Social Reform

More than any other institution in the country, Georgia State has overturned the assumption that poorer students are doomed to fail. Won't Lose This Dream describes how the architects of Georgia State's success harnessed the power of evolving data technologies, a "moneyball" strategy that helped them recognize and remove the obstacles that have held poor students back. Veteran journalist Andrew Gumbel uncovers the human stories behind these innovations, tracing real students as they realize lifelong dreams of graduating from college.

On the surface, Riverview High School looks like the post-racial ideal. Serving an enviably affluent, diverse, and liberal district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same unrelenting question that plagues schools throughout America: why is it that even when all of the circumstances seem right, black and Latino students continue to lag behind their peers?

Like all of us, though few so visibly, Alan Greenspan was forced by the financial crisis of 2008 to question some fundamental assumptions about risk management and economic forecasting. No one with any meaningful role in economic decision making in the world saw beforehand the storm for what it was. How had our models so utterly failed us? To answer this question, Alan Greenspan embarked on a rigorous and far-reaching multiyear examination of how Homo economicus predicts the economic future, and how it can predict it better.

The numbers are staggering: Over the past 20 years in Chicago, 14,033 people have been killed and another roughly 60,000 wounded by gunfire. What does that do to the spirit of individuals and community? Drawing on his decades of experience, Alex Kotlowitz set out to chronicle one summer in the city, writing about individuals who have emerged from the violence and whose stories capture the capacity - and the breaking point - of the human heart and soul. The result is a spellbinding collection of deeply intimate profiles that upend what we think we know about gun violence in America.

Over his decade and a half with the New York Police Department, Edwin Raymond consistently exposed the dark underbelly of modern policing, becoming the highest-ranking whistleblower in the history of the force and one of the country’s leading voices against police injustice. Offering a rare, often shocking view of American policing, An Inconvenient Cop pulls back the curtain on the many flaws woven into the NYPD’s training, data, and practices, which have since been repackaged and repurposed by police departments across the country.

In The Great Upheaval, Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt examine higher and postsecondary education to see how it has changed to become what it is today—and how it might be refitted for an uncertain future. Taking a unique historical, cross-industry perspective, Levine and Van Pelt perform a 360-degree survey of American higher education. The book looks objectively at the contexts in which higher education has operated—and will continue to operate. It also seeks to identify likely developments that will aid those involved in steering higher education forward.

Meaningful school reform starts with your most powerful partner—your students! When you take time to listen, you’ll find that students’ aspirations can drive your school toward exciting new goals—and when students know they’re being heard, they engage meaningfully in their own academic success. Using examples drawn from student surveys, focus groups, observations, and interviews, this groundbreaking book presents a blueprint for a successful partnership between educators and students.

Schools have long meant more than an education in America. Flawed, inequitable, underfunded, and segregated, they remain the most important engine of social mobility and the crucible of our democracy. The cost of closing them for so long during COVID, made with good intentions, has not been fully reckoned with. In The Stolen Year, Anya Kamenetz follows families across the country through the pandemic. She dives deep into the history that brought us to this point, making the case that 2020 wasn't a lost year—it was taken from our children by years of neglect and bad faith.

Efforts to address inequities within our schools tend to ignore the underlying beliefs that sustain injustices, and focus instead on short-lived policies and practices. This book takes a different approach to eradicating educational disparities. Drawing on more than 40 interviews with teachers, principals, and district leaders, Manya C. Whitaker offers educators guidance for leading a school or district grounded in social justice that centers teachers - not just teaching practices - and that focuses on the belief systems that shape decision-making.

In 1995, Karen Horwitz, aka the CHANGE EVERYTHING TEACHER, discovered our schools suffered from the 'Harvey Weinstein syndrome'—the powerful get their way no matter how wicked until someone finds the courage to expose them. She wrote a memoir to do to those running our schools what that brave actress who testified against Weinstein did. Listeners will learn why we have school shootings and how to end them and restore democracy. She names the corruption that transformed our schools from revered institutions to mere shells White Chalk Crime™ and reveals how it dismantled democracy.

Something basic is missing in our culture. Americans know it. Nothing much works as it should. Simple daily choices seem impossible, or fraught with peril. In the workplace, we walk on eggshells. Big projects get stalled in years of review. Endemic social problems such as homelessness become, well, more endemic. Everyday Freedom offers a radical reinterpretation of the corrosion of American culture.

Times are changing at Fairy Tale Reform School. At least that's what Gilly's heard. Rumor is that notorious trickster Rumpelstiltskin has taken over management from Headmistress Flora, and he's locked down the school tighter than the Pied Piper's pants. Not that this news concerns Gilly - she's been released from FTRS and is now suffering through attending Jack of All Trades School, where she gets to learn about different kinds of shoe leather and ways to measure feet (truly riveting stuff!).

In The Miseducation of America, Ralph Richard Banks, a Stanford Law Professor and founder of the Stanford Center for Racial Justice, argues that higher education has become a luxury good, accessible only to those who need and benefit least from the opportunity it offers.

In "Beyond the Classroom: Unconventional Education for a Changing World," author delves into the urgent need for a paradigm shift in education. With the world rapidly evolving, traditional classroom methods fall short in preparing students for the challenges ahead. Through meticulously researched chapters, the book explores the limitations of conventional education and the myriad benefits of embracing alternative approaches. From experiential learning to online platforms, apprenticeships to community-based initiatives, listeners discover diverse pathways to holistic education.

Do you have a nagging feeling that something’s missing from your church experience? You’re not alone. And it’s time to discover a better way. Church-reform advocate and Bible scholar Peter DeHaan, PhD, is a strong proponent of meaningful Christian community. In Jesus’s Broken Church, he uses Scripture to guide us into right practices and away from the off-track customs that most every church adheres to. The problem is that today’s church follows an Old Testament model.

Gilly and her friends are back at Fairy Tale Reform School - this time for vocational school! But when a new kid, Jack, gets thrown into FTRS for planting magic beans, Gilly realizes that something bad is brewing with the giants. Gilly and her friends know they need a plan to stop them, but delinquent Jack can't help but remind Gilly how good it feels to be bad. And with her sister still on the run with Rumpelstiltskin and seemingly involved with the giants, Gilly's going to have to make some big choices....

With big-time villains Rumpelstiltskin and Alva still on the loose and the citizens of Enchantasia on high alert, things at Fairy Tale Reform School have been a little...stressed. So when Maxine finds an old lamp that turns out to house an overly enthusiastic genie, she knows exactly what to do: wish for everyone to be happy! But her wish has some unexpected consequences. Suddenly, ex-villains are singing, trolls and ogres are getting along, and the whole school is more focused on putting on a musical than figuring out how to deal with Rumpelstiltskin.

Paola Mastrocola e Luca Ricolfi per la prima volta insieme in un libro per denunciare a due voci il paradossale e tragico abbaglio della scuola democratica, che, nata per salvare i più deboli, oggi di fatto ne annega le speranze. Due voci, di cui una lancia un’ipotesi e l’altra la raccoglie, provandola con la forza dei dati, testandola con modelli matematici e arrivando alla conferma. Sì, è così: una scuola facile e di bassa qualità allarga il solco fra ceti alti e ceti bassi. Un disastro, di cui rendere conto e chiedere scusa, ai ragazzi e alle loro famiglie.

In The Teacher Wars, a rich, lively, and unprecedented history of public school teaching, Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have been embattled for nearly two centuries. She uncovers the surprising roots of hot button issues, from teacher tenure to charter schools, and finds that recent popular ideas to improve schools—instituting merit pay, evaluating teachers by student test scores, ranking and firing veteran teachers, and recruiting “elite” graduates to teach—are all approaches that have been tried in the past without producing widespread change.

What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young Black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness? This collection of reports and essays explores police violence against Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures.