Book Description
Well researched and applied, this best-seller enables school officials to communicate effectively with their staff and the community to improve school quality and student learning.
The authors continue to teach, research and work extensively with school administrators. This book not only tells "why" but "how" to communicate to create a supportive environment where students learn better. Focusing on every audience a school administrator will encounter, this book offers sound advice that is field tested and successful.
For anyone interested in school public relations and school-community relations.
Customer Reviews:
The School and Community Relations.......2005-09-30
My order came right on time! Just like it said that it would. The book was in excellent condition. It was neatly wrapped and packed for safety. I will shop here again in the near future.
J. Smith
Cedar Hill, Texas
Book Description
This book is a departure from the traditional school public relations text. It not only provides a solid conceptual and research base in public relations for school leaders, it also demonstrates how these concepts can be practically implemented and put to good effect in the school systems.
Exercises and concepts are drawn from school life. Concepts are presented, developed, and applied. Case studies that conclude most chapters are based on actual experiences.
For anyone interested in public relations and the politics of education.
Customer Reviews:
Practical textbook.......2000-07-08
Public Relations for School Leaders is a useful combination of theory and practice. The authors dicuss public relations in the broader sense of building a sense of community both within and without the school itself. They use the case study technique to present practical applications, and the case studies are quite well done. The authors do not always distinquish clearly between a case study and a secton called administrative practice, but that presents no real problem to the student or the teacher.
The final two chapters on building a community relations plan are overly technical and too complicated. However, overall, this is a well written text which will be of use in a graduate program for school administrators.
Book Description
This book emphasizes public relations in public schools as an integral administrative function. With leading scholars in both school administration and public relations as contributors, it effectively achieves a balance between theory and practice. Adds a new chapter on public opinion and policy. A program model and actual PR plans. Exclusive focus on K-12 schools. For educators and school administrators, or anyone interested in school and community relations.
Book Description
Why is it so difficult to design and implement fundamental educational reform in large city schools in spite of broad popular support for change? How does the politics of race complicate the challenge of building and sustaining coalitions for improving urban schools? These questions have provoked a great deal of theorizing, but this is the first book to explore the issues on the basis of extensive, solid evidence. Here a group of political scientists examines education reform in Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., where local governmental authority has passed from white to black leaders. The authors show that black administrative control of big-city school systems has not translated into broad improvements in the quality of public education within black-led cities. Race can be crucial, however, in fostering the broad civic involvement perhaps most needed for school reform.
In each city examined, reform efforts often arise but collapse, partly because leaders are unable to craft effective political coalitions that would commit community resources to a concrete policy agenda. What undermines the leadership, according to the authors, is the complex role of race in each city. First, public authority does not guarantee access to private resources, usually still controlled by white economic elites. Second, local authorities must interact with external actors, at the state and national levels, who remain predominantly white. Finally, issues of race divide the African American community itself and often place limits on what leaders can and cannot do. Filled with insightful explanations together with recommendations for policy change, this book is an important component of the debate now being waged among researchers, education activists, and the community as a whole.
Download Description
Why is it so difficult to design and implement fundamental educational reform in large city schools in spite of broad popular support for change? How does the politics of race complicate the challenge of building and sustaining coalitions for improving urban schools? These questions have provoked a great deal of theorizing, but this is the first book to explore the issues on the basis of extensive, solid evidence. Here a group of political scientists examines education reform in Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., where local governmental authority has passed from white to black leaders. The authors show that black administrative control of big-city school systems has not translated into broad improvements in the quality of public education within black-led cities. Race can be crucial, however, in fostering the broad civic involvement perhaps most needed for school reform. In each city examined, reform efforts often arise but collapse, partly because leaders are unable to craft effective political coalitions that would commit community resources to a concrete policy agenda. What undermines the leadership, according to the authors, is the complex role of race in each city. First, public authority does not guarantee access to private resources, usually still controlled by white economic elites. Second, local authorities must interact with external actors, at the state and national levels, who remain predominantly white. Finally, issues of race divide the African American community itself and often place limits on what leaders can and cannot do. Filled with insightful explanations together with recommendations for policy change, this book is an important component of the debate now being waged among researchers, education activists, and the community as a whole.
Book Description
This book demonstrates how educators can use children's work to communicate what is being learned in early childhood and elementary school classrooms. Extending the work begun in Windows on Learning: Documenting Young Children's Work, this new book combines Judy Helm's experience with documentation and Amanda Helm's expertise in marketing and public relations to provide the tools educators need to present powerful evidence other than test scores that children are learning. Part I explains the need for school personnel to communicate more effectively and examines how professional strategies can make a difference. Part II presents seven strategies for implementing more effective professional communication. Part III is a handbook of resources on communication techniques.
Book Features:
* Strategies from the communication field to help teachers and administrators process, display, publish, and share documentation of children's work with parents and other members of the community.
* Demonstrations of how the strategies and methods are used in real classrooms and schools—including interviews with teachers, administrators, and parents; examples of children's work; photographs; and a full-color insert.
* Examples of communication pieces used by schools and childcare centers to disseminate information about what children are learning.
Book Description
This book contains 158 speeches for the professional educator on virtually every subject related to education, all ready to use "as is" or adapt to the occasion.
Amazon.com
Few have studied the issue of charter schools for as long or as closely as Chester E. Finn Jr., Bruno V. Manno, and Gregg Vanourek. The product of several years of analysis and detailed case studies, Charter Schools in Action is a comprehensive look at the various laws, policies, and personalities that make up this fledgling reform effort. Parents, teachers, policymakers, and especially potential charter school owners will find the information invaluable. In fact, Finn, Manno--both former U.S. secretaries of education--and Vanourek have so thoroughly documented their research that the book threatens at times to bury the reader beneath a mass of facts, figures, and graphs. Still, this is no dry tome. Interviews with superintendents and school owners are combined with detailed features of schools, students, and parents, many of which paint a rosy portrait of the program. There is no mistaking the enthusiasm and passion these men share for charter schools--they contend that they are one of the last hopes for renewing public education, and they want them to succeed. They do their best to dispel negative notions of the program, such as the complaint that they tend to underserve disabled children and that they rob funds from traditional public schools. And when they do point out problems, they also offer prescriptions for healthy change, arguing, for example, for better accountability and a built-in system of checks and balances. Charter Schools in Action is simply a must for anyone who seeks a solid understanding of the subject. --Jodi Mailander Farrell
Book Description
Can charter schools save public education? This radical question has unleashed a flood of opinions from Americans struggling with the contentious challenges of education reform. There has been plenty of heat over charter schools and their implications, but, until now, not much light. This important new book supplies plenty of illumination.
Charter schools--independently operated public schools of choice--have existed in the United States only since 1992, yet there are already over 1,500 of them. How are they doing? Here prominent education analysts Chester Finn, Bruno Manno, and Gregg Vanourek offer the richest data available on the successes and failures of this exciting but controversial approach to education reform. After studying one hundred schools, interviewing hundreds of participants, surveying thousands more, and analyzing the most current data, they have compiled today's most authoritative, comprehensive explanation and appraisal of the charter phenomenon. Fact-filled, clear-eyed, and hard-hitting, this is the book for anyone concerned about public education and interested in the role of charter schools in its renewal.
Can charter schools boost student achievement, drive educational innovation, and develop a new model of accountability for public schools? Where did the idea of charter schools come from? What would the future hold if this phenomenon spreads? These are some of the questions that this book answers. It addresses pupil performance, enrollment patterns, school start-up problems, charges of inequity, and smoldering political battles. It features close-up looks at five real--and very different--charter schools and two school districts that have been deeply affected by the charter movement, including their setbacks and triumphs. After outlining a new model of education accountability and describing how charter schools often lead to community renewal, the authors take the reader on an imaginary tour of a charter-based school system.
Charter schools are the most vibrant force in education today. This book suggests that their legacy will consist not only of helping millions of families obtain a better education for their children but also in renewing American public education itself.
Download Description
Can charter schools save public education? This radical question has unleashed a flood of opinions from Americans struggling with the contentious challenges of education reform. There has been plenty of heat over charter schools and their implications, but, until now, not much light. This important new book supplies plenty of illumination. Charter schools--independently operated public schools of choice--have existed in the United States only since 1992, yet there are already over 1,500 of them. How are they doing? Here prominent education analysts Chester Finn, Bruno Manno, and Gregg Vanourek offer the richest data available on the successes and failures of this exciting but controversial approach to education reform. After studying one hundred schools, interviewing hundreds of participants, surveying thousands more, and analyzing the most current data, they have compiled today's most authoritative, comprehensive explanation and appraisal of the charter phenomenon. Fact-filled, clear-eyed, and hard-hitting, this is the book for anyone concerned about public education and interested in the role of charter schools in its renewal. Can charter schools boost student achievement, drive educational innovation, and develop a new model of accountability for public schools? Where did the idea of charter schools come from? What would the future hold if this phenomenon spreads? These are some of the questions that this book answers. It addresses pupil performance, enrollment patterns, school start-up problems, charges of inequity, and smoldering political battles. It features close-up looks at five real--and very different--charter schools and two school districts that have been deeply affected by the charter movement, including their setbacks and triumphs. After outlining a new model of education accountability and describing how charter schools often lead to community renewal, the authors take the reader on an imaginary tour of a charter-based school system.
Customer Reviews:
Charter School Primer.......2003-08-16
I found this to be a very helpful book as an education law student studying the construction of charter schools from a legal perspective. The authors do a good job of presenting facts and issues in a balanced manner. A fine editing job was done to avoid the pitfall of the work being completely entrenched by the writers' perspectives. This is a very thorough introduction for those not familiar with the charter school model or why it came to be. The writing is clear and succinct. MOst significantly, I actually ENJOYED reading this book as I found it to be a captivating read regarding a topic which has potential to be soporific.
A book from the leader in Charter Schools.......2003-03-14
For the past 20 years, Chester Finn has been a behind the scenes and in some cases, in front of the crowd leader for most of the great education reforms that have occurred in the past 20 years. Having had the great fortune to be one of Finn's students at Vanderbilt many years ago, I have had a chance to read the plethora of great books and articles that Finn has published. This is another in that series. Don't just buy this book and The Educated Child (which apparently is a huge bestseller) go back and buy all his books. Finn is a great academic who is blessed with an ability to communicate to the common person.
Finn may talk about the education that children receive but he is the best educator a parent can ever find. We are expecting our first grandchild in a few weeks and I want my daughter to read every book that Professor Finn has written. It will ensure the success of my grandchild's future.
Don McNay...
High on idealism, low on the realistic problems of the model.......2002-07-13
The Charter School model is perilously close to the idea of both ad-hoc home schooling and the distasteful voucher system now championed by many powerful groups and individuals who also seem delighted by the Charter model. Both the Charter and voucher approaches operate in two problematic ways: 1) They help further underfund already strapped inner city and rural public schools and 2) They most often shortchange teachers in the process. A third, and even more frightening threat is that these schools will soon be subject to the same ideological restrictions as the public school system (with its cruel zero-tolerance policies for both mischievous juvenile behavior and free, unregulated inquiry).
In a democracy, one is already free to start one's own independent school. There are many routes to funding such schools without picking the pockets of the much larger public school system or coming under the aegis of public school boards and their often petty bureacratic control of ideological content and democratic free inquiry. A true alternative school must come up with truly democratic and alternative means of funding. Just as there "is no such thing as a free lunch," (or perhaps their days are numbered
) there is no easy road to creating democratic alternatives for young people, particularly those who are at risk in one way or another. It takes work, commitment, and also a fundamental respect for the students and teachers who actually make the school exist and work.
From what I have read (including some horror stories of schools simply shut down by those in real authority), I cannot believe the Charter model is the right way to go. If you wish to create an independent alternative, our democracy already gives one the right to do so. To raise money by raiding the pockets of public schoolchildren and teachers is simply untenable. In a real independent alternative school, there are often teachers who sometimes are willing to work for less (for a time), but they do so entirely by force of their own idealism. At the end of the day, everyone wishes and deserves to be accorded their fair share.
RM, Ph.D.
Idealistic vision but not likely..........2001-06-03
Chester Finn's new book is said to be the best book on charter schools yet written. And in many respects, it is. He and his two co-authors have packed in statistics and numbers, and they have reported interesting interviews and sidebars from persons who have started or implemented charter schools. They remain upbeat about the ultimate outcome of charter schools, and believe that by the year 2010 we will have witnessed a proliferation of school choice in America.
I love their optimism, and I wish I could be so optimistic, too. Finn and his colleagues believe the unions will eventually accommodate to the charter schools and quit trying to kill them with thousands of small cuts. They believe that charter schools, which exemplify American inventiveness and determination, will survive the non-existent capital funding, which prevents them from building and owning their own facilities. (You do not have to have a MBA to figure out that charter school rents are paid from lower teachers' salaries.) They even believe that charter schools will eventually force, by market competition, the public schools to change.
I cannot see exactly why the unions will quit their attacks, why public authorities will open the capital facilities question, or how charter schools will avoid massive re-regulation (as in special education or bilingual education).
For these reasons, then, I think Finn and his colleagues are persuasive idealists, but I am not persuaded. Even 3,000 charter schools across the country will not change the face of public education in America. Only when parents receive vouchers will there really be a free-market change. Charter schools are just the way-station. Not bad ones, but not the revolutionary change that Finn imagines.
GREAT reading, for both newbies and old pros!.......2001-05-15
As a strong believer in charter schools, and even more as a parent of a kindergartner who attends a back to basics charter school currently in its fifth year of operation, I chose this book to learn more about this nationwide phenomenon.
This is a book that I would recommend to anyone looking for the most basic information, for anyone interested in starting a charter, or for those who would just like more background.
The authors began gathering their information for a research project, and three and a half years later, ended up with this book. It is packed full of details in an easy to follow and informative manner. Following a brief introduction, subsequent chapters are logically arranged. If reading the whole book is not for you, you can easily find what you are looking for. It also contains about 2 dozen tables and short surveys, if you enjoy this sort of thing.
A number of things I particularly liked: 1) the 5 "field trips" where the authors visited 5 different charter schools--small/large, urban/suburban, progressive/traditional, profit/non-profit, and even a "virtual" (online) school; 2) the way the book is written, not so much in a textbook manner (which would have been boring); 3) the detailed comparisons between different state laws, which can make or break the charter schools.
I do have the impression that the authors are pro-charter, although they listed plenty of negatives and accurately presented both sides of all issues. However, I may be reading into it my own favoritisms.
Overall, a good, strong book that I'm glad I picked up.
Book Description
Is your school or district facing increased competition, diminishing resources, changing demographics, media scrutiny, and declining employee retention?
How to Market Your School is a comprehensive guide that provides school administrators with the essential tools to create a positive public image; attract students, qualified personnel, and volunteers; and build community support through a strategic marketing effort. Author Johanna Lockhart draws on her extensive marketing and public relations experience to cover topics such as:
- School marketing: What it is and why it matters
- Developing a marketing strategy
- Marketing research and database marketing
- Marketing and electronic communication
- Media relations
- Building community partnerships
- Public relations and much more
Although originally intended for public school administrators, How to Market Your School is equally valuable to private and charter schools. It will help principals, assistant principals, business managers, and district administrators apply the knowledge and tools used successfully in the private sector to organize, implement, and maintain an integrated marketing program to achieve their particular goals. Lockhart presents the fundamentals of integrated marketing in clear and concise terms and uses actual case studies to illustrate each aspect of successful school marketing.
Book Description
Adequacy lawsuits have, with little fanfare, emerged as a major alternative strategy in the pursuit of improved public education in the United States. Plaintiffs allege insufficient resources to provide students with the quality of education promised in their state's constitution, hoping the courts will step in and order the state to increase funding levels. Since 1985, more than thirty states have faced such suits. How pervasive--and effective--is this trend? What are its ramifications, in local school districts and on a broader scale? This important new book addresses those questions.
In School Money Trials, thoughtful contributors consider this growing phenomenon from several different viewpoints. For example, they investigate the legal theory behind adequacy lawsuits, examining how courts have interpreted the education clauses in state constitutions. Education policy analyst Frederick Hess looks at the politics of implementing adequacy judgments. Research by Christopher Berry finds that the adequacy movement has not yet resulted in broad changes in school funding. Andrew Rudalevige and Michael Heise address how the No Child Left Behind Act and adequacy lawsuits affect one another. And according to authors Matthew Springer and James Guthrie, adequacy litigation has more fully politicized the process of cost modeling in school finance.
This is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the adequacy lawsuit, a topic of increasing importance in a controversial area of public policy that touches virtually all Americans. It will be of interest to readers engaged in education policy debates and those concerned about the power of the courts to make policy rather than simply to enforce it.
Books:
- School Counseling: Foundations and Contemporary Issues
- Single-Case Designs for Educational Research
- Structural Equation Modeling With AMOS: Basic Concepts, Applications, and Programming (Multivariate Applications Series)
- Successful Woman's Guide to Working Smart: 10 Strengths that Matter Most
- Take Back Your Life! Special Edition: Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized (Bpg-Other)
- The Adult Learner, Sixth Edition: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development
- The Best 361 Colleges, 2007 Edition (College Admissions Guides)
- The Bible and Its Influence, Student Text (Bible Literacy Project) (Bible Literacy Project) (Bible Literacy Project)
- The Coaching at Work Toolkit
- The Economic Way of Thinking (10th Edition)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
- Gaap 98: Interpretation and Application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles 1998
- Peter and the Wolf
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- Cpa Comprehensive Exam Review: Business Law & Professional Responsibilities/1997-1998
- Numbers Guide: The Essentials of Business Numeracy, Fifth Edition
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General
| Education
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders (4th Edition)
Human Resources Administration in Education: A Management Approach (8th Edition)
American Public School Law
SuperVision and Instructional Leadership: A Developmental Approach (7th Edition)
The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership (Jossey-Bass Teacher)
