Closing the Achievement Gap is made up of six articles. The first paper examines Cleveland's restructuring initiative in light of two theories on early adolescent development: person-in-environment theory and the focal theory of change. This is followed by a study that illustrates the difference in academic performance between low-income children and their peers, minority children and their classmates, and those schools that serve a majority of children from low-income families an...

Two powerful forces are driving American's demands for better schools -- one longstanding force is idealistic and the other is "new" and economic. The current group of young Americans is in danger of being the first full generation to consistently make less money and enjoy fewer worldly rewards than their parents. The intersection of idealistic and pragmatic forces has produced an era of calls for reform in U.S. education that is unparalleled -- calls that have resulted in the creation of ...

First Published in 2005. This is volume 10, number 2 in the Journal of Education for Students Places at Risk (JESPAR). This special issue, tenth-anniversary retrospective, is structured with two arguments: schools can have a strong, positive impact on the education of at-risk children, and effective programs exist or can be developed that can improve the educational experiences of at-risk students. Two book reviews by Shelley H. Billig and Robert J. Stevens round out the issue.

This volume presents the most recent research on Title I federal compensatory education programs. Over the past three decades, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has served as the cornerstone of the federal commitment to equality of opportunity. It is the federal government's single largest investment in America's schools. As Title I begins a new century, this book documents the program's history and points to the potential for its future, building on 35 years of researc...

Student-Centered Leadership offers a timely and thoughtful resource for school leaders who want to turn their ideals into action. Written by educational leadership expert Viviane Robinson, the book shows leaders how they can make a bigger difference to the quality of teaching and learning in their school and ultimately improve their students' performance.This book is based not on fad or fashion but on the best available evidence about the impact of different types of leadership on ...

Top Business Psychology Models is a quick, accessible overview to the fundamental theories and frameworks that will help you understand human behaviour, emotions and cognition at work. Each model is presented in a short and crisply written summary, which could be easily converted into materials for use in training or in coaching conversations. Clear, succinct and well-referenced chapters also offer routes into accessing further information. Free of academic jargon...

James Spillane, the leading expert in Distributed Leadership, shows how leadership happens in everyday practices in schools, through formal routines and informal interactions. He examines the distribution of leadership among administrators, specialists, and teachers in the school, and explains the ways in which leadership practice is stretched over leaders, followers, and aspects of the situation, including routines and tools of various sorts in the organization such as memos, sch...

Organizations thrive or struggle as a result of interactions among team members. To optimize the performance of teams, Group Dynamics and Team Interventions bridges the gap between the most up-to-date academic research findings about group behavior and real-life practice. Chapters summarize the theories behind group and team behavior while offering proven application and intervention techniques that can be utilized in workplace settings. Topics addressed include team formation and...

In this second edition of the classic work Learner-Centered Teaching, Maryellen Weimer—one of the nation’s most highly regarded authorities on effective college teaching—offers a comprehensive introduction to the topic of learner-centered teaching in the college and university classroom. This thoroughly revised and updated edition includes the most current examples of practice in action from a variety of disciplines and contains new information on the research support for learner-...

"Clears out the bureaucratic techniques of impersonal management and focuses the core of leadership on dealing with school change as a most human endeavor. When all is said and done, the quality of education revolves around the aspirations, commitments, and wellness of teachers giving their best."—Carl Glickman, Scholar in ResidenceThe University of GeorgiaDevelop a leadership approach that responds to the emotional needs of teachers!

Change the entire school culture with this collaborative method of supervision!For years, the classic supervision model has frustrated both principals and teachers by fostering superior-subordinate relationships, focusing on teacher conformity rather than growth, or producing checklist data that is irrelevant to the curriculum. ***The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through***offers a practical, time-saving alternative that impacts student achievement by cultivating self-reliant teache...

School improvement that lasts: find out how with this masterful guide!Common Core requirements, merit-based pay, new teacher evaluations, project-based learning—21st-century learning is a demanding and rapidly changing landscape. Advance from overwhelmed to empowered with Alan Blankstein’s Failure Is Not an Option, used by more than 350,000 educators to create schools that sustain success for every student.New case studies...