About Our Schools

In an educational milieu in which standards and accountability hold sway, schools can become places of stress, marginalization, and isolation instead of learning communities that nurture a sense of meaning and purpose. In Ensouling Our Schools, author Jennifer Katz weaves together methods of creating schools that engender mental, spiritual, and emotional health while developing intellectual thought and critical analysis. Kevin Lamoureux contributes his expertise regarding Indigenous approaches to mental and spiritual health that benefit all students and address the TRC Calls to Action.

"Saving Our Schools exposes the ugly side of President George Bush's "No Child Left Behind" mandate, which has threatened to close more than 6,000 public schools, to the detriment of dedicated teachers and disadvantaged children alike. Revealing how NCLB forces schools with strictly limited resources to teach its children test-taking skills in a desperate bid to pass high-stakes standardized testing, and how the government blacklists successful professors, institutions, and methods that balk the NCLB party line, and much more, Saving Our Schools warns of an immediate threat to the integrity of public education and urges the reader to take action. An eye-opening social commentary, of keen importance in determining the nation's future. -Midwest Book Review

What's Wrong with Our Schools and How We Can Fix Them examines the status of public education in North America and exposes many of the absurd instructional practices found in all-too-many schools. Written by three experienced educators, this book provides readers with a direct window into public education. The language is straightforward, the case studies based on real events, and the research evidence clearly presented. With chapter titles like, 'Subject Matter Matters,' 'A Pass Should be Earned,' and 'There is Too Much Edu-Babble,' the authors systematically demolish the ridiculous fads that have taken hold of public education. As unashamed apologists for the importance of knowledge and content in school curricula, the authors clearly show why the views of romantic progressives, like those of popular author Alfie Kohn, fail to stand up to rigorous scrutiny. A consistent focus on common sense permeates this book and provides parents, teachers, and administrators with practical ways in which they can help improve public education. Anyone interested in the future of public education will benefit from reading this book. For more information, visit www.fixingourschools.com.

The aim of this book is to explore how teachers, students and parents can be given more of a say in the education system – in how schools are organised, and in what and how children learn. The book does not promote a specific view of education, but considers the means by which educational purposes and approaches can be conceived, agreed and enacted democratically – a precursor to a flourishing democratic society. Rebuilding Our Schools from the Bottom Up has been written in response to significant changes which have taken place in the education system over the past 30 years. In England at least, these changes have resulted in an increasingly centralised system in which the voices of those who teach, those who learn, and those whose children go to school have been marginalised. The book covers four main areas: Teacher voice: listening to the professionals Student voice: involving students as active participants in their education Parent voice: building a genuine home–school partnership School community voice: developing a shared vision With inspiring examples from around the UK and overseas and a range of resources that can be used by senior leaders, teachers and parents, the book aims to encourage and support transformative change so that schools can meet the needs of the communities they exist to serve.

"A superb, crucial, blistering expose of all the myths about our education system that are all too often used to attack it. Melissa Benn again proves why she is one of country's most formidable education campaigners - and why the powerful should fear her. Owen Jones, Guardian columnist and best-selling author Never has it been more urgent to publicise the truth about what works and doesn't work in our education system. Debunking the ideology of marketisation, and exposing the half-truths that pass for objective reporting, Benn and Downs meticulously lay out the evidence: that a national system of comprehensive schools delivers the best outcomes. This hugely important book should be required reading for each new Education Secretary. Caroline Lucas, MP Opinions about comprehensive education are often made into easy-to-swallow sound-bites by media and politicians alike and whilst the benefits of a genuinely comprehensive education for all pupils are obvious, untruths have unwittingly evolved into hard facts. Based on Melissa Benn and Janet Downs’ work as part of the pioneering Local Schools Network, The Truth About Our Schools calls for us to urgently and articulately challenge unquestioned myths about state education. Benn and Downs have meticulously built an argument for its still enormously vital role, and rigorously challenge assumptions that: Comprehensive education has failed Local authorities control and hold back schools Choice, competition and markets are the route to educational success Choice will improve education in England: the free school model. Academies raise standards Teachers don’t need qualifications Private schools have the magic DNA Progressive education lowers standards Anyone who thinks that comprehensive education cannot deliver, that local authorities are the chief block to improving our school system, that competition and markets are the route to educational success and that private schools hold the magic DNA that can simply be transferred to other state schools will have their beliefs shaken by this blisteringly incisive book. .

In The Future of Our Schools, Lois Weiner explains why teachers who care passionately about teaching and social justice need to unite the energy for teaching to efforts to self-govern and transform teacher unions. Drawing on research, her experience as a public school teacher, and as a union activist, she explains how to create the teachers unions public education desperately needs. Lois Weiner is a professor at New Jersey City University and has been a life-long teacher union activist who has served as an officer of three different union locals. She is the author of The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and their Unions: Stories for Resistanc e .

In Teaching to Diversity, Dr. Jennifer Katz synthesizes the research, and 16 years experience of teaching in inclusive classrooms and schools, to provide answers to several questions: How do I make inclusion work for ALL students? What are the foundational best practices of a truly inclusive learning community? How does one create such a community? The author pulls together, in an organized way, a three-block model of universal design for learning (UDL) and suggests a step-by-step approach for implementing it. This framework includes: Block One, Social and Emotional Learning details ways to build compassionate learning communities (K-12) in which all students feel safe and valued, and develop a positive self-concept, sense of belonging, and respect for diverse others. Block Two, Inclusive Instructional Practice includes a framework for planning units from K-12, and explains instructional and management practices for teaching, assessing, grading, and reporting in UDL Classrooms. Block Three, Systems and Structures suggests strategies for creating inclusive learning communities, and explores ways in which resource teachers, student services personnel, and school administrators can support and create socially and academically inclusive schools and classrooms. The three-block model of UDL can empower educators with the knowledge, skills, and confidence required to teach diverse learners in the same classroom--including those who have previously been excluded. Ultimately, it is about creating classrooms and schools that heal by teaching to the heart, mind, and spirit of every student.

What would a school look like if it was designed with mental health in mind? Too many public schools look and feel like prisons, designed out of fear of vandalism and truancy. But we know that nurturing environments are better for learning. Access to nature, big classroom windows, and open campuses consistently reduce stress, anxiety, disorderly conduct, and crime, and improve academic performance. Backed by decades of research, Schools That Heal showcases clear and compelling ways--from furniture to classroom improvements to whole campus renovations--to make supportive learning environments for our children and teenagers. With invaluable advice for school administrators, public health experts, teachers, and parents Schools That Heal is a call to action and a practical resource to create nurturing and inspiring schools for all children.