New Library Books in Education

Title: Wasting Minds: Why Our Education System is Failing and What We Can Do About It.
Author: Ronald A. Wolk
Publisher: Alexandria, VA. ASCD
Call Number:LA217.2.W65 2011
Synopsis from Google Books:
Renowned education journalist Ronald A. Wolk the founder and former editor of Education Week and Teacher Magazine skewers the conventional wisdom of the day about education reform and illuminates a way forward to higher student achievement

Title:Transformative Curriculum Leadership
Author: James G. Henderson & Rosemary Gonik
Publisher: Upper Saddle River, NJ Prentice-Hall
Call Number: LB1570.H45 2007
Synopsis from publisher:

From a leading curriculum scholar, in collaboration with a progressive school curriculum leader, comes a unique synthesis of the leading theories in the discipline of curriculum studies and a powerful model of curriculum problem solving centered in constructivist learning and democratic understanding. Grounded in extensive professional experiences, this text advances a type of curriculum problem-solving leadership consistent with the ideals of a democratic society.

Title: The Challenge of School Reform: A Journalist's Education in the Classroom
Author: David S. Awbrey
Publisher:New York: Rowman & Littlefield
Call Number:LB1623.5.A95 2011
Table of Contents:
Why Teach?, Why Pipkin? -- Imagining History -- Teaching Charlemagne -- A Monk's Education --
Generation Global -- Class Matters -- Faith in History -- Courting Middle Schoolers
-- Medieval Visions -- Miseducated Educators --The Hell of Denial --The Stalled Crusade
-- People of History -- What the Teacher Learned

Title:The Education Mayor: Improving America's Schools
Author: Kennety Wong; Francis X. Shen; dorothea Anagnostopoulos; Stacey Rutledge
Publisher:Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press
Call Number:LB2805.E282 2007
Synopsis from publisher:

In 2002 the No Child Left Behind Act rocked America's schools with new initiatives for results-based accountability. But years before NCLB was signed, a new movement was already under way by mayors to take control of city schools from school boards and integrate the management of public education with the overall governing of the city. The Education Mayor is a critical look at mayoral control of urban school districts, beginning with Boston's schools in 1992 and examining more than 100 school districts in 40 states. The authors seek to answer four central questions: What does school governance look like under mayoral leadership? How does mayoral control affect school and student performance? What are the key factors for success or failure of integrated governance? How does mayoral control effect practical changes in schools and classrooms? The results of their examination indicate that, although mayoral control of schools may not be appropriate for every district, it can successfully emphasize accountability across the education system, providing more leverage for each school district to strengthen its educational infrastructure and improve student performance. Based on extensive quantitative data as well as case studies, this analytical study provides a balanced look at America's education reform. As the first multidistrict empirical examination and most comprehensive overall evaluation of mayoral school reform, The Education Mayor is a must-read for academics, policymakers, educational administrators, and civic and political leaders concerned about public education.

I want to alert you to a new set of videos from TED, TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDEducation which includes a variety of TED talks about different topics of interest to educators and learners.