BEYOND THE SCHOOL
- Afterschool Education: Approaches to an Emerging Field by Gil G. Noam, Gina Biancarosa, and Nadine Dechausay (Harvard Education Press, 8 Story St., Fifth Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138; 120 pp., $21.95 paperback).
A guide that offers aid to existing after-school programs and a blueprint for the creation of new programs. Calling attention to the important issues and areas of debate in the field, the authors focus on three aspects of after-school education: bridging school to after-school; homework, or extended learning; and curricula. A wide range of current programs is presented, and the future of such programs explored. Concluding commentaries are written by educators and scholars such as Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Reed Larson, and Adriana de Kanter.
- Home, School, and Community Partnerships by Larry E. Decker and Virginia A. Decker (Scarecrow Press, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706; 256 pp., $42.95 cloth, $32.95 paperback).
Written to give educators, parents, and other community members a store of proven ideas for creating and sustaining home-school-community partnership programs, this how-to guide’s 10 chapters are augmented by Web site references and URLs for additional information.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
- Bringing Learning to Life: The Reggio Approach to Early Childhood Education by Louise Boyd Caldwell (Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027; 212 pp., $19.95 paperback).
Depicts the fundamental principles of the much-studied Italian preschool approach, as experienced in three St. Louis schools. Details on the functioning of these “real-life classrooms” include the assessment of student work, teacher collaboration, parent participation, the flow of the day, and the classroom environment. Written in a journal-style format, the book includes illustrations of children’s work and photographs of “Reggio-inspired” classrooms. Finally, the author relates her own visit to Reggio Emilia, Italy, and makes a connection to the St. Louis schools.
- Time to Care: Redesigning Child Care to Promote Education, Support Families, and Build Communities by Joan Lombardi (Temple University Press, University Services, 1601 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19122; 248 pp., $18.95 paperback).
A blueprint for improving the care of children in America written by the first associate commissioner of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Care Bureau, responsible for the nation’s child-care-assistance program. Concerned with both the quality of child care and its availability, the author advocates closing the gap between early-childhood education and child care by “taking advantage of the hours that children spend in care to encourage child and youth development” and by “creating a system of program and community supports to improve quality” in the field.
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES
- Battle Rock: The Struggle Over a One-Room School in America’s Vanishing West by William Celis (Public Affairs, 250 W. 57th St., Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107; 256 pp., $25 hardcover).
A journalism professor at the University of California who is a former New York Times education correspondent reports on the year he spent at a one-room schoolhouse in the Four Corners region of rural southwest Colorado. His tales from the 1999-2000 school year at the Battle Rock Charter School in McElmo Canyon, a K-6 school with 26 students and one teacher-principal, involve a clash of cultures that developed in this rural community as it experienced an influx of new residents from urban areas in the 1990s.
- No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine by Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt (Lantern Books, One Union Square West, Suite 201, New York, NY 10003; 270 pp., $17.95 paperback).
An insider’s view of the tragedy at Columbine High School, written (in collaboration with writer Rob Merritt) by former Columbine student Brooks Brown, who was a close friend of one of the teenage shooters, Dylan Klebold, and was told by the other, Eric Harris, to go home the morning of the shootings. He describes the high school as an antagonistic environment where bullying was rampant. He also relates the hostility that seemed to build up in the two boys as a result of the bullying, and describes the ways they expressed that anger prior to their rampage.
- Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (Scribner, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020; 408 pp., $25 hardcover).
A journalist, after 10 years of research and listening, gives an intimate account of an extended family living in the inner city. She tells of two young women’s coming of age and, in doing so, provides a glimpse into the lives of adolescents struggling to survive urban poverty and the social problems that can come with it, such as early motherhood, abuse, and incarceration.
TECHNOLOGY
- Cyber Spaces / Social Spaces: Culture Clash in Computerized Classrooms by Ivor F. Goodson, Michele Knobel, Colin Lankshear, and J. Marshall Mangan (Palgrave, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010; 172 pp., $69.95 cloth, $22.95 paperback).
An exploration of the push to integrate technology into classrooms that gives an overview of the competing perspectives, pro and con. The authors examine the responses of teachers, researchers, and policymakers to “technologizing” classrooms.
- How to Use the Internet in Your Classroom (Teachers Network, 285 W. Broadway, New York, NY 10013; pp. 96 pp., $18 paperback).
Written by teachers for teachers, this guide offers practical help for educators who need to learn to navigate and incorporate the Internet into their classrooms. Twenty-eight “net savvy” teachers contribute their own classroom materials, lesson plans, and helpful Web sites. Interviews with experts in the field are included.
- The Kids that ECOT Taught: The Pioneers of America’s E-Schooling Revolution by Bill Lager (EOS Publishing, Milligan Communications, 100 E. Broad St., Suite 1400, Columbus, OH 43215; 320 pp., $24.99 hardcover).
Describes the first year of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, the first statewide electronic K-12 charter school in the nation. Two voices tell the school’s story. The first is a collective voice, that of the 21 ECOT graduates who explain why their old schools weren’t succeeding and why ECOT is. The second voice belongs to Bill Lager, the author and also the founder of ECOT. He describes how and why he started the charter school and why it has succeeded when others like it have not.
- The Virtual High School: Teaching Generation V by Andrew Zucker and Robert Kozma (Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027; 162 pp., $44 hardcover).
A study of virtual-learning environments in U.S. precollegiate education, focusing on the virtual high school, or VHS. The authors provide a balanced view of virtual high school courses and programs, cataloging both the benefits and the disadvantages of learning across distance. They argue that the VHS model has not yet realized its full potential; it is, they say, a potential precursor to “distributed learning,” which “combines the best aspects of classroom interactions and distance education.”
- Visual Pedagogy: Media Cultures in and Beyond the Classroom by Brian Goldfarb (Duke University Press, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708; 270 pp., $54.95 cloth, $18.95 paperback).
An account of the applications of visual media in different educational settings during the past half-century. The author, a University of California, San Diego, professor and the former curator of education at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, argues that the educational roles of visual technology have yet to be fully realized or examined. He describes the “sweeping scope of technologically infused visual pedagogy” found in our classrooms, museums, and health clinics, and considers the effects of visual pedagogy in other parts of the world. An appendix of visual-media resources is included.
LAW
- The Constitution Translated for Kids by Cathy Travis (Oakwood Publishing, PO Box 403, Dayton, OH 45409; 86 pp., $12.95 paperback).
Written by the press secretary to U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Texas, this is described as the first-ever side-by-side, line-by-line translation of the U.S. Constitution for children. The left side of each page gives the original text of the Constitution; on the right-hand side is the author’s translation of the text into plain English. Includes proposed amendments, lessons, and a glossary. A separate workbook for teachers and parents is also available.
- Practical Education Law for the Twenty-First Century by Victoria J. Dodd (Carolina Academic Press, 700 Kent St., Durham, NC 27701; 340 pp., $40 paperback).
A professor of law describes the real-life issues that can confront education lawyers, school administrators, school board members, and teachers. Topics covered include: school finances, crime, basic labor law, charter schools, vouchers, injuries to students, athletics, the role of local and state school boards, and federal regulations. The author’s stated goal is “to concisely summarize the law in a given area, suggest trends and issues of concern, and provide practical advice to meet important legal and policy challenges.”
- The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide To the Constitution by Linda R. Monk (Hyperion, 77 W. 66th St., New York, NY 10023; 288 pp., $23.95 hardcover).
An award-winning writer and journalist presents an overview of the U.S. Constitution, going through the document line-by-line from the preamble to the amendments to help readers understand the variety of ways the Constitution has been interpreted. Historical background and anecdotes round out the text.
More information is available from the publisher or your local library or bookstore. These and other books can be ordered by calling (888) 887-3200, or at www.edweek.org/products/boo kshelf.htm
