Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2015 - Social & Behavioral Sciences — Business, Management & Labor — Environmental Studies

Legions of school reformers advocate for and praise standards, measurement of student progress, and accountability.  Despite their best efforts, however, schools remain messy places, spaces where intuition and craft are as important as science.  Mehta (Harvard Graduate School of Education) has created a masterly overview of many fallacies chased by a generation of school reform policy shapers, exposing the difficulties in long-distance management.  In ten chapters, Mehta examines the allure of order, the struggle for control of schooling, the rationalization for top-down management, standards and accountability, federal and state educational policies, and the ultimate failure of most initiatives.  He suggests that the constant efforts to blame and scapegoat teachers for educations failures have prevented the development of a skilled, strong, and expert profession, which in turn limits the talent pool entering the field.  Concentrating on equipping teachers with relevant knowledge and better preparation, Mehta believes, would be a better tactic than continuously instituting accountability measures.  An excellent complement to Diane RavitchsReign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools (CH, Jun'14, 51-5720) or Larry CubansAs Good as It Gets: What School Reform Brought to Austin(CH, Oct'10, 48-1007).Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals and practitioners; general readers.

Many attempts at school reform have been made over the last half century.  Noddings (emer., Stanford Univ.) takes a particularly hard look at high schools, eschewing much of the current emphasis on test scores, rankings, and the economic earnings of graduates.  She is especially critical of a system that insists all children must take an academic program and then penalizes those who do not thrive.  Instead, she proposes a model that works at producing better adults and recognizes students with non-academic talents as well as those traditionally acknowledged.  Suggesting that schools work to ensure that their efforts touch upon all aspects of students lives, Noddings proposes instruction that encompasses childrens intellectual, physical, moral, spiritual, social, vocational, aesthetic, and civic needs.  Organized into 12 chapters, the book builds upon many of the foundations of educational philosophy, psychology, and curriculum.  The chapters explore unity of purpose; vocational programs; womens traditional interests; creating better adults; parenting; the Common Core State Standards; critical thinking; collegiality, caring, and continuity; curriculum and its setting; planning, enacting, and evaluating; teachers professional preparation; and reflecting on the brighter vision.  The book is brilliantly written throughout and comprehensive in scope.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals and practitioners; general readers.

With the proliferation of social media and its integration into the daily lives of children and adolescents, cyberbullying has become a critical issue in basic school safety.  Horowitz (a school district superintendent) and Bollinger (an attorney) offer a curated discussion examining the complexity of cyberbullying as a phenomenon and its effects on safety and quality of life for its victims.  The text guides the reader through a foundational examination of cyberbullying interactions and the potential detrimental effects on a person's educational, emotional, and physical well-being.  In addition, the authors review current legal aspects of cyberbullying across various states and the effects of cyberbullying on educational practices.  While the text is not intended to serve as definitive legal advice, the discussion offers a high-quality, jargon-free examination of this complex topic.  The text is highly recommended for current and future educators as well as associated professionalsincluding mental and medical health professionalsworking in all levels of education.  Additionally, the text is recommended for general readers interested in the topic.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; general readers.

This book by Carnes (Barnard College, Columbia Univ.) examines perpetual intellectual disengagement of students in higher education, dating back to Plato and moving through European/American higher education, and asks the question, "Why are we so bored with higher education?"  Desperate to bring life to his courses, Carnes took a bold chance and created role-immersion games through which his students could enter the worlds and times of the subjects being studied.  When students' investigative role-playing learning caused them to forget to leave at the end of class periods and they began to meet on Saturdays and Sundays to continue their experiences, Carnes and his fellow faculty and administration knew something revolutionary was happening.  The pedagogical innovation emerging from this initial endeavor, Reacting to the Past, has been adopted and adapted in over 300 higher education institutions around the world.  This book is a highly engaging and inspirational study of a "new" technique that just might change the way educators bring students to learning in the 21st century.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Based on his experiences leading two National Science Foundation grants, Coulter takes readers on an educational journey exploring the concepts and possibilities of place-based environmental education.  Carrying the torch for progressive education, Coulter worries that students are caught in a de-skilling teaching environment that seemingly transforms teachers, as well as students, into willing robots.  Though still supportive of the use of pre-structured environmental projects such as FeederWatch, Coulter has experienced firsthand the potential for learning when teachers model active curiosity and students take ownership of projects connected to their schools and communities.  The author's easy, engaging writing style highlights place-based education as an educational strategy, a students view of place-based education, how teachers approach their work in a place-based model of practice, and the impact on learning when students' experiences connect to their larger social environment.  Noteworthy is Coulters use of references throughout his book to lay the foundation along with the evidence-based research to support his findings and recommendations.  If leaders truly believe students are capable thinkers and doers, then leaders must reconsider the mechanistic approach to teaching that permeates todays classrooms as well as the typical curriculum in many teacher education programs.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.

The title alone makes this provocative book difficultnot to read, and the passion, brutal honesty, and keen perception McGill (former school superintendent; founder, Global Learning Alliance) brings to each page keeps readers engaged.  This brilliant analysis of corporate school reform provides readers with a wealth of information and insight to become more effectively involved in the future of public education.  Chapters include a frank discussion of the state of education, a brief history of educational reform, a sobering review of the testing wars, a look at the corporate reform agenda, the reality of charter schools, the need for faith in education, the missions of education for democracy, problems with teaching and teacher preparation, the need for an engaged learning community, and a view of the 21st-century school.  In the end, McGill recommends a balanced approach involving business leaders, elected officials, and educators coming together to recognize the shortcomings in the current puzzle of public education and to outline a clear vision for the future.  Finally, he encourages all citizens to champion an education that develops human potential, encourages a generous social ethic, and creates a better world"; a strategy of control and audit is no longer a viable solution.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Many teachers are so overwhelmed by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and evaluation systems tied to them that they feel unable to cover anything other than mandated curricula and test preparation.  To assist these practitioners, Beghetto, Kaufman, and Baer show how the CCSS can facilitate the processes and procedures that support creativity and innovation.  Their book is organized into six chapters: "Creativity and the Common Core," "Understanding Creativity in the Classroom," "Learning Environments that Support Creativity and the Common Core," and three final chapters that provide examples of creative lessons in English/language arts and mathematics as well as ways to promote creativity across the curriculum.  The authors use a series of vignettes to illustrate points and provide context for the suggestions made, and the book is clear, comprehensible, and coherent.  The authors explain the need to teach creativity and ways to do so, and the book provides a unique way to address these subjects with educators from a wide variety of experience levels and dispositions.  A marvelous complement toCreative Problem Solving(4th ed.), by Treffinger, Isaksen, and Stead-Dorval (2005) orThe Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, edited by Kaufman and Sternberg (CH, May'11, 48-5383).Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.

Increased academic pressures have forced many preschools and other programs for young children to engage in behaviors that those well versed in developmental appropriateness find troubling and ill-conceived.  Yet as mandates to demonstrate student learning increase, many practitioners are not quite sure what to do.  McNamee (Erikson Institute) has provided a masterful blueprint grounded in theory and practice for those preschool teachers, administrators, and researchers who want to create learning spaces in which children are successful and supported.  Organized into nine chapters, the book explores zones of proximal development, how acting out stories supports Common Core State Standards, ways to learn through stories, the introduction of storytelling and acting, changes in development, preparations for first grade, ways to stage stories, entry points for teachers, and classroom communities.  The book is rich with examples and anecdotes, and McNamee presents a cogent and compelling picture of preschool programs serving low socioeconomic status students who achieve equity and excellence.  A marvelous complement to Susan Burns, Richard Johnson, and Mona Assaf'sPreschool Education in Today's World: Teaching Children with Diverse Backgrounds and Abilities (2011) and Joan Smutny and Sarah von Fremd's Differentiating for the Young Child: Teaching Strategies across the Content Areas, PreK3(2009).Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals and practitioners; general readers.

Testing has become increasingly common in K12 schools over the past two decades; students face ever more tests, and the process begins earlier and for younger children.  With this book, Kamenetz (lead education blogger, National Public Radio) provides a readable, comprehensive overview of the historical background of testing, the policy considerations that have increased the occurrence of assessments, and problems this has caused.  The book is organized into two parts; Kamenetz first examines the problem and then explores solutions. The first part has three chapters: "Ten Arguments Against Testing," "The History of Tests," and "The Politics of Tests."  In the four chapters in part 2, Kamenetz examines opting out, the four teams, measuring what matters, and playing and winning the testing game.  Acknowledging the need for assessment and accountability while dismantling many of the myths introduced by testing companies, Kamenetz offers powerful arguments against high-stakes standardized testing and provides an impartial critique of the current obsession with testing.  This book constitutes a tremendous introduction to the field and is an excellent complement to Diane RavitchsThe Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education(CH, Nov'11, 49-1608).Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.

This excellent book examines the intentional and unintentional implications and consequences that high-stakes testing creates in American higher education.  Guinier (Harvard Law School) identifies the worst result as the rise of a smug, elitist meritocracy that benefits from what she labels the testocracy, or gate-keeping mechanism of entrance exams.  In the end, these testing gates circumvent the concepts of merit and benefit to society that the standards were originally intended to achieve.  Organized into two sections, Guinier's book addresses the blind adherence to standardized testing and the resulting elitism of "winners" in the first part, "The Problem."  In the second section, "The Solutions," she presents examples of educational institutions' tackling the deeper questions of how to build excellence and merit in students who collaborate and think in democratic ways to achieve success.  In place of the flawed meritocracy complex, the author suggests a system of democratic merit aimed at serving the goals of democracy by adding a layer of evaluation focused on candidates capacities to collaborate and think creatively.  The final two chapters move on to examine applied sociocognitive theory and redefine academic meritocracy in the context of American democratic meritocracy.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.