"Our Vintage reissue of Bel Kaufman's classic 1964 novel, which Time has called "the most popular book about U.S. public schools in history": narrated through a collection of memos, doodles, notes between teachers, and papers from desk drawers and wastebaskets, Up the Down Staircase timelessly depicts the shambolic joys and frustrations of a young teacher. With an introduction by Diane Ravitch. Sylvia Barrett arrives at New York City's Calvin Coolidge...

In this book, Sykes argues that the school wars of the 1990s will be the defining cultural and political debate of our time. While many parents bask in the glow of complacency about their own children's education, Dumbing Down Our Kids documents the collapse of standards in our schools, the flight from learning, and the triumph of mediocre, feel-good education that is more concerned with pumping up self-esteem than it is with passing on knowledge....

Earching for Hope is a gripping account of life in a once-great high school in a rough Indianapolis neighborhood. Granted unfiltered access to Manual High throughout an entire school year, award-winning journalist Matthew Tully tells the complex story of the everyday drama, failures, and triumphs in one of the nation's many troubled urban public high schools. He walks readers into classrooms, offices, and hallways, painting a vivid picture of the...

At a time when the need for intelligent school reform is urgent, when parents, educators, and policymakers wonder where to turn next. Ted Sizer offers a wise and eloquent assessment of what works - and what doesn't - in our schools. Abundant with graceful insights and with the candid stories of dedicated teachers, parents, and students. Horace's Hope will rekindle the spirit of all who hold an interest in our children's future. It is sure to become...

"Every year millions of students take Advanced Placement exams hoping to score enough points to earn college credit and save on their tuition bill. But are they getting a real college education? This book shows how the AP program originally aimed to replicate the liberal arts experience for bright students, but over time became a testing behemoth and marker of student status"--

The first generation of children born after Rwanda's 1994 genocide is just now reaching maturity, setting aside their school uniforms to take up adult roles in Rwandan society and the economy. At the same time, Rwanda's post-war government has begun to shrug off international aid as it pursues an increasingly independent path of business-friendly yet strongly state-regulated social and economic development. The Orderly Entrepreneur tells the story...

"In Ambitious and Anxious, the sociologist Yingyi Ma offers a multifaceted analysis of this new wave of Chinese students based on research in both Chinese high schools and American higher-education institutions. Ma argues that their experiences embody the duality of ambition and anxiety that arises from transformative social changes in China. These students and their families have the ambition to navigate two very different educational systems and...

"Based on two years of research at American High, Nice Is Not Enough shares striking dispatches from one high school's 'regime of kindness' to underline how the culture operates as a band-aid on persistent inequalities. Through incisive storytelling and thoughtful engagement with students, this brilliant study by C.J. Pascoe exposes uncomfortable truths about American politics and our reliance on individual solutions instead of profound systemic change....

In 1972 Lorene Cary, a bright, ambitious teenager from Philadelphia, went as a scholarship student to a formerly all-white, all-male (and still unapologetically elite) school in New Hampshire. She was determined to suceed--without selling out. This wonderfully frank and perceptive memoir describes the perils and ambiguities of that double role.