When it comes to sizing up America’s public schools, test scores are the go-to metric of state policy makers and anxious parents looking to place their children in the “best” schools. Yet ample research indicates that standardized tests are a poor way to measure a school’s performance. It is time—indeed past time—to rethink this system, Jack Schneider says.Beyond Test Scores reframes current debates over school quality by offering new approaches to educational data that ca...

In the "vigorous, well-informed" ( Kirkus Reviews) A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, the co-hosts of the popular education podcast Have You Heard expose the potent network of conservative elected officials, advocacy groups, funders, and think tanks that are pushing a radical vision to do away with public education."Cut[ing] through the rhetorical fog surrounding a host of free-market reforms and innovations" (Mike Rose), Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshir...

An “invaluable guide” (Forbes) to understanding and winning the fight for our public schools“Essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of public education in the United States.” —Heather McGhee, bestselling author of The Sum of UsOur public schools are on the front lines of a fierce battle. In communities across the nation, heated culture wars have erupted—threatening to undermine the very foundation of publi...

Amid widespread concern that our approach to testing and grading undermines education, two experts explain how schools can use assessment to support, rather than compromise, learning.Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, capitulated to a grade-grubbing student, or fretted over a child’s report card knows that the way we assess student learning in American schools is freighted with unintended consequences. But that’s not all. As experts agree, our primary assessme...

A trenchant analysis of how public education is being destroyed in overt and deceptive ways—and how to fight backIn the “vigorous, well-informed” (Kirkus Reviews) A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, the co-hosts of the popular education podcast Have You Heard expose the potent network of conservative elected officials, advocacy groups, funders, and think tanks that are pushing a radical vision to do away with public education.“Cut[ing...

Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, capitulated to a grade-grubbing student, or fretted over a child's report card knows that the way we assess student learning in American schools is freighted with unintended consequences. As experts agree, our primary assessment technologies—grading, rating, and ranking—don't actually provide an accurate picture of how students are doing in school. Worse, they distort student and educator behavior in ways that undermine learning and exacerbate inequa...

A trenchant analysis of how public education is being destroyed in overt and deceptive ways—and how to fight back.If America's public schools don't survive the COVID-19 pandemic, it won't just be due to the virus. Opponents of public education have long sought to dismantle our system of free, universal, and taxpayer-funded schooling. But the present crisis has provided them with their best opportunity ever to realize that aim. Books like Jane Mayer's Dark Money...

Back in the days of the lumberjack and river drive, supplies and equipment were moved up Maine's most remote river by towboats - large, wooden barge-like vessels - which were towed upriver by horses or oxen on the shore. In this story, eleven-year-old Ben takes the trip of a lifetime when he accompanies his Uncle Horace on one of the last towboat trips up Maine's wild Allagash River. Along the way he encounters moose and bear, meets new friends, and makes some surprising discoveries about ...

A perfectly timed book for the educational resistance—those of us who believe in public schoolsCulture wars have engulfed our schools. Extremist groups are seeking to ban books, limit what educators can teach, and threaten the very foundations of public education. What's behind these efforts? Why are our schools suddenly so vulnerable? And how can the millions of Americans who love their public schools fight back? In this concise, hard-hitting guide, journalist Jen...

Published in autumn 2001 Have Not Been the Same became the first book to comprehensively document the rise of Canadian underground rock between the years 1985 and 1995. It was a tumultuous decade that saw the arrival of Blue Rodeo The Tragically Hip Sarah McLachlan Sloan Barenaked Ladies Daniel Lanois and many others who made an indelible mark not only on Canadian culture but on the global stage as well. Have Not Been the Same tells all of their stories in rich detail through extensive fir...

"Two Solitudes" is excerpted from Have Note Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995, available as a print or ebook. Published in autumn 2001, Have Not Been the Same became the first book to comprehensively document the rise of Canadian underground rock between the years 1985 and 1995. It was a tumultuous decade that saw the arrival of Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip, SarahMcLachlan, Sloan, Barenaked Ladies, Daniel Lanois, and many others who made an indelible mark not only on Canad...

SHRUNK: Crime and Disorders of the Mind is a collection of powerful stories by Canadian and international forensic psychologists and psychiatrists who write about the many complex mental health issues they face and the care involved in dealing with them.Unlike any other book within the genre of True Crime, Shrunk forms a unique bridge between mental health and law. Chapters focus on cases where judges and juries call upon the opinions of forensic experts when dealing with the menta...