Back to School Books

Just in time for back-to-school season, here are several new and forthcoming books about schools and education:

LIT UP: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives. by David Denby
Available in trade paperback February 14, 2017
“Part literary meditation, part case study of exemplary teaching, LIT UP traces a diverse group of adolescents as they are drawn into the ‘character-forming experience of reading difficult books’ by their ardent and caring (and as duly noted, union) teachers. LIT UP is also a cri de coeur imploring a return to the kind of education that elevates the ‘unquantifiable’ humanities to foster ‘the spiritual value of literature and the moral instruction of teenagers.’” — Booklist, starred review

FAIL U.: The False Promise of Higher Education by Charles J. Sykes
The bestselling author of PROFSCAM and A NATION OF VICTIMS exposes the over-priced, under-performing, grievance-crazed, and student-indenturing American higher-education complex. “Laying out a bold agenda for reform, Sykes calls for a university system smaller and less dependent on government largesse, less politically correct, and more open to online instruction than the one now bankrupting many students and their families. Certain to stimulate a much-needed debate.”
— Booklist, starred review

IT TAKES A SCHOOL: The Extraordinary Story of an American School in the World’s #1 Failed State by Jonathan Starr
A story of David and Goliath proportions, how an American hedge fund manager created a unique school in Somaliland whose students, against all odds, have come to achieve success beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

THE POWER OF A PLANT: A Teacher’s Odyssey to Grow Healthy Minds and Schools by Stephen Ritz
Ritz’s inspiring story about how teaching kids to garden moved the graduation rate from 17% to 100% and improved attendance to 93% in his South Bronx high school.

LEARN BETTER: Six Strategies for Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business and School by Ulrich Boser
In this engrossing book, Boser maps out the new science of learning, showing how simple techniques like self-questioning can help people gain knowledge and expertise in dramatically better ways.