school, or as commuter or boarding students via two distinct voluntary racial desegregation programs. Women in all three groups experience feelings of marginalization and stigma. At the same time, many also discuss the benefits of having lived in or attended school in this environment. Women developed strong internal bonds within and across their respective groups, some were able to racially diversify social networks and increase access to new forms of social capital through both their own initiatives and efforts on the part of adults in the school and community, and many also discuss the acquisition of elite forms of cultural capital that have served them into adulthood. Even with these general trends, point of access clearly mediates the experience, with geographic and symbolic boundaries varying by group.

Passions are high in education, and this edited volume offers bold new ways to conceive of the affective intensities shaping our present historical moment. Concerns over school practices deemed "ineffective," "disruptive," "irrational," or even "promising" are matters modulated by and through feelings, such as, optimism, shame, enhanced concentration, or empathy. The recent turn to affect offers vibrant methodological and theoretical material for an educational present marked by high stakes rhetoric, heated debate, teacher and student vulnerabilities, and extreme educational measures. Affect studies are a part of new materialist and post-humanist turns, and this volume connects these new theoretical directions within education. This comprehensive volume on affect crosses educational subfields and responds to the transdisciplinary interest in thinking through pedagogy, education, and feeling. This comprehensive reader addresses affect in education from a wide range of styles, topics, and perspectives. This collection offers an introduction to theory, empirical research studies, interviews with affect studies scholars, and an assessment of the current and future significance of affect studies in education. Contributors utilize a range of theoretical and interpretive approaches to thinking with and through schooling phenomena. Interviews with affect scholars in the humanities and social sciences address affective dimensions of teaching. The editors’ introduction, different foci, and interdisciplinary genres of writing help readers feel their ways into what affect studies in education does and might do. This field-defining collection will be of interest to a range of readers--from graduate students to established scholars--with varying levels of expertise and familiarity putting affect theories to work in education. All the contributions are accessible to those new to the theory, methods, and debates in this vibrant area of educational studies.

This book provides research assistance for 99 current and provocative issues students can use to write a brief argumentative paper. In 2030, it is projected that 65 percent of the population will be over 65. The U.S. Government Census Bureau reveals that over an adult's working life, college graduates typically earn close to $1 million more than high school graduates. About 43 percent of American families spend more than they earn each year. These three factoids represent a tiny fraction of the potential research subjects contained in 99 Jumpstarts to Research: Topic Guides for Finding Information on Current Issues, Second Edition, a completely revised follow-up to the original edition. Every jumpstart—each focused upon a current, timely issue—contains ideas for narrowing the topic, research keywords, suggested best books and databases, and Internet sites. This book supports both faculty and students in identifying compelling topics, effectively evaluating and selecting resources in today's information-overload world, and deriving enjoyment from the research and writing process.