Social Reform

El COVID-19 ha confinado en un mismo espacio la vida personal y laboral. Sin embargo, de momento la mayoría estamos trabajando desde casa, algo muy distinto al teletrabajo. Nos hemos visto obligados a improvisar y hacer malabares entre el trabajo y lo demás, cosa que se complica cuando además debemos lidiar con el estrés y las preocupaciones o cuidar de la familia.

Digital durchgefallen, Umweltwissen mangelhaft, Zukunftskompetenz verbesserungswürdig: Unser Bildungssystem braucht dringend ein Update, das hat spätestens die Coronapandemie gezeigt. Die langjährige Schulleiterin Margret Rasfeld plädiert für regelmäßige Freiräume, in denen ein anderes Lernen erprobt werden kann und Schüler*innen eigene Projekte verfolgen. Das bereitet sie nicht nur deutlich besser auf die Arbeitswelt vor, sondern lässt sie auch erfahren, welches Können und welche Interessen in ihnen stecken. So sind aktuelle Themen nicht mehr Problem, sondern Programm.

Die Schüler:innen der sogenannten Brennpunktschule haben ein "Herz aus Gold" und den Mut, über sich selbst zu lachen. Doch in einer Gesellschaft, die vor allem die Energydrinks im Unterricht, die gefakten Gucci-T-Shirts und die Klassenbucheinträge von "denen" sieht, haben sie kaum Aufstiegschancen. Das Schulsystem zementiert stattdessen bestehende Ungleichheiten. Lisa Graf wird von den Kids in ihrem Klassenzimmer an ihren eigenen Bildungsweg erinnert, der alles andere als gradlinig verlief.

At a time when popular solutions to the educational plight of poor children of color are imposed from the outside, the acclaimed Algebra Project and its founder, Robert Moses, offer a vision of school reform based in the power of communities. Founded on the belief that math-science literacy is a prerequisite for full citizenship in society, the Project works with entire communities—parents, teachers, and especially students—to create a culture of literacy around algebra, a crucial stepping-stone to college math and opportunity.

Beyond These Walls is an ambitious and far-ranging exploration that tracks the legacy of crime and imprisonment in the United States, from the historical roots of the American criminal justice system to our modern state of over-incarceration, and offers a bold vision for a new future. Author Tony Platt, a recognized authority in the field of criminal justice, challenges the way we think about how and why millions of people are tracked, arrested, incarcerated, catalogued, and regulated in the United States.

In 2010, Scott Walker was elected governor of Wisconsin with a mandate to improve its economy and restore fiscal responsibility. With the state facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit, he proposed a series of reforms to limit the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, which was costing taxpayers billions in pension and health care costs. The reaction was swift and severe. Angry protesters gathered outside the capitol, teacher unions accused him of sabotaging education, and the media descended on Wisconsin to make it a national controversy.

A lively, clear explanation of the American healthcare reform movement from a noted expert - giving women the tools they need to demand fair and affordable coverage for all people. Founder and CEO of Day Health Strategies Rosemarie Day wants women to recognize their trouble with accessing affordable care as part of a national emergency. Day encourages women throughout the country to share their stories and get involved, and she illustrates how a groundswell of activism, led by everyday women, could create the incentives our political leaders need to change course.

In 2018, reporter Michael Hayes uncovered a major story about how the NYPD was not only turning a blind eye to police misconduct, but also allowing hundreds of officers with severe misconduct charges to remain on the force. In the aftermath of that story, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to reform the department only to abandon his plans. Hayes takes listeners inside decades of police corruption and controversial laws, chronicling the stories of the families and activists who have had enough.

Get ready to laugh. This is not a boring education book. With real world lessons and funny anecdotes listeners can connect with, Ian explains how families can win the battle to stop divisive and dangerous concepts rooted in critical race theory and other dangerous left-wing ideologies from spreading to their schools. He convincingly makes the case that the Left envisions a public education system in America where children are no longer the responsibility of their parents but rather mere wards of the state.

In From Reopen to Reinvent, distinguished education strategist Michael B. Horn delivers a provocative and eye-opening call to action for the overthrow of an education system that is not working well for any of its students. Grounded in what educators should build in its place to address the challenges that stem from widespread unmet learning needs, the book walks listeners through the design of a better path forward. It offers a prescriptive and holistic approach to the purpose of schooling, the importance of focusing on mastery for each student, and the ideal use of technology.

The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education confronts the silent ascendancy of a therapeutic ethos across the educational system and into the workplace. Controversial and compelling, the authors’ classic text uses a wealth of examples across the education system, from primary schools to university and the workplace, to show how therapeutic education is turning children, young people, and adults into anxious and self-preoccupied individuals rather than aspiring, optimistic and resilient learners who want to know everything about the world.

Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Messenger offers the first humane, journalistic expose of an American tragedy: modern-day debtor's prisons and how they've destroyed the lives of poor Americans.

Most Americans today see school choice as their inalienable right. In The Choice We Face, scholar Jon Hale reveals what most fail to see: school choice is grounded in a complex history of race, exclusion, and inequality. Through evaluating historic and contemporary education policies, Hale demonstrates how reframing the way we see school choice represents an opportunity to evolve from complicity to action.

In many US cities, gun violence is the most urgent crime problem. High rates of deadly violence make a city less livable, dragging down quality of life, economic development, and property values. How can police departments find the right balance between over- and under-policing of high-violence areas? What are the best practices for police to preempt and deter gun violence, while engendering support and cooperation from the public?

The safeguarding and child protection challenges in education have never been more complex, nor the legal duties on schools and colleges more stringent. The criminal and sexual exploitation of children, FGM, radicalization, and online safety are sadly all now part of the remit, as are self-harm and mental health issues. And these safeguarding challenges are found not only in urban communities but also in leafy suburbs and rural idylls throughout.

Teachers are the most important determinant of the quality of schools. We should be doing everything we can to help them get better. In recent years, however, a cocktail of box-ticking demands, ceaseless curriculum reform, disruptive reorganisations, and an audit culture that requires teachers to document their every move have left the profession deskilled and demoralised. Instead of rolling out the red carpet for teachers, we have been pulling it from under their feet. The result is predictable.

The digital environment has radically changed how and what students need and want to learn, but has educational delivery radically changed? Get ready to be challenged to accommodate today’s learners as opposed to allowing default classroom practices. With its touches of humor and choose-your-own-adventure approach, the audiobook encourages listeners to search for interesting, relevant or required material and then jump right in.

Future Minded: Preparing Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s Workplace delves deep into how students are being educated in a system created more than 100 years ago; a system that could not anticipate current or future jobs. The book emphasizes the intersection of education, workforce, and preparedness for the fourth industrial revolution.

Eine Streitschrift über die Missstände der Schulpolitik von der Stimme einer empörten Generation. Deutschlands ehemaliger oberster Schülersprecher Dario Schramm ist einer der schärfsten und profiliertesten Kritiker der Schulpolitik seit dem ersten Lockdown und klagt an: Wie kann es sein, dass Kinder und Jugendliche nicht nach ihren Bedürfnissen gefragt werden? Warum werden sie wenn überhaupt nur als allerletzte mitgedacht? Und wieso wird die Lufthansa mit einem Milliarden-Paket gerettet, während es an Schulen immer noch mit Luftfiltern und schnellem Internet hapert?

As a field, education has largely failed to learn from experience. Time after time, promising education reforms fall short of their goals and are abandoned as other promising ideas take their place. In Learning to Improve, the authors argue for a new approach. Rather than "implementing fast and learning slow," they believe educators should adopt a more rigorous approach to improvement that allows the field to "learn fast to implement well.