What would a school look like if it was designed with mental health in mind? Too many public schools look and feel like prisons, designed out of fear of vandalism and truancy. But we know that nurturing environments are better for learning. Access to nature, big classroom windows, and open campuses consistently reduce stress, anxiety, disorderly conduct, and crime, and improve academic performance. Backed by decades of research, Schools That Heal showcases clear and compelling ways--from furniture to classroom improvements to whole campus renovations--to make supportive learning environments for our children and teenagers. With invaluable advice for school administrators, public health experts, teachers, and parents Schools That Heal is a call to action and a practical resource to create nurturing and inspiring schools for all children.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills have been demonstrated to be effective in helping adolescents manage difficult emotional situations, cope with stress, and make better decisions. From leading experts in DBT and school-based interventions, this unique manual offers the first nonclinical application of DBT skills. The book presents an innovative social?emotional learning curriculum designed to be taught at the universal level in grades 6-12. Explicit instructions for teaching the skills--mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness--are provided in 30 lesson plans, complete with numerous reproducible tools: 99 handouts, a diary card, and three student tests. The large-size format and lay-flat binding facilitate photocopying; purchasers also get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials. This book is in The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series, edited by T. Chris Riley-Tillman.

Inside Urban Charter Schools offers an unprecedentedly intimate glimpse into the world of charter schools by profiling five high-performing urban charter schools serving predominantly low-income, minority youth in Massachusetts.

We are in an era of radical distrust of public education. Increasingly, we turn to standardized tests and standardized curricula-now adopted by all fifty states-as our national surrogates for trust. Legendary school founder and reformer Deborah Meier believes fiercely that schools have to win our faith by showing they can do their job. But she argues just as fiercely that standardized testing is precisely the wrong way to that end. The tests themselves, she argues, cannot give the results they claim. And in the meantime, they undermine the kind of education we actually want. In this multilayered exploration of trust and schools, Meier critiques the ideology of testing and puts forward a different vision, forged in the success stories of small public schools she and her colleagues have created in Boston and New York. These nationally acclaimed schools are built, famously, around trusting teachers-and students and parents-to use their own judgment. Meier traces the enormous educational value of trust; the crucial and complicated trust between parents and teachers; how teachers need to become better judges of each others' work; how race and class complicate trust at all levels; and how we can begin to 'scale up' from the kinds of successes she has created.

An in-depth look at academically selective public high schools in America What is the best education for exceptionally able and high-achieving youngsters? Can the United States strengthen its future intellectual leadership, economic vitality, and scientific prowess without sacrificing equal opportunity? There are no easy answers but, as Chester Finn and Jessica Hockett show, for more than 100,000 students each year, the solution is to enroll in an academically selective public high school. Exam Schools is the first-ever close-up look at this small, sometimes controversial, yet crucial segment of American public education. This groundbreaking book discusses how these schools work--and their critical role in nurturing the country's brightest students. The 165 schools identified by Finn and Hockett are located in thirty states, plus the District of Columbia. While some are world renowned, such as Boston Latin and Bronx Science, others are known only in their own communities. The authors survey the schools on issues ranging from admissions and student diversity to teacher selection. They probe sources of political support, curriculum, instructional styles, educational effectiveness, and institutional autonomy. Some of their findings are surprising: Los Angeles, for example, has no "exam schools" while New York City has dozens. Asian-American students are overrepresented—but so are African-American pupils. Culminating with in-depth profiles of eleven exam schools and thoughtful reflection on policy implications, Finn and Hockett ultimately consider whether the country would be better off with more such schools. At a time of keen attention to the faltering education system, Exam Schools sheds positive light on a group of schools that could well provide a transformative roadmap for many of America's children.

Ethnography has much to offer teachers, especially at a time of growing interest in the `teacher-reseacher' and in `action' and `collaborative' research.

The first teacher's guide to the proven counseling approach known as motivational interviewing (MI), this pragmatic book shows how to use everyday interactions with students as powerful opportunities for change. MI comprises skills and strategies that can make brief conversations about any kind of behavioral, academic, or peer-related challenge more effective. Extensive sample dialogues bring to life the "dos and don'ts" of talking to K?12 students (and their parents) in ways that promote self-directed problem solving and personal growth. The authors include the distinguished codeveloper of MI plus two former classroom teachers. User-friendly features include learning exercises and reflection questions; additional helpful resources are available at the companion website. Written for teachers, the book will be recommended and/or used in teacher workshops by school psychologists, counselors, and social workers. This book is in the Applications of Motivational Interviewing series, edited by Stephen Rollnick, William R. Miller, and Theresa B. Moyers.

Machine generated contents note: I. Fundamentals 1. Introduction to Intervention Implementation 2. Overview of Implementation Support and Evaluation within a Problem-Solving Model II. Evaluation of Intervention Fidelity and Learner Outcomes 3. Intervention Fidelity Data Collection 4. Data-Based Decision Making: Considering Intervention Fidelity and Learner Outcomes Data III. Implementation Support Strategies 5. Implementation Planning 6. Direct Training 7. Participant Modeling and Role Play 8. Self-Monitoring 9. Motivational Interviewing 10. Performance Feedback IV. Putting It All Together 11. Managing Implementation Supports to Improve Student Achievement, with Ashley M. Boyle.

This book summarizes nearly fifteen years of research in schools—research geared toward understanding and describing the change process as experienced by its participants. It addresses the question: "What can educators and educational administrators don on a day-to-day basis to become more effective in facilitating beneficial change?" The book provides research-based tools, techniques, and approaches that can help change facilitators to attain this goal. The authors contend that, in order to be more effective, educators must be concerns-based in their approach to leadership. Early chapters deal with teachers' evolving attitudes, concerns, and perceptions of change, as well as their gradually developing skills in implementing promising educational innovations. The authors next turn to examine the role of the school principal and other leaders as change facilitators, and present ways that they can become better informed about the developmental state of teachers as well as how to use these diagnostic survey and data as the basis for facilitating the change process. The emphasis is on practical day-to-day skills and techniques, showing administrators how to design and implement interventions that are supportive of teachers and others. Each chapter presents not only the concepts and research of the authors but also translates the concepts in concrete applications which illustrate the ways they can be applied to obtain genuine and lasting improvements. The book also contains an important discussion and description of the change process, focusing on teachers, innovations, and the schools.

“This book merits every American’s serious consideration” (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an exposé of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kids’ education, and threatens our nation’s future. “Education runs on lies. That’s probably not what you’d expect from a former Secretary of Education, but it’s the truth.” So opens Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work, although the title could just as easily be How American Schools Work for Some, Not for Others, and Only Now and Then for Kids. Drawing on nearly three decades in education—from his mother’s after-school program on Chicago’s South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in Washington, DC—How Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can’t help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the “most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama’s Cabinet.” Going to a child’s funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person. How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also identifies what really does make a school work. “As insightful as it is inspiring” (Washington Book Review), How Schools Work will embolden parents, teachers, voters, and even students to demand more of our public schools. If America is going to be great, then we can accept nothing less.