Handbooks for Educators and Parents – serie

Sloan explores the varied contours of the educational accountability movement that has swept the United States. He describes the historical origins and underlying assumptions of present day accountability measures, current issues surrounding accountability, relationships between the accountability and the standards movements, and the role of standardized testing in each of these movements, and provides a critical reading of the seemingly divided literature concerning the effects of accountability on public education.This volume also focuses on the implications of accountability measures on parents, families, and communities, including details of the varied efforts by grassroots organizations that have raised concerns over current accountability measures. While there has been a substantial amount of parent and community opposition to both state and national accountability policies, increasingly these organizations are offering suggestions for ways to make accountability measures better and more responsive to both community and student needs. The work concludes by offering valuable suggestions about improving, even strengthening accountability measures in ways that are more responsive and respectful of students, their families, and local communities.

This handbook is a resource for parents, community members, teachers, and administrators who want to make a difference in their urban schools. Breault and Allen provide a way for stakeholders to see the roles they can play in building civic capacity for change in urban schools and communities. It also offers critical background information to help stakeholders recognize the complexity and necessity of their efforts.The authors organized this book around the need for beginning, continuing, and enacting conversations to emphasize the need for stakeholders to build relationships with one another in order to advocate for and act on behalf of urban students and communities. While this book eschews prescriptive and simplistic solutions, it does offer ways in which stakeholders create and support an infrastructure for change in their schools and communities. For example, this book helps stakeholders navigate the bureaucracy of urban school districts, build collegial communities of inquiry within schools, develop systematic ways of gathering important data schools and communities, organize the energy and efforts of those who want to get involved, seek out, and utilize various resources, and then use the infrastructure of knowledgeable and collegial stakeholders to bring about change. The authors realize how daunting these challenges may seem for stakeholders who want to make a difference in their schools and communities. In response, they offer images of positive changes including schools, parent associations, and networking strategies used in urban communities today as glimpses of what is possible through hard work, collaboration, and an imaginative spirit.

This work offers parents, educators, and librarians a practical guide to discovering the ways gender identities are constructed through literacy practices, providing recommendations for addressing gender inequities in schools and in the community at large.Gender and Literacy: A Handbook for Educators and Parents focuses on issues related to the gendered experience of students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, promoting an understanding that the issues surrounding gender cannot be reduced to broad generalizations. Author Karen A. Krasny seeks to make clear the complex notion of gender construction within the context of redefining what constitutes legitimate literacy practices in schools.This handbook will help to guide educators, parents, and librarians by assisting them in the selection and evaluation of print and media resources. The first chapter explains the need to understand the complex relationship between gender and literacy. The bulk of the book provides readers with a critical review of the studies conducted to investigate gendered literacy practices, while the last three chapters focus on actionable strategies and policy making.

Addressing the issue from three perspectives: the student, the teacher, and also the parent or family member, this work provides background information, advice and resources about the causes and nature of school bullying along with strategies to address the behavior successfully. It utilizes both qualitative and quantitative evidence illustrating the impact bullying has upon the lives of families, students, and teachers. It provides case examples of the experiences of individual students, teachers, and parents. It concludes with a summary of key points and considerations in the development of interventions that tackle this varied form of behavior in school.Bullying: A Handbook for Educators and Parents offers a comprehensive exploration of the bullying within public schools, drawing upon research conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and Canada. It offers insights into the immediate and long-term impact bullying can have upon the lives of students, their families, and teachers. It offers parents useful tips for working proactively with school administrators to resolve bullying issues, and it provides teachers with materials that facilitate a better understanding of the social dynamics of the classroom, hallways, and playground. In addition, the handbook offers administrators a quick, no-nonsense guide to recent state and federal statutes, directives, and legislation relating to bullying and antisocial behavior in grades K-12.The book is divided into four sections providing a review of research on bullying behavior and an understanding of the dynamics of the classroom through the media of sexual bullying, homophobic bullying, and the challenges faced by parents of students who have special needs. Guidance is offered on the immediate and long-term effects of bullying and ways in which parents can engage proactively with schools to ensure that their child is supported in finding a way out. Finally, the authors ask key questions that parents and educators should consider when working to stop bullying in schools.

Designed to meet the needs of parents and general educators, this work is based on the many questions heard from teachers, families, and school administrators who are working with special needs children in regular classrooms. A general section reviews the situation overall, including an explanation of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP), which serves as the blueprint for educating the special needs student. A second section is specifically for teachers, which includes information on instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse students. In addition, there are specific Tips for Teachers that provide practical advice. A third section is for parents and includes ways for families to advocate for their child. Tips for Parents provides practical information for working with children, teachers, and schools. This handbook gives a school or family the basics and more for successfully integrating a special needs child into all facets of school life.In 1997 the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) was passed, which ensured that all children with special needs have a right to education in the least restrictive environment. Designed to meet the needs of parents and general educators, this work is based on the many questions heard by teachers, families and school administrators who are working with special needs children in regular classrooms. A general section reviews the situation overall including an explanation of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP), which is the blueprint for educating special needs students. A second section is specifically for teachers, which includes information and instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse students. Additionally. there are Tips for Teachers that provide practical advice. A third section for parents includes ways for families to advocate for their child. Tips for Parents includes practical ways to work with children, teachers, and schools. This handbook gives families and schools the basics and more for successfully integrating the special needs child into all facets of school life.