New Books: Education

This book discusses those who have privatized the schools: the Disrupters, who believe America's schools should be run like businesses, with teachers incentivized with threats and bonuses, and schools that need to enter into the age of the gig economy in which children are treated like customers or products. Ravitch lays out the facts showing that the ideas put forth by school privateers have failed; that their promises of higher test scores have not come to pass; that the "great hope" of Common Core has been a dud. And she shows that the Resisters are fighting back to successfully keep alive their public schools.

Race, Sports, and Education highlights the myriad ways in which organized collegiate sport has both positively contributed to and negatively detracted from the educational experiences of Black male college athletes. Specifically, John N. Singer examines the educational experiences, opportunities, and outcomes of Black males who have played NCAA Division I football and/or basketball at historically White colleges and universities. Singer crafts a valuable, nuanced account and points in the direction of reforms that would significantly improve the educational opportunities and experiences of these athletes.

This book is about what teachers need to know before they teach history to students of color. It is about the 'inside feel' of these students and what they think and say history is for, based on research in the United States. It gives history teachers a better understanding of why culturally relevant pedagogy, inclusion and issues surrounding diversity are of crucial importance if we are to reach these students. We need to make sure history educators provide necessary and appropriate scaffolding for students of color to better process what they learn in history lessons, making sure they are engaged in an equitable safe environment where they see and know that their diversities are respected and valued.

How do we fix the leaky educational pipeline into a conduit of success for Black males? That the issue is critical is demonstrated by the statistics that only 10% of Black males in the United States are proficient in 8th grade reading, only 52% graduate from high school within four years, and only 35 percent graduate from college. This book uniquely examines the trajectory of Black males through the educational pipeline from pre-school through college.

Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation's new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T. As Cathy N. Davidson argues in The New Education, this approach to education is wholly unsuited to the era of the gig economy. From the Ivy League to community colleges, she introduces us to innovators who are remaking college for our own time by emphasizing student-centered learning that values creativity in the face of change above all.

In Diversity Regimes, James M. Thomas uncovers a complex combination of meanings, practices, and actions that work to institutionalize universities' commitments to diversity, but in doing so obscure, entrench, and even magnify existing racial inequalities. Drawing on two years of ethnographic field work at Diversity University, a major, public flagship university in the American South, Thomas provides new insights into the social organization of multicultural principles and practices.

This book is written for everyone who has a stake in the health and well-being of American boys and adolescents. Mainly, though, this is a book for those who are committed to seeing all boys grow and thrive while avoiding what has been termed as toxic male culture. While this book largely focuses on understanding the roles that schooling and upbringing play on boys' development, it explores this complex topic with a clear belief that there are myriad factors that influence each boy's developmental trajectory and that there are many ways to promote healthy, prosocial development.

Learning to Connect explores how teachers learn to form meaningful relationships with students, especially across racial and cultural differences. To do so, the book draws on data from a two-year ethnographic study of No Excuses Teacher Residency (NETR) and Progressive Teacher Residency (PTR), and teachers that emerge from each program. Each program is characterized in rich complexity, with a focus on coursework relating to relationships and race, as well as fieldwork. The final part of the book explores how program graduates draw upon these experiences in their first year of full-time teaching.

Many of the campus initiatives that address the myriad needs of Millennial colleges students and their parents assume that this student population is homogeneous. This book explores the characteristics and experiences of Millennials from an array of perspectives, taking into account not only racial and ethnic identity but cultural, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status differences--all factors contributing to how these students interface with academe.

Based on the authors' extensive experience in a range of settings in the United States and Canada, the book addresses the most common stumbling blocks to understanding social justice. This comprehensive resource includes new features such as a chapter on intersectionality and classism; discussion of contemporary activism (Black Lives Matter, Occupy, and Idle No More); material on White Settler societies and colonialism; and pedagogical supports related to "common social patterns" and "vocabulary to practice using."