Renewed Accountability For Access And Excellence

Renewed Accountability for Access and Excellence provides a forum for contributing scholars and practitioners to advance the discussion of Tenuto’s (2014) democratic professional practice in education (DPPE) by sharing additional insights, perspectives, and implications for both policy and practice. Consistent with the model itself, this collective work is intended to encourage meaningful conversations and critical thinking about inclusionary practices, equitable access, excellence, and renewed accountability for teaching and leading.

Following on from the preceding volume in this series that focused on innovation and implementation in the context of school-university-community collaborations in rural places, this volume explores the positive impact of such collaborations in rural places, focusing specifically on the change agency of such collaborations. The relentless demand of urban places in general for the food and resources (e.g., mineral and energy resources) originating in rural places tends to overshadow the impact of the inevitable changes wrought by increasing efficiency in the supply chain. Youth brought-up in rural places tend to gravitate to urban places for higher education and employment, social interaction and cultural affordances, and only some of them return to enrich their places of origin. On one hand, the outcome of the arguable predominance of more populated areas in the national consciousness has been described as “urbanormativity”—a sense that what happens in urban areas is the norm. By implication, rural areas strive to approach the norm. On the other hand, a mythology of rural places as repositories of traditional values, while flattering, fails to take into account the inherent complexities of the rural context. The chapters in this volume are grouped into four parts—the first three of which explore, in turn, collaborations that target instructional leadership, increase opportunities for underserved people, and target wicked problems. The fourth part consists of four chapters that showcase international perspectives on school-university-community collaborations between countries (Australia and the United States), within China, within Africa, and within Australia. The overwhelming sense of the chapters in this volume is that the most compelling evidence of impact of school-university community collaborations in rural places emanates from collaborations brokered by schools-communities to which universities bring pertinent resources.

This exploration of the range of options for a "library of things" collection demonstrates what has been implemented successfully and offers practical insights regarding these nontraditional projects, from the development of concepts to the everyday realities of maintaining these collections. What services libraries provide and how they function in their communities is constantly being reconsidered and redefined. One example of this is the trend of experimenting with building circulating collections of nonliterary "things"—such as tools, seeds, cooking equipment, bicycles, household machinery, and educational materials—by drawing on traditional library functions and strengths of acquisition, organization, and circulation. Audio Recorders to Zucchini Seeds: Building a Library of Things enables you to consider the feasibility of creating a specific type of "thing" collection in your library and get practical advice about the processes necessary to successfully launch and maintain it, from planning and funding to circulation, promotion, and upkeep. This contributed volume provides a survey of "library of things" projects within the United States, from both public and academic libraries, offering real-world lessons learned from these early experiments with nontraditional collections. The authors offer practical insights from their projects, from the development of their initial ideas to the everyday realities of maintaining and circulating these collections, including cataloging, space needs, safety concerns, staff training, circulation, marketing, and assessment. The contributed chapters are organized thematically, covering "things" collections that encompass a wide variety of objects first, followed by collections with a community-building focus (seeds, recreation, tools) and those that serve an educational purpose, such as curriculum centers, children's toys, or collections that support a university curriculum. The last section addresses collections that support media production.

Leading Schools to Learn, Grow, and Thrive provides a unique approach to preparing prospective education leaders by combining theory, research, and practice. Grounded in organizational and leadership theory, this book helps leaders understand their schools and districts from multiple perspectives and develop their own leadership aspirations, approaches, and missions. Well-known authors Brazer, Bauer, and Johnson present authentic practical problems, illuminate them with appropriate theory and research, and give readers opportunities to solve common puzzles as a means to grow wisdom about how to lead, especially when confronted with complex challenges. This book is an invaluable resource for aspiring leaders, one that readers will reference as they proceed through their leadership coursework and keep close at hand throughout their leadership career. Special Features: eResources—complementary resources for instructors and students, including a set of authentic role-playing scenarios accessible from https://www.routledge.com/9781138039100 Vignettes—introduce the reader to real-life dilemmas that impact teaching and learning and provide a central reference point for discussions of theory, research, and practice. Theory and Research—frameworks and examples inform common leadership challenges, helping readers expand their knowledge and experience base to explore situations similar to their own contexts. Puzzles—real-world situations test knowledge and provide opportunities to practice ideas for effective leadership. Thought Partner Discussions (TPCs) and Extended Web Activities (EWAs)—additional thought activities, opportunities for reflection, and suggestions for discussion provoke puzzle solving.

This book shows how critical theory can help school leaders and administrators to prepare students for the ever-changing political, cultural, economic, and societal conditions of the world. The contributors use ideas from critical theorists including Adorno, Fromm, Marcuse and Habermas and connect them with contemporary theories and debates in educational leadership from moral education to critical theories on race, to culturally relevant practice. Educational Leadership and Critical Theory challenges the misconceptions of many present-day educators about the analytical lens offered by the Frankfurt School theorists which is often dismissed by policymakers and practitioners. Written by leading scholars based in the UK, USA, and Canada, the contributors emphasize and explain the importance of educational aesthetics, dialectics, education and civilization, the structural transformation of education's place in the public sphere, and education as revolution and enlightenment.

"There are the years that come along once in a generation," writes President Barack Obama in his introductory message to his 2009 budget for the United States of America, "when we look at where the country has been and recognize that we need a break from a troubled past, that the problems we face demand that we begin charting a new path." This governmental report is Obama's comprehensive plan for moving past the "legacy of misplaced priorities" he inherited from the Bush administration in order to jumpstart the U.S. economy and invest for the nation's future. From the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Veteran Affairs, from the literally down-to-earth business of the EPA to the spacebound mission of NASA, here Obama lays out his concrete, pragmatic strategy to move American schools into the 21st century, improve health care while reducing it costs, repair crumbling infrastructure, and rebuild the American economy. Any American who wants to be informed about the most fundamental operations of the nation will want to study this important report. The United States OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET is a Cabinet-level office established in 1921 for the White House oversight of federal agencies. The OMB is currently headed by American economist PETER RICHARD ORSZAG (b. 1968).

In this collection of interviews, presidents and chancellors of some of America's most respected universities candidly reflect on their experiences during the decade leading up to the twenty-first century and immediately following it. This was a time of change and uncertainty, when opportunities for achievement and potential for failure made their role uncommonly challenging, and success called for considerable determination, integrity, foresight, skill, and courage. The American higher education system, often characterized as the best in the world, is distinguished for its scholarship as well as its accessibility. Its indispensable role as an engine for individual and societal economic advancement has made universities the targets of media interest, critical examination, and political manipulation. Higher education has become the passport to the American dream, and the percentage of those going to college has increased, challenging individual institutions and systems to accommodate growing numbers of aspiring students while searching for solutions to problems of inadequate college preparation and inadequate financial assistance for low-income students. Despite their increasing importance to the nation, the region, and their communities, public and private universities have seen states reduce their support to their state systems of higher education, shifting the responsibility to individuals and institutions. Leadership in Higher Education traces the careers of thirteen women and men who have presided over a total of twenty universities or university systems and three national organizations of higher education: Robert Berdahl, Myles Brand, Molly Corbett Broad, John T. Casteen III, Mary Sue Coleman, Norman C. Francis, Nils Hasselmo, Shirley Ann Jackson, Shirley Strum Kenny, William English Kirwan, Francis L. Lawrence, Charles M. Vest, and David Ward.