For decades we've been studying, experimenting with, and wrangling over different approaches to improving public education, and there's still little consensus on what works and what to do. The one thing people seem to agree on is that schools need to be held accountable - we need to know whether what they're doing is actually working. But what does it mean in practice? High-stakes tests. Lots of them. And that has created a crisis in American schools....

"We can't do that in our school district." "I don't have time to add that to my curriculum." "We're fighting against impossible odds with these students." Sound familiar? School improvement can often feel like a losing battle, but it doesn't have to be. In this fully revised and updated second edition of The Learning Leader, Douglas B. Reeves helps leadership teams go beyond excuses to capitalize on their strengths, reduce their weaknesses, and reset...

The controversial author of "The Bell Curve" returns with a groundbreaking manifesto to transform American education. He presents the four simple truths that parents and educators should confront to precipitate change--that ability varies, that half of the children are below average, that too many people are going to college, and that America's future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. Real Education describes the technological and...

"In Achieving Equity and Excellence: Immediate Results From the Lessons of High-Poverty, High-Success Schools, author Douglas Reeves provides a methodology for change based upon identifying, recording, and replicating positive results in the readers' schools and communities. Dr. Reeves notes the need for immediate results and programs that are proven to work within readers' communities, as well as the urgent desire that educators have to create a...

The basis for a major documentary, two leading experts sound an urgent call for the radical reimagining of American education so we can equip students for the realities of the twenty-first-century economy. Today more than ever, we prize academic achievement, pressuring our children to get into the 'right' colleges, have the highest GPAs, and pursue advanced degrees. But while students may graduate with credentials, by and large they lack the competencies...

The author, writing on behalf of Hoover's Koret task Force on K–12 Education, presents a convincing case that, despite the controversy it has ignited, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law is making a positive difference and should be renewed. He outlines ten specific lessons and recommendations that identify the strengths and weaknesses of NCLB and offers suggestions for improving the law, building on its current foundation.

"In this revealing and thoughtful memoir, the former chancellor of the New York City schools offers the behind-the-scenes story of the city's dramatic campaign to improve public education and an inspiring blueprint for national reform. In 2002, New York City's newly elected mayor, Michael Bloomberg, began his first term with a controversial announcement: his administration had won control of the city's school system in a first step toward reversing...