Resources | Coalition of Essential Schools

The Big Picture: Education is Everyone's Business By Dennis Littky with Samantha Grabelle (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 230 pages, $26.95) BUY NOW!reviewed by Jill Davidson Elias, my four-year old son, is crazy about... December 16, 2004 by Jill Davidson - Small Learning Communities

Go to the Source: More about the Schools and Organizations Featured in this Issue The Antioch Center for School Renewal Antioch University New England 40 Avon Street Keene, New Hampshire 03431-3516 telephone: 603.283.2301 email: ACSR@antiochne.edu... July 22, 2008

The Long Haul: An Autobiography The Long Haul, one of our all-time favorite books, is an auto-biography of Myles Horton, who, through his High-lander Folk School in New Market, Tennessee, helped train Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa... March 11, 2003 by Myles Horton - Curriculum, Essential Questions

Three Views of Lincoln Table of Contents: Introduction Focusing the Snapshot The First Lens: What is Authentic Work? The Search for Authentic Work in the Public Safety Magnet Student Reactions to the... June 10, 2002 by Neill Wenger, Laraine Hong, Robert Hampel - The Change Process

Don't Forget to Write: 54 Enthralling and Effective Writing Lessons for Students 6-18 Don't Forget to Write: 54 Enthralling and Effective Writing Lessons for Students 6-18 (826 Valencia, 224 pages, $25.00) reviewed by Jill Davidson 826 Valencia provides drop-in tutoring centers,... September 12, 2006 by Jill Davidson

Where to Go For More: Resources for Essential Schools to Make the Most of Inclusion LD Online LD Online is a big tent, providing deep and broad resources for people with disabilities and their parents, educators, and friends. Its comprehensive offerings, mostly focused on the... August 15, 2005 - Classroom Culture

Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching: A Resource Guide for the K-12 Classroom By Deborah Menkart, Alana D. Murray and Jenice L. View (Teaching for Change and Poverty & Race Research Action Council, 576 pages, $29.99) BUY NOW! Reviewed by Jill Davidson A teacher friend... August 15, 2005 by Jill Davidson - Curriculum

Can We Talk about Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation Can We Talk about Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation by Beverly Daniel Tatum (Beacon Press, 168 pages, $22.95) Beverly Daniel Tatum argues that we must talk about... March 05, 2008 by Jill Davidson

Collaborative Teacher Leadership: How Teachers Can Foster Equitable Schools Collaborative Teacher Leadership: How Teachers Can Foster Equitable Schools, by Martin L. Krovetz and Gilberto Arriaza (Corwin Press, 216 pages, $29.95) While Collaborative Teacher Leadership... June 23, 2008 by Jill Davidson

Katrina Volunteer From July 10 to July 31, 2006, I went to New Orleans as a volunteer with a non-profit organization called People’s Organizing Committee (POC). This organization’s main goal was to get the... March 27, 2008 by Julius Rainey - Instruction, Student-as-worker

Searching for Coherence “For every complicated problem, there is a solution that is direct, understandable, and wrong.” – H. L Mencken We have overwhelming data that while our nation’s high schools serve... February 15, 2008 by Rick Lear - Community Collaboration

How Much Is Learned When We’re Not Looking: The Promise of CES Elementary Schools In the mid-1980s, I discovered the soon-to-be-Coalition of Essential Schools as I was contemplating starting a secondary school in East Harlem, a follow-up to our successful little network of... February 21, 2008 by Deborah Meier - Instruction

One Instructor’s Quest for a Collaborative Professional Culture With a B.S. in math but no prior math education training, my first job as a math teacher was at an alternative charter school with a holistic mission. I was charged with teaching math to five groups... March 04, 2008 by Jimmy Frickey - Classroom Culture

Addendum: Parker Charter Essential School’s Wellness Program Wellness is an integrated curriculum combining aspects of traditional health classes with physical education, games, fitness skills and other mind-body connection skills. The goals of the Wellness... July 22, 2008

Nation Building: Out with the Old and In with the New Imagine, if you will, that you are a citizen of a small nation. Now this nation has been trudging along through the years, its citizens coming and going, most of them not angered, but never truly... March 25, 2008 by Michael Sawyer - Instruction, Student-as-worker

My Educational Activism Yarmouth High School (YHS) may look like an ordinary brick high school with parking spaces in the front, the American flag waving by the front door, and the flocks of kids waiting for the buses in... March 25, 2008 by Emma Brightbill - Instruction, Student-as-worker

Spotlights on Community-Based Learning: The Center for Technical Education and Wildwood School By most measures, the Center for Technical Education in Leominster, Massachusetts and the Wildwood Secondary School in Los Angeles seem to be vastly different sorts of schools: public, East coast,... April 03, 2008 by Jill Davidson - Community Collaboration

Sidebar: Anzar High School's Habits of Mind Evidence: What do I know and how do I know it? What are all the choices? Show the evidence. Perspective: What are the biases-mine and others? What do I already know from my past... September 12, 2006 - Learning Structures

Coaching as a Transformative Force At schools that align with the Common Principles, there’s often a palpable sense of high expectations, personalization, and the purpose of school as a place for students to use their minds well. As... February 19, 2008 by Shug Brandell - Community Collaboration

The Coalition of Essential Schools Announces “It’s Elementary” a PreK-8th Grade National Initiative In March 2006, Deborah Meier asked Harmony Education Center (HEC) in Bloomington, Indiana to lead a national effort to engage more pre-kindergarten through eighth grade schools across the country in... February 22, 2008 by Steve Bonchek - Community Collaboration

Interview with Anna Le, Life Academy Graduate Anna Le, a graduate of Life Academy, actively participated on the school's design team during its transition to an autonomous small school. In conversation with Laura Flaxman, Le shares her insights... July 06, 2004 by Laura Flaxman - The Change Process, Democratic Practice, Keeping The Vision

Excerpt from First in the Family: Advice About College from First-Generation Students Supporting first-generation students not only to get into college but stay and finish interrupts negative generational patterns in powerful ways. The National Center for Education Statistics reports... September 12, 2006 by Kathleen Cushman

The Literacy You Get Is Equal to the Culture You Create Why do you need to read another article on literacy? Haven’t we been through all this before—in one corner, the argument to structure students’ reading and writing strictly, and in the other,... June 23, 2008 by Ann Cook, Phyllis Tashlik

Go to the Source: More about the Essential Schools Featured in this Issue Schools Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center Post Office Box 1770 2750 Notaiah Road Estes Park, Colorado 80517 phone: 970/586-0600 www.eaglerockschool.org Federal Hocking... June 23, 2008

The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear edited by Paul Rogat Loeb (Basic Books, 422 pages, $15.95) reviewed by Jill Davidson Sometimes I pick up a... September 12, 2006

The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education By Theodore Sizer (Yale University Press, 160 pages, $23.00) BUY NOW! reviewed by Jill Davidson At The Red Pencil’s start, Ted Sizer—founder and chairman emeritus of the Coalition of... December 16, 2004 by Jill Davidson - Community Collaboration

Horace Talks with Warren Simmons: "Smart Districts" Horace editor Jill Davidson spoke with Dr. Warren Simmons, Executive Director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Established at Brown University in 1993 as an outgrowth of the work of the... November 28, 2005 by Jill Davidson - Democratic Practice, Keeping The Vision

Why I Am a Strong Believer in My School My name is Nnamdi Nwaezeapu. I am currently an eighth grader attending Capital City Public Charter School. Capital City (CCPCS) was established in the fall of 1999 and revolutionized the way that... March 25, 2008 by Nnamdi Nwaezeapu - Instruction, Student-as-worker

Meaningful Learning for the “Real World” For many teenagers, school is just school; a place to go and learn about numbers and things that happened way before we were born and nothing more. But for me, school is something that holds much... March 27, 2008 by Tina Cassidy - Instruction, Student-as-worker

Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools By Deborah Meier, Theodore R. Sizer and Nancy Faust Sizer (Beacon Press, 192 pages, $23.00) BUY NOW! reviewed by Jill Davidson It’s nearly impossible to overestimate how many fully loaded... December 16, 2004 by Jill Davidson - Family Collaboration

On the Road Again: Field Research in a Rural Elementary School At 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, the school parking lot is full. The yellow school bus labeled “Marlboro School District” sits with doors open. Parents and students mill around and bring... February 22, 2008 by Francie Marbury - Instruction

On the Road to Renewal Table of Contents: Introduction A Brief Description of Marshall Focusing the Snapshot The Context of Marshall High School Early Stages of Restructuring Violence: A Challenge... June 11, 2002 by Richard Clark, Janet Miller, Neill Wenger - The Change Process

Eleven Structural Guidelines for Small Schools Concerned with Equity Schools in the Small Schools Incubator, sponsored by Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, Oakland Community Organizations and the Oakland Unified School District, use... July 30, 2002 - Community Collaboration, Small Learning Communities

Where to Go for More: Resources for Wellness and the Mind-Body Connection Unnatural Causes Unnatural Causes is a seven-part documentary on health equity that aired on PBS in March 2008 and is available on DVD. The documentary’s episodes provide a nuanced grounding... July 22, 2008

Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! "Of all the teachers in our school, I like Miss Bonkers best. Our teachers are all different, But she's different-er than the rest." My introduction to Dr. Seuss' final work, Hooray for... December 13, 2002

Listening to Students Far too often in conversations about schools, educators talk about students rather than with students. The worlds of student leadership and school change orbit in separate universes. At the Coalition... March 21, 2008 by Laura Flaxman - Instruction, Student-as-worker

Go To The Source: More About the Schools and Other Organizations Featured in this Issue Schools Arturo Schomburg Satellite Academy High School Public School serving grades 9-12 101 Rev. James A. Polite Ave. Bronx, NY 10459 718-542-2700 Bushwick School for Social... December 16, 2004 - Community Collaboration

In the Midst of Transformation: Reflections from the Bay Area Coalition For Equitable Schools I recently attended a national conference where hundreds of educators, parents, policy makers, and community leaders gathered to discuss innovative ways to ensure that high school students in this... February 15, 2008 by LaShawn Route-Chatmon - Community Collaboration

Why Don't They Learn English? Separating Fact from Fallacy in the U.S. Language Debate Through a synthesis of recent research and individual, personal stories, Lucy Tse concisely, efficiently, and lucidly debunks persistent, widespread misconceptions about immigrants' language use... March 11, 2003 by Lucy Tse

Inclusion in a Different Sense Like Looking in a Mirror… Denver’s Manual High School was a traditional comprehensive high school of 1,100 students with the city’s lowest student test scores and a high concentration of... March 21, 2008 by Isaura Jimenez - Instruction, Student-as-worker

Not So Easy Going: The Policy Environments of Small Urban Schools By Mary Anne Raywid and Gil Schmerler(ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, 108 pages, $13.00)reviewed by Jill Davidson In Not So Easy Going, co-authors Mary Anne Raywid and Gil... December 18, 2003 by Jill Davidson - The Change Process

Sidebar: Transitioning from Small Schools to College: Putting Students in the Driver's Seat "In one of our early meetings someone said, 'It's not fair that colleges get to choose us - can't we choose them?' This started us thinking about the types of colleges WE would be interested in -... September 12, 2006 by Lori Chajet

Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning, edited by Kathryn Parker Boudett, Elizabeth A. City, and Richard J. Murnane (Harvard Educational... July 10, 2008 by Jill Davidson

Go To The Source: More about the Schools and Other Organizations Featured in this Issue Schools Clover Park High School Public school serving grades 9-12 11023 Gravelly Lake Drive SW Lakewood, WA ... July 07, 2004 - The Change Process, Democratic Practice

Notes on this Issue Though Horace has existed for 24 years as the cartographer of the Coalition of Essential Schools’ terrain, this issue marks the first time we have explored the connection between health and... July 22, 2008 by Jill Davidson

Paper Clips Paper Clips, produced by the Johnson Group in association with Ergo Entertainment (2-disc Special Edition, $24.99; Educational Edition, $79.99) Given the current worldwide political climate,... June 23, 2008 by Eva A. Frank

Learning in the Real World Our School City High School is in the heart of downtown Tucson in what used to be the town’s oldest and most famous dress shop. It’s a unique location for a school, with everyone from... March 21, 2008 by Ilyssa Buffalo, Vicki Kahn, Ashleigh Read - Instruction, Student-as-worker

Book Reviews: Teachers Have it Easy and What It Takes to Pull Me Through Teachers Have It Easy: the Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers by Daniel Moulthrop, Ninive Clements Calegari, and Dave Eggers (New Press, 355 pages, $25.95) BUY NOW! What It... December 05, 2005 by Sarah Mayper

Where's Your School on the Exhibitions Continuum CES has identified four phases of exhibitions implementation among Essential schools. The schools represented in this issue of Horace are implementing exhibitions systemically; their stories provide... February 07, 2008