Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools

The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?

Dale Russakoff · 246 pages

"Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Christie, and Cory Booker were ready to reform our failing schools. They got an education. When Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools -- and to solve the education crisis in every city in America -- it looked like a huge win for then-mayor Cory Booker and governor Chris Christie. But their pla

The Shame Of The Nation: The Restoration Of Apartheid Schooling In America

Jonathan Kozol · 416 pages

"This is a book about betrayal of the young, who have no power to defend themselves. It is not intended to make readers comfortable." Visiting nearly 60 public schools, Kozol finds that conditions have grown worse for inner-city children in the 15 years since federal courts began dismantling the landmark 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. First, the segregation of black children is at a l

Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul

Edward Humes · 380 pages

What should we teach our children about where we come from?Is evolution good science? Is it a lie? Is it incompatible with faith?Did Charles Darwin really say man came from monkeys? Have scientists really detected "intelligent design"—evidence of a creator—in nature?What happens when a town school board decides to confront such questions head-on, thrusting its students, then an entire community, o

The Gatekeepers : Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College

Jacques Steinberg · 323 pages

A riveting, behind-the-scenes look at how a top college picks the best of the lotIn the fall of 1999, New York Times education reporter Jacques Steinberg was given an unprecedented opportunity to observe the admissions process at prestigious Wesleyan University. Over the course of nearly a year, Steinberg accompanied admissions officer Ralph Figueroa on a tour to assess and recruit the most promis

The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire

Tim Schwab · 496 pages

A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League

Ron Suskind · 390 pages

At Ballou Senior High, a crime-infested school in Washington, D.C., honor students have learned to keep their heads down. Like most inner-city kids, they know that any special attention in a place this dangerous can make you a target of violence. But Cedric Jennings will not swallow his pride, and with unwavering support from his mother, he studies and strives as if his life depends on it--and it

Among Schoolchildren

Tracy Kidder · 340 pages

Year-long case study of a fifth-grade Holyoke, Massachusetts, teacher and her class.

Train Go Sorry

Leah Hager Cohen · 296 pages

"Train go sorry" is the American Sign Language expression for "missing the boat." Indeed, missed connections characterize many interactions between the deaf and hearing worlds, including the failure to recognize that deaf people are members of a unique culture. In this intimate chronicle of Lexington School for the Deaf, Leah Hager Cohen brings this extraordinary culture to life and captures a piv

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way

Amanda Ripley · 320 pages

Following three teenagers who chose to spend one school year living in Finland, South Korea, and Poland, a literary journalist recounts how attitudes, parenting, and rigorous teaching have revolutionized these countries' education results. In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think

Radical: Fighting to Put Students First

Michelle Rhee · 286 pages

A teacher in inner-city Baltimore, chancellor of the Washington, D.C. schools, and the founder of the advocacy organization StudentsFirst shares her eighteen-year mission to prioritize the interests of children through education reform.

Education for Critical Consciousness

Paulo Freire · 164 pages

"Famous for his advocacy of 'critical pedagogy', Paulo Freire was Latin America's foremost educationalist, a thinker and writer whose work and ideas continue to exert enormous influence in education throughout the world today. Education for Critical Consciousness is the main statement of Freire's revolutionary method of education. It takes the life situation of the learner as its starting point an

The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn

Diane Ravitch · 263 pages

The Closing of the American Mind

Allan Bloom · 400 pages

A discourse on late 20th century American students' mind and soul, and the damage done by the elite universities' turn from the eternal verities as outlined by Socrates-Plato-Aristotle, Shakespeare and Rousseau.

The Death Class: A True Story About Life

Erika Hayasaki · 275 pages

A journalist details how Norma Bowe, the professor of a popular class on the stages of dying, death, and bereavement at Kean University in New Jersey, shows her students how to truly heal and live their lives through contemplating the end.

Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America

Paul Tough · 296 pages

An intriguing portrait of African-American activist Geoffrey Canada, creator of the Harlem Children's Zone, describes his radical new approach to eliminating inner-city poverty, one that proposes to transform the lives of poor children by changing their schools, their families, and their neighborhoods at the same time.

Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through The Dark World of Compulsory Schooling

John Taylor Gatto · 187 pages

Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities

Martha C. Nussbaum · 184 pages

The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future

Linda Darling-Hammond · 394 pages

Argues that the education system in America needs to make drastic changes in order to build a system of high-achieving and equitable schools that protects every child's right to learn.

Constitutional Law

Erwin Chemerinsky · 1,520 pages

"A comprehensive, accessible text that presents the law solely through case excerpts and author-written essays"--

A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All

Wendy Kopp · 229 pages

America's failure to educate millions of children is a crisis that strikes at our fundamental ideals and health as a nation. Since 1990, Teach For America has been building a movement to end educational inequity in America. Now its founder, Wendy Kopp, shares the lessons learned from the experiences of more than 25,000 teachers and alumni who have taught and led schools in low-income communities .

The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies are Harming Our Young Men

Christina Hoff Sommers · 262 pages

"Christina Hoff Sommers analyzes the work of the leading academic experts, Carol Gilligan and William Pollack, and finds it lacking in scientific rigor. There is no girl crisis, says Sommers. Girls are outperforming boys academically, and girls' self-esteem is no different from boys'. Boys lag behind girls in reading and writing ability, and they are less likely to go to college.". "The "girl cri

We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change

Myles Horton, Paulo Freire · 276 pages

Waiting for "SUPERMAN": How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools (Participant Guide Media)

Participant Media · 288 pages

The School Revolution: A New Answer for Our Broken Education System

Ron Paul · 206 pages

Twelve-term Texas Congressman, presidential candidate, and #1 New York Times bestselling author Ron Paul returns with a highly provocative treatise about how we need to fundamentally change the way we think about America's broken education system in order to fix it. He provides a focused solution that centers on strong support for home schooling and the application of free market principles in th