From David Osborne, the author of Reinventing Government--a biting analysis of the failure of America's public schools and a comprehensive plan for revitalizing American education. In Reinventing America's Schools, David Osborne, one of the world's foremost experts on public sector reform, offers a comprehensive analysis of the charter school movements and presents a theory that will do for American schools what his New York Times bestseller Reinventing Government did for public governance in 1992. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the city got an unexpected opportunity to recreate their school system from scratch. The state's Recovery School District (RSD), created to turn around failing schools, gradually transformed all of its New Orleans schools into charter schools, and the results are shaking the very foundations of American education. Test scores, school performance scores, graduation and dropout rates, ACT scores, college-going rates, and independent studies all tell the same story: the city's RSD schools have tripled their effectiveness in eight years. Now other cities are following suit, with state governments reinventing failing schools in Newark, Camden, Memphis, Denver, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Oakland. In this book, Osborne uses compelling stories from cities like New Orleans and lays out the history and possible future of public education. Ultimately, he uses his extensive research to argue that in today's world, we should treat every public school like a charter school and grant them autonomy, accountability, diversity of school designs, and parental choice.

Master The Latest Educational Technology To Teach 21st Century Skills. The pace of technological change picks up speed with each passing day. Educators must place the proper emphasis on technology leadership—using proven methods—if they are to prepare students to thrive in the classroom and beyond. When first published in 2009, this book empowered administrators and teachers to plan and execute effective strategies for enhancing student engagement and achievement through technology. This second edition features 80% brand-new material addressing the latest technological developments, combined with the authors’ tested methods for applying them in schools. Features include: Aligning technology to the ISLLC Standards, ISTE Standards, and Common Core State Standards Comprehensive guides to the newest technologies and trends that school leaders need to know A companion website featuring a massive volume of resources for additional progress With this book close at hand, school leaders will confidently guide students into the exciting digital future. "The world of technology changes by the second and educators are left in the dust to navigate a tsunami of tools. Levin and Schrum provide a detailed roadmap of technology tools available today and how they can be harnessed by educators to improve student engagement." -Eric Sheninger, Educational Consultant and Author of Digital Leadership "School leaders need less philosophy and more of a focus on the practical steps needed to move forward. Levin and Schrum update their best-selling First Edition by adding in the newest innovations in technology, while at the same time offering suggestions on how to get started." -Peter DeWitt, Corwin author/Consultant Finding Common Ground Blog/ Education Week

Beyond Free College outlines an audacious national agenda—consistent with, but far more comprehensive than, the current “free college” movement—that builds on the best of US higher education’s populist history such as the G.I. Bill and the community college transfer function. The authors align a wide constellation of higher education trends—online learning, prior learning assessment, competency-based learning, high school college-credit— with a rapidly shifting student transfer environment that privileges college credit as the pivotal educational catalyst to boost access and completion. The book’s agenda seeks greater productive investment in postsecondary education by privileging a single metric—lower-cost-per-degree-granted—as the animating driver of a transfer pathway that will fulfill the potential of its historical, progressive innovators. Beyond Free College’s goal is as simple as it is urgent: To galvanize higher education advocates in an effort to reorganize, reorient, and reignite the transfer function to serve the needs of a neotraditional student population that now constitutes the majority of college-goers in America; and in ways that advance completion, not just access to higher education.

How charter schools have taken hold in three cities—and why parents, teachers, and community members are fighting back Charter schools once promised a path towards educational equity, but as the authors of this powerful volume show, market-driven education reforms have instead boldly reestablished a tiered public school system that segregates students by race and class. Examining the rise of charters in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York, authors Raynard Sanders, David Stovall, and Terrenda White show how charters—private institutions, usually set in poor or working-class African American and Latinx communities—promote competition instead of collaboration and are driven chiefly by financial interests. Sanders, Stovall, and White also reveal how corporate charters position themselves as “public” to secure tax money but exploit their private status to hide data about enrollment and salaries, using misleading information to promote false narratives of student success. In addition to showing how charter school expansion can deprive students of a quality education, the authors document several other lasting consequences of charter school expansion: • the displacement of experienced African American teachers • the rise of a rigid, militarized pedagogy such as SLANT • the purposeful starvation of district schools • and the loss of community control and oversight A revealing and illuminating look at one of the greatest threats to public education, Twenty-First-Century Jim Crow Schools explores how charter schools have shaped the educational landscape and why parents, teachers, and community members are fighting back.

Modern Schools: A Century of Design for Education is a comprehensive survey of modern K-12 schools from Frank Lloyd Wright to Morphosis an in-depth design study that explores the fundamental relationship between architecture, education, and the design of contemporary learning environments. Its focus is on the underlying design themes and characteristic features that support and enhance basic aspects of learning and, in the process, create an architectural expression that is both meaningful and lasting. The breadth of its scope includes influences of contemporary educational ideas and practices, related design concepts and strategies, and most importantly, the resulting impact of both on real environments for learning. This remarkable survey and project study the first of its kind is an essential and important sourcebook for architects, school planners, educators, and anyone else interested in contemporary school design. The body of work presented, which is international in scope, underscores the unique architectural potential of this important project type, and highlights design themes that remain fundamentally relevant for architects and designers today. Presentation material includes more than 900 contemporary and historical photographs, mostly in color, and more than 200 detailed architectural plans drawings of schools by many of the outstanding design architects of the modern era. Modern Schools: A Century of Design for Education features the work of more than 60 architects worldwide, including twentieth century masters Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier, and Eliel and Eero Saarinen, as well as contemporaries such as Morphosis, Coop Himmel(b)lau, Behnisch & Partners, and Patkau Architects, among many others.

"Educational leaders are empowered by a 7-steps framework to move their schools and districts forward in a quest to create community consensus and build the professional capacity for preparing students for 21st century learning."--Book cover.

This book presents optimistic alternatives to the current educational reform movement, which has not produced substantial improvement. Dwight W. Allen advocates structural reform of education in virtually every aspect--organization, staff, curriculum, and political accountability. His central proposal is for the establishment of a national system of experimental schools, well-funded for research, experimentation, evaluation, and demonstration, but with realistic operating expenses. The biggest obstacle to reform is the lack of confidence in those who might establish, coordinate, and implement it. The establishment of an extensive, coordinated national experimental school system with voluntary participation by all those involved would provide a relatively nonthreatening environment in which to try new alternatives in all aspects of public education. The first requirement is a new vision of education--one that has the capacity for quick implementation of new curricular and instructional programs. Allen advocates the creation of a well-designed national curriculum which would enhance local control of schools. With a portion of the curriculum standardized, local school districts and teachers would have the time and resources to develop local curriculum options.

This ground-breaking book titled The 21st Century School Leader: Leading Schools in Today's World focuses on effectively leading schools in the digital age (21st Century and beyond) where a majority of all stakeholders including students, staff, parents, community members, and business owners are digital natives. Written by an award-winning practitioner and international scholar, the author infuses this approach as it applies to all aspects of school leadership. Chapters include Leading Schools in Today's World, Social Media for School Leaders 101, The Importance of Being a Life-Long Learner, Closing the Achievement Gap, Ethics and Leadership, Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, School Climate and School Culture, Work-Life Balance, Professional Learning Network, Leading for Inclusiveness, Educational Policy, School Law, School Finance and Human Resources, and Tips for School Leaders.

As we cross the threshold of a new century, which approaches are likely to improve public education? In this book, distinguished scholars discuss recent innovations--charter schools, contracting arrangements, and choice--designed to liberate educators from burdensome bureaucratic controls and improve the level of opportunity for all children. Focusing on the problems in cities, where far too many children have been denied access to quality institutions, the authors examine the lessons to be learned from Catholic schools, site-based management, private entrepreneurs, and specific developments in three cities--New York, Milwaukee, and Chicago. The authors, though realistic about the political and institutional obstacles that stand in the way of meaningful change, foresee the demise of the "one size fits all" approach to schooling. They envision a system of schools that is dynamic, diverse, performance based, and accountable; one that is supportive of professionals, responsive to creativity, intolerant of failure, and committed to high educational standards for all children. Contributors: Louann Bierlein Anthony Bryk John Chubb Chester Finn Paul Hill Valerie Lee Paul Peterson Diane Ravitch Joseph P. Viteritti Priscilla Wohlstetter

Combining both the theory as well as the practice of the education reform process, this unique breakthrough volume focuses on every aspect of the change process in high school education today. Short- and long-term strategies for each phase of the process-provoking, creating, managing, supporting, and sustaining reform-are covered. Based on the real-life experiences of the author and others, this book recognizes that most high school reform is short-lived. It stresses the ways to create and maintain positive change, making the process a long-lasting, worthwhile mission for the school's leadership and ultimately the students. Short, useful summaries of high school reform provide true-life pictures of what really happens in the midst of changing the way educational institutions operate. These stories cover school-based management, collaborative or shared leadership, school-within-a-school groupings, interdisciplinary instruction, school-based budgeting, new models for professional development, and others. Through these examples, readers can understand how reform strategies work and how to apply and adapt them to their own situations. As an added feature, this book provides the names and locations of schools attempting each reform as well as the names and addresses of school reform networks that readers can contact in their own efforts.