24 Best Educational Policy & Reform Books
Educational Policy & Reform is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Educational Policy & Reform audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 24 Educational Policy & Reform audiobooks below.
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Columbine
- By: Dave Cullen
- Narrator: Don Leslie
- Length: 14 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 03, 2018
- Language: English
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4.28(75490 ratings)
4.28(75490 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.98 USDTen years in the works, a masterpiece of reportage, this is the definitive account of the Columbine massacre, its aftermath, and its significance, from the acclaimed journalist who followed the story from the outset. “The tragedies keepTen years in the works, a masterpiece of reportage, this is the definitive account of the Columbine massacre, its aftermath, and its significance, from the acclaimed journalist who followed the story from the outset.“The tragedies keep coming. As we reel from the latest horror . . .”So begins a new epilogue, illustrating how Columbine became the template for nearly two decades of “spectacle murders.” It is a false script, seized upon by a generation of new killers. In the wake of Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech, the imperative to understand the crime that sparked this plague grows more urgent every year.
What really happened April 20, 1999? The horror left an indelible stamp on the American psyche, but most of what we “know” is wrong. It wasn’t about jocks, Goths, or the Trench Coat Mafia. Dave Cullen was one of the first reporters on scene, and spent ten years on this book-widely recognized as the definitive account. With a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen, he draws on mountains of evidence, insight from the world’s leading forensic psychologists, and the killers’ own words and drawings-several reproduced in a new appendix. Cullen paints raw portraits of two polar opposite killers. They contrast starkly with the flashes of resilience and redemption among the survivors.
Expanded with a New Epilogue
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Who Gets In and Why
- By: Jeffrey Selingo
- Narrator: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 10 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.24(2083 ratings)
4.24(2083 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDFrom award-winning higher education journalist and New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Selingo comes a revealing look from inside the admissions office–one that identifies surprising strategies that will aid in the college search.From award-winning higher education journalist and New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Selingo comes a revealing look from inside the admissions office–one that identifies surprising strategies that will aid in the college search.
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Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets In and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game, and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a “good college.” Hint: it’s not all about the sticker on the car window.
Selingo, who was embedded in three different admissions offices–a selective private university, a leading liberal arts college, and a flagship public campus–closely observed gatekeepers as they made their often agonizing and sometimes life-changing decisions. He also followed select students and their parents, and he traveled around the country meeting with high school counselors, marketers, behind-the-scenes consultants, and college rankers.
While many have long believed that admissions is merit-based, rewarding the best students, Who Gets In and Why presents a more complicated truth, showing that “who gets in” is frequently more about the college’s agenda than the applicant. In a world where thousands of equally qualified students vie for a fixed number of spots at elite institutions, admissions officers often make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors–like diversity, money, and, ultimately, whether a student will enroll if accepted.
One of the most insightful books ever about “getting in” and what higher education has become, Who Gets In and Why not only provides an unusually intimate look at how admissions decisions get made, but guides prospective students on how to honestly assess their strengths and match with the schools that will best serve their interests. -
Beyond Measure
- By: Vicki Abeles
- Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hours 59 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.12(232 ratings)
4.12(232 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDNow in paperback, the New York Times bestseller from Race to Nowhere director Vicki Abeles about how our schools can revolutionize learning, prioritize children’s health, and re-envision success for a lifetime.Race to Nowhere, VickiNow in paperback, the New York Times bestseller from Race to Nowhere director Vicki Abeles about how our schools can revolutionize learning, prioritize children’s health, and re-envision success for a lifetime.
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Race to Nowhere, Vicki Abeles’s groundbreaking documentary about our educational system, tapped into a widespread problem in our nation’s schools: From high school to kindergarten, an entire generation of American students is being pressured to perform in ways that make them less intellectually flexible, creative, and responsive to a changing world. Vicki brought home how, as students race against each other to have constantly higher grades, better test scores, and more AP courses than their classmates, they are damaging their own mental and physical health.
Now in the New York Times bestseller Beyond Measure, Vicki continues this all-important conversation, seeking out success stories to inspire and instruct those who are eager to create change. We see examples of teachers who have cut the workload in half and seen scores rise; parents who have taken the pressure off of their kids only to find their motivation and abilities rise on their own; schools that have instituted later start times so that the kids are getting the sleep they need able to learn more efficiently.
Everyone is aware that the educational system is broken, and Beyond Measure reveals a personal, unique, on-the-ground perspective. From limiting the number of AP courses a college will consider to eliminating the competitive need to “do more than the next kid” and shifting emphasis in the admissions process to essay options over test scores. “With both heart and smarts, Vicki Abeles showcases the courageous communities that are rejecting the childhood rat race and reclaiming health and learning (Maria Shriver).” The result will help students succeed, not just on the race to college–but for life. -
Battle for the American Mind
- By: Pete Hegseth
- Narrator: Pete Hegseth
- Length: 9 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 14, 2022
- Language: English
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4.12(932 ratings)
4.12(932 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USD#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! FOX News host Pete Hegseth is back with what he says is his most important book yet: A revolutionary road map to saving our children from leftist indoctrination. Behind a smokescreen of “preparing students for#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
FOX News host Pete Hegseth is back with what he says is his most important book yet: A revolutionary road map to saving our children from leftist indoctrination.
Behind a smokescreen of “preparing students for the new industrial economy,” early progressives had political control in mind. America’s original schools didn’t just make kids memorize facts or learn skills; they taught them to think freely and arrive at wisdom. They assigned the classics, inspired love of God and country, and raised future citizens that changed the world forever.
Today, after 16,000 hours of K-12 indoctrination, our kids come out of government schools hating America. They roll their eyes at religion and disdain our history. We spend more money on education than ever, but kids can barely read and write–let alone reason with discernment. Western culture is on the ropes. Kids are bored and aimless, flailing for purpose in a system that says racial and gender identity is everything.
Battle for the American Mind is the untold story of the Progressive plan to neutralize the basis of our Republic – by removing the one ingredient that had sustained Western Civilization for thousands of years. Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin explain why, no matter what political skirmishes conservatives win, progressives are winning the war–and control the “supply lines” of future citizens. Reversing this reality will require parents to radically reorient their children’s education; even most homeschooling and Christian schooling are infused with progressive assumptions. We need to recover a lost philosophy of education – grounded in virtue and excellence – that can arm future generations to fight for freedom. It’s called classical Christian education. Never heard of it? You’re not alone.
Battle for the American Mind is more than a book; it’s a field guide for remaking school in the United States. We’ve ceded our kids’ minds to the left for far too long–this book gives patriotic parents the ammunition to join an insurgency that gives America a fighting chance.
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The New Education
- By: Cathy N. Davidson
- Narrator: Carolyn Cook
- Length: 11 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 05, 2017
- Language: English
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4.08(293 ratings)
4.08(293 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDA leading educational thinker argues that the American university is stuck in the past — and shows how we can revolutionize it for our era of constant change Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925. It wasA leading educational thinker argues that the American university is stuck in the past — and shows how we can revolutionize it for our era of constant change
Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925. It was in those decades that the nation’s new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, all in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T.
As Cathy N. Davidson argues in The New Education, this approach to education is wholly unsuited to the era of the gig economy. From the Ivy League to community colleges, she introduces us to innovators who are remaking college for our own time by emphasizing student-centered learning that values creativity in the face of change above all. The New Education ultimately shows how we can teach students not only to survive but to thrive amid the challenges to come.
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A Mind At A Time
- By: Mel Levine
- Narrator: Mel Levine
- Length: 5 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2002
- Language: English
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4.07(929 ratings)
4.07(929 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0015.95 USD“Different minds learn differently,” writes Dr. Mel Levine, one of the best-known learning experts and pediatricians in America today. Some students are strong in certain areas and some are strong in others, but no one is equally capable“Different minds learn differently,” writes Dr. Mel Levine, one of the best-known learning experts and pediatricians in America today. Some students are strong in certain areas and some are strong in others, but no one is equally capable in all. Yet most schools still cling to a one-size-fits-all education philosophy. As a result, many children struggle because their learning patterns don’t fit the way they are being taught.
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In his #1 New York Times bestseller A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows parents and those who care for children how to identify these individual learning patterns, explaining how they can strengthen a child’s abilities and either bypass or help overcome the child’s weaknesses, producing positive results instead of repeated frustration and failure.
Consistent progress can result when we understand that not every child can do equally well in every type of learning and begin to pay more attention to individual learning patterns — and individual minds — so that we can maximize children’s success and gratification in life. In A Mind at a Time Dr. Levine shows us how. -
Thinking Differently
- By: David Flink
- Narrator: Roger Wayne
- Length: 6 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: August 26, 2014
- Language: English
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4.05(145 ratings)
4.05(145 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDAn innovative, comprehensive guide–the first of its kind–to help parents understand and accept learning disabilities in their children, offering tips and strategies for successfully advocating on their behalf and helping them becomeAn innovative, comprehensive guide–the first of its kind–to help parents understand and accept learning disabilities in their children, offering tips and strategies for successfully advocating on their behalf and helping them become their own best advocates.
In Thinking Differently, David Flink, the leader of Eye to Eye–a national mentoring program for students with learning and attention issues–enlarges our understanding of the learning process and offers powerful, innovative strategies for parenting, teaching, and supporting the 20 percent of students with learning disabilities. An outstanding fighter who has helped thousands of children adapt to their specific learning issues, Flink understands the needs and experiences of these children first hand. He, too, has dyslexia and ADHD.
Focusing on how to arm students who think and learn differently with essential skills, including meta-cognition and self-advocacy, Flink offers real, hard advice, providing the tools to address specific problems they face–from building self-esteem and reconstructing the learning environment, to getting proper diagnoses and discovering their inner gifts. With his easy, hands-on “Step-by-Step Launchpad to Empowerment,” parents can take immediate steps to improve their children’s lives.
Thinking Differently is a brilliant, compassionate work, packed with essential insights and real-world applications indispensable for parents, educators, and other professional involved with children with learning disabilities.
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One in Five
- By: Micki Boas
- Narrator: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 9 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.04(27 ratings)
4.04(27 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDPractical tips and advice for parents navigating the school system from a mom who’s been there.One in five children have dyslexia, but too many parents feel isolated and defeated in their efforts to secure an equal chance for their children.Practical tips and advice for parents navigating the school system from a mom who’s been there.
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One in five children have dyslexia, but too many parents feel isolated and defeated in their efforts to secure an equal chance for their children. After fighting the school system for four years to get the correct diagnoses and proper learning assistance for her two dyslexic sons, Micki Boas realized that parents need to hack the system, cutting through the invisible red tape of school funding, IEPs, specialized teacher training, and more.
Drawing on insights from over 200 parents, educators, and experts, Boas delves into:
-When children need to be diagnosed to get the help they need–and why it doesn’t always happen
-What special education programs are mandated by law–and why most schools fail to provide them
-What parents can do to advocate for their children–and help change the larger system
One in Five shares the secrets the “professionals” won’t tell you–but that makes all the difference. -
World Class
- By: Teru Clavel
- Narrator: Teru Clavel
- Length: 8 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.02(204 ratings)
4.02(204 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USD“An upbeat chronicle of [Clavel’s] children’s school experiences in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo…[offering] advice about vetting schools and enriching children’s education.” —Kirkus Reviews “An“An upbeat chronicle of [Clavel’s] children’s school experiences in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo…[offering] advice about vetting schools and enriching children’s education.” —Kirkus Reviews
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“An intriguing volume on the differences in global education.” —Library Journal
A must-read firsthand exploration of why Asian students are outpacing their American counterparts and how to help our children excel in today’s competitive world.
When Teru Clavel had young children, she watched her friends and fellow parents vie for spots in elite New York City schools. Instead of losing herself in the intensive applications and interview process, Teru and her family moved to Asia, embarking on a decade-long journey through the public schools of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo.
These schools were low-tech and bare-bones, with teachers who demanded obedience and order. In Hong Kong, her children’s school was nicknamed The Prison for its foreboding facilities, yet her three-year-old loved his teachers and his nightly homework. In Tokyo, the students were responsible for school chores, like preparing and serving school lunches.
Yet Teru was amazed to discover that her children thrived in these academically competitive cultures; they learned to be independent, self-confident, resilient, and, above all, they developed a deep love of learning. When the family returned to the States, the true culture shock came when the top schools could no longer keep up with her children.
Written with warmth and humor, World Class is a compelling story about how to inspire children to thrive academically. “Studded with lists of useful tips about choosing schools and hiring tutors, for parents who must advocate for their children and supplement gaps in their educations” (Publishers Weekly) and an insightful guide to set your children on a path towards lifelong success. -
The Prize
- By: Dale Russakoff
- Narrator: Pete Cross
- Length: 8 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: September 08, 2015
- Language: English
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3.96(1187 ratings)
3.96(1187 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDWhen Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools – and to solve the education crisis in every city in America – it looked like a huge win for then-mayor CoryWhen Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools – and to solve the education crisis in every city in America – it looked like a huge win for then-mayor Cory Booker and governor Chris Christie. But their plans soon ran into a constituency not so easily moved – Newark’s key education players, fiercely protective of their billion-dollar-per-annum system. It’s a prize that, for generations, has enriched seemingly everyone, except Newark’s students. Expert journalist Dale Russakoff delivers a story of high ideals and hubris, good intentions and greed, celebrity and street smarts – as reformers face off against entrenched unions, skeptical parents, and bewildered students.
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Distracted
- By: James M. Lang
- Narrator: Caitlin Davies
- Length: 8 hours 34 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 20, 2020
- Language: English
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3.95(270 ratings)
3.95(270 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDKeeping students focused can be difficult in a world filled with distractions — which is why a renowned educator created a scientific solution to one of every teacher’s biggest problems.Why is it so hard to get students to pay attention?Keeping students focused can be difficult in a world filled with distractions — which is why a renowned educator created a scientific solution to one of every teacher’s biggest problems.Why is it so hard to get students to pay attention? Conventional wisdom blames iPhones, insisting that access to technology has ruined students’ ability to focus. The logical response is to ban electronics in class.But acclaimed educator James M. Lang argues that this solution obscures a deeper problem: how we teach is often at odds with how students learn. Classrooms are designed to force students into long periods of intense focus, but emerging science reveals that the brain is wired for distraction. We learn best when able to actively seek and synthesize new information.In Distracted, Lang rethinks the practice of teaching, revealing how educators can structure their classrooms less as distraction-free zones and more as environments where they can actively cultivate their students’ attention.Brimming with ideas and grounded in new research, Distracted offers an innovative plan for the most important lesson of all: how to learn.... Read more -
The Myth of Laziness
- By: Mel Levine
- Narrator: Mel Levine
- Length: 4 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2003
- Language: English
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3.9(367 ratings)
3.9(367 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0015.95 USD“When we call someone lazy, we condemn a human being,” writes Mel Levine, M.D. In The Myth of Laziness, the bestselling author of A Mind at a Time shows that children dismissed as unproductive or “lazy” usually suffer from“When we call someone lazy, we condemn a human being,” writes Mel Levine, M.D. In The Myth of Laziness, the bestselling author of A Mind at a Time shows that children dismissed as unproductive or “lazy” usually suffer from what he calls “output failure”—a neurodevelopmental dysfunction that can continue to cause difficulties into adulthood if left unchecked.
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The desire to be productive is universal, says Dr. Levine, but that drive can often be frustrated by dysfunctions that obstruct output or productivity. Drawing on his clinical experience and using real-life examples of both children and adults he has worked with, Dr. Levine shows how to identify and remedy these dysfunctions. A child suffering from language production dysfunction, for example, may be incapable of clearly expressing or explaining his thoughts, thereby leading to low productivity in school. A child who has difficulty making choices may wait until it is too late to complete a project or may act impulsively, creating a pattern of bad judgments. Similarly, a child with memory weaknesses may be unable to draw on his accumulated knowledge for an assignment. In each of these cases, as Dr. Levine shows, writing skills are often the key to diagnosing specific causes of output failure.
Practical, wise, and compassionate, The Myth of Laziness offers parents and teachers day-to-day strategies and support to prevent output failure and, when necessary, to help children overcome dysfunction and become productive, successful adults. -
Creating Innovators
- By: Tony Wagner
- Narrator: Holter Graham
- Length: 9 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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3.88(1846 ratings)
3.88(1846 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.95 USDTony Wagner’s groundbreaking bestseller–“a road map for parents who want to sculpt their children into innovative thinkers” (USA TODAY) and a guide for “an employer looking to have a pipeline of creative talent”Tony Wagner’s groundbreaking bestseller–“a road map for parents who want to sculpt their children into innovative thinkers” (USA TODAY) and a guide for “an employer looking to have a pipeline of creative talent” (Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO).
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Harvard education expert Tony Wagner explores what parents, teachers, and employers must do to develop the capacities of young people to become innovators. In profiling compelling young American innovators such as Kirk Phelps, product manager for Apple’s first iPhone, and Jodie Wu, who founded a company that builds bicycle-powered maize shellers in Tanzania, Wagner reveals how the adults in their lives nurtured their creativity and sparked their imaginations, while teaching them to learn from failures and persevere. Play, passion, and purpose: These are the forces that drive young innovators.
Wagner takes readers into the most forward-thinking schools, colleges, and workplaces in the country, where teachers and employers are developing cultures of innovation based on collaboration, interdisciplinary problem-solving, and intrinsic motivation. The result is a timely, provocative, and inspiring manifesto that offers crucial insight into creating the change makers of tomorrow. -
Conform
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrator: Jeremy Lowell
- Length: 6 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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3.87(744 ratings)
3.87(744 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDGlenn Beck, the New York Times bestselling author of The Great Reset , considers the hot-button issue of education in the US, exposing the weaknesses of the Common Core school curriculum and examining why liberal solutions fail.Public education isGlenn Beck, the New York Times bestselling author of The Great Reset , considers the hot-button issue of education in the US, exposing the weaknesses of the Common Core school curriculum and examining why liberal solutions fail.
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Public education is never mentioned in the constitution. Why? Because our founders knew that it was an issue for state and local governments–not the federal one.
It’s not a coincidence that the more the federal government has inserted itself into public education over the years, the worse our kids have fared. Washington dangles millions of dollars in front of states and then tells them what they have to do to get it. It’s backdoor nationalization of education–and it’s leading us to ruin.
In Conform, Glenn Beck presents a well-reasoned, fact-based analysis that proves it’s not more money our schools need–it’s a complete refocusing of their priorities and a total restructuring of their relationship with the federal government. In the process, he dismantles many of the common myths and talking points that are often heard by those who want to protect the status quo.
Critics of the current system are just “teacher bashers”…Teachers’ unions put kids first…Homeschooled kids suffer both academically and socially…“local control” is an excuse to protect mediocrity…Common Core is “rigorous” and “state led”…Critics of Common Core are just conspiracy theorists…Elementary school teachers need tenure…We can’t reform schools until we eradicate poverty…school choice takes money away from public schools…Charter schools perform poorly relative to public schools.
There is no issue more important to America’s future than education. The fact that we’ve yielded control over it to powerful unions and ideologically driven elitists is inexcusable. We are failing ourselves, our children, and our country. Conform gives parents the facts they need to take back the debate and help usher in a new era of education built around the commonsense principles of choice, freedom, and accountability. -
The Breakdown of Higher Education
- By: John M. Ellis
- Narrator: Bob Souer
- Length: 7 hours 47 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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3.83(60 ratings)
3.83(60 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDA series of near-riots on campuses aimed at silencing guest speakers has exposed the fact that our universities are no longer devoted to the free exchange of ideas in pursuit of truth. But this hostility to free speech is only a symptom of a deeperA series of near-riots on campuses aimed at silencing guest speakers has exposed the fact that our universities are no longer devoted to the free exchange of ideas in pursuit of truth. But this hostility to free speech is only a symptom of a deeper problem, writes John Ellis.
Having watched the deterioration of academia up close for the past fifty years, Ellis locates the core of the problem in a change in the composition of the faculty during this time, from mildly left-leaning to almost exclusively leftist. He explains how astonishing historical luck led to the success of a plan first devised by a small group of activists to use college campuses to promote radical politics, and why laws and regulations designed to prevent the politicizing of higher education proved insufficient.
Ellis shows that political motivation is always destructive of higher learning. Even science and technology departments are not immune. The corruption of universities by radical politics also does wider damage: to primary and secondary education, to race relations, to preparation for the workplace, and to the political and social fabric of the nation. Commonly suggested remedies–new free-speech rules, or enforced right-of-center appointments–will fail because they don’t touch the core problem, a controlling faculty majority of political activists with no real interest in scholarship. This book proposes more drastic and effective reform measures. The first step is for Americans to recognize that vast sums of public money intended for education are being diverted to a political agenda, and to demand that this fraud be stopped.
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The Stolen Year
- By: Anya Kamenetz
- Narrator: Anya Kamenetz
- Length: 11 hours 43 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 23, 2022
- Language: English
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3.8(209 ratings)
3.8(209 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDAn NPR education reporter shows how the last true social safety net– the public school system–was decimated by the pandemic, and how years of short-sighted political decisions have failed to put our children first.School has long meantAn NPR education reporter shows how the last true social safety net– the public school system–was decimated by the pandemic, and how years of short-sighted political decisions have failed to put our children first.
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School has long meant much more than an education in America. 30 million children depend on free school meals. Schools are, statistically, the safest physical places for children to be. They are the best chance many children have at finding basics like eye exams, safe housing, mental health counseling, or simply a caring adult. Flawed, inequitable, underfunded, and segregated, they remain the most important engine of social mobility and the crucible of our democracy.
The cost of closing our schools for so long during COVID, made with good intentions, has not yet been fully reckoned with.
In The Stolen Year, NPR education reporter Anya Kamenetz shows that the roots of our crisis run far deeper than COVID. She follows families across the country as they lived through the pandemic. But she also dives deep into the political history that brought us to this point: Why we have no childcare system to speak of, why subsidies for families were cut to the bone, how children became the group most likely to live in poverty, how we overpolice and separate families of color, and how we are content to let the unpaid and underpaid labor of women, especially women of color and immigrants, stand in for a void of public and collective concern for children.
Kamenetz makes the case that 2020 wasn’t a lost year–it was taken from our children, by years of neglect and bad faith. We have failed to put them first.
The American Rescue Plan offers new tax benefits for families and new funding for schools. But if progress stops there, and we revert to cutting funding and laying off school staff, another crisis will surely come. The Stolen Year is a passionately argued and emotional story, but also a demand for recompense. -
The End of College
- By: Kevin Carey
- Narrator: Kevin Carey
- Length: 9 hours 59 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: March 03, 2015
- Language: English
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3.76(350 ratings)
3.76(350 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDFrom a renowned education writer comes a paradigm-shifting examination of the rapidly changing world of college that every parent, student, educator, and investor needs to understand. Over the span of just nine months in 2011 and 2012, theFrom a renowned education writer comes a paradigm-shifting examination of the rapidly changing world of college that every parent, student, educator, and investor needs to understand. Over the span of just nine months in 2011 and 2012, the world’s most famous universities and high-powered technology entrepreneurs began a race to revolutionize higher education. College courses that had been kept for centuries from all but an elite few were released to millions of students throughout the world-for free. Exploding college prices and a flagging global economy, combined with the derring-do of a few intrepid innovators, have created a dynamic climate for a total rethinking of an industry that has remained virtually unchanged for a hundred years. In The End of College, Kevin Carey, an education researcher and writer, draws on years of in-depth reporting and cutting-edge research to paint a vivid and surprising portrait of the future of education. Carey explains how two trends-the skyrocketing cost of college and the revolution in information technology-are converging in ways that will radically alter the college experience, upend the traditional meritocracy, and emancipate hundreds of millions of people around the world. Insightful, innovative, and accessible, The End of College is a must-read, and an important contribution to the developing conversation about education in this country.
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Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines
- By: Jamie Merisotis
- Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 6 hours 30 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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3.73(56 ratings)
3.73(56 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDWe are living through a time of upheaval and social unrest, with increasing threats to global health, democratic institutions, and the world’s economies. But behind the alarming headlines is another issue that must be quickly addressed: theWe are living through a time of upheaval and social unrest, with increasing threats to global health, democratic institutions, and the world’s economies. But behind the alarming headlines is another issue that must be quickly addressed: the role of workers is being transformed–and often rendered obsolete–by automation and artificial intelligence.
As Jamie Merisotis, the president and CEO of Lumina Foundation, argues in Human Work In the Age of Smart Machines, we can–and must–rise to this challenge by preparing to work alongside smart machines doing that which only humans can: thinking critically, reasoning ethically, interacting interpersonally, and serving others with empathy.
In Human Work, Merisotis, author of the award-winning 2015 book America Needs Talent, offers a roadmap for the large-scale, radical changes we must make in order to find abundant and meaningful work in the twenty-first century. His vision centers on developing our unique capabilities as humans through a lifetime of learning opportunities that are easy to navigate, deliver fair results, and offer a broad range of credentials–from college degrees to occupational certifications. By shifting long-held ideas about how the workforce should function and expanding our concept of work, he argues that we can harness the population’s potential, encourage a deeper sense of community, and erase a centuries-long system of inequality.
As the headlines blink red, now is the time to redesign education, training, and the workplace as a whole. Yes, many jobs will be lost to technology, but if we promote people’s deeper potential, engaging human work will always be available.
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Undoctrinate
- By: Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder
- Narrator: Pamela Almand
- Length: 7 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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3.7(20 ratings)
3.7(20 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDWe’re used to assuming that politics stop at the classroom door. Those days are over. Are your kids being indoctrinated in school? Unfortunately, it’s increasingly likely. From “social justice” to critical race theory, andWe’re used to assuming that politics stop at the classroom door. Those days are over.
Are your kids being indoctrinated in school?
Unfortunately, it’s increasingly likely. From “social justice” to critical race theory, and from advocacy and activism campaigns to planned “action weeks,” teachers and schools nationwide are abandoning neutrality in the classroom, embracing political agendas and partisan aims, and expecting students to get on board.
Meanwhile, students with doubts or misgivings decline to voice objections due to fears of lowered grades, impacted college recommendation letters, social ostracism, “cancellation,” public shaming, ridicule, and other formal and informal means of “correcting” them and making them toe the ideological line.
Is this what we want for our kids? Will this kind of “education” produce able citizens or independent thinkers capable of self-government?
The range of opinion has been narrowing in higher education for some time; now, heavy-handed thought constriction and chilled speech are choking our secondary, middle, and even elementary schools. The situation is dire–and America urgently needs a response.
This book provides the tools we need to confront and remove hidden agendas, to uproot and reject educational biases, and to restore balance and integrity to America’s classrooms.
It’s time to undoctrinate our schools!
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How Schools Work
- By: Arne Duncan
- Narrator: Arne Duncan
- Length: 6 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.63(522 ratings)
3.63(522 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USD“This book merits every American’s serious consideration” (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an expose of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our“This book merits every American’s serious consideration” (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an expose of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kids’ education, and threatens our nation’s future.
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“Education runs on lies. That’s probably not what you’d expect from a former Secretary of Education, but it’s the truth.” So opens Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work, although the title could just as easily be How American Schools Work for Some, Not for Others, and Only Now and Then for Kids.
Drawing on nearly three decades in education–from his mother’s after-school program on Chicago’s South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in Washington, DC–How Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can’t help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the “most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama’s Cabinet.” Going to a child’s funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person.
How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also identifies what really does make a school work.
“As insightful as it is inspiring” (Washington Book Review), How Schools Work will embolden parents, teachers, voters, and even students to demand more of our public schools. If America is going to be great, then we can accept nothing less. -
Blackboard
- By: Lewis Buzbee
- Narrator: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 5 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: September 02, 2014
- Language: English
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3.52(83 ratings)
3.52(83 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDLewis Buzbee looks back over a lifetime of experiences in schools and classrooms, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He offers fascinating histories of the key ideas informing educational practice over the centuries, which have shapedLewis Buzbee looks back over a lifetime of experiences in schools and classrooms, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He offers fascinating histories of the key ideas informing educational practice over the centuries, which have shaped everything from class size to the layout of desks and chairs. Buzbee deftly weaves his own biography into this overview, approaching his subject as a student, a father, and a teacher. He credits his success to the well-funded California public school system and bemoans the terrible price that state is paying as a result of funding being cut from today’s budgets. For Buzbee, the blackboard is a precious window into the wider world, which we ignore at our peril.
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The Schools We Need
- By: E. D. Hirsch
- Narrator: Anna Fields
- Length: 12 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2007
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDA child’s mind is hungry for knowledge, stimulation, and the excitement of learning which school should provide—yet most American schools fall far short. From kindergarten through high school, our public educational system is among theA child’s mind is hungry for knowledge, stimulation, and the excitement of learning which school should provide—yet most American schools fall far short. From kindergarten through high school, our public educational system is among the worst in the developed world. In disdaining content-based curricula for abstract (and discredited) theories of how a child learns, our schools have done terrible harm to America’s students. Instead of preparing them for the highly competitive, information-based economy in which we now live, our school practices have severely curtailed their ability—and desire—to learn. But research has shown that if children are taught in ways that emphasize hard work, the learning of facts, and rigorous testing, their enthusiasm for school will grow, their test scores will rise, and they will become successful citizens of the information age.
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Permission to Feel
- By: Marc Brackett, Ph.D.
- Narrator: Marc Brackett, Ph.D.
- Length: 7 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: September 03, 2019
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDThis program is read by the author. The mental wellbeing of our children is shockingly poor. Marc Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, knows why. And he knows what we can do. “We have a crisis on our hands, and its victims are ourThis program is read by the author.
The mental wellbeing of our children is shockingly poor. Marc Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, knows why. And he knows what we can do.
“We have a crisis on our hands, and its victims are our children.”Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University’s Child Study Center and founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. In his 25 years as an “emotion scientist,” he has developed a remarkably effective plan to improve the lives of children and adults – a blueprint for understanding our emotions and using them wisely so that they help, rather than hinder, our success and well-being. The core of his approach is a legacy from his childhood, from an astute uncle who gave him permission to feel. He was the first adult who managed to see Marc, listen to him, and recognize the suffering, bullying, and abuse he’d endured. And that was the beginning of Marc’s awareness that what he was going through was temporary. He wasn’t alone, he wasn’t stuck on a timeline, and he wasn’t “wrong” to feel scared, isolated, and angry. Now, best of all, he could do something about it.
In the decades since, Marc has led large research teams and raised tens of millions of dollars to investigate the roots of emotional well-being. His prescription for healthy children (and their parents, teachers, and schools) is a system called RULER, a high-impact and fast-effect approach to understanding and mastering emotions that has already transformed the thousands of schools that have adopted it. RULER has been proven to reduce stress, depression and burnout and enhance to encourage higher academic achievement. This book is the culmination of Marc’s development of RULER and his way to share the strategies and skills with readers around the world. It is tested, and it works.
This audiobook combines rigor, science, passion and inspiration in equal parts. Too many children and adults are suffering; they are ashamed of their feelings and emotionally unskilled, but they don’t have to be. Marc Brackett’s life mission is to reverse this course, and this audiobook can show you how.
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How to Educate a Citizen
- By: E. D. Hirsch
- Narrator: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 5 hours 31 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: September 08, 2020
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.99 USD“Profound, vital and correct. Hirsch highlights the essence of our American being and the radical changes in education necessary to sustain that essence. Concerned citizens, teachers, and parents take note! We ignore this book at our“Profound, vital and correct. Hirsch highlights the essence of our American being and the radical changes in education necessary to sustain that essence. Concerned citizens, teachers, and parents take note! We ignore this book at our peril.”— Joel Klein, former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools
In this powerful manifesto, the bestselling author of Cultural Literacy addresses the failures of America’s early education system and its impact on our current national malaise, advocating for a shared knowledge curriculum students everywhere can be taught–an educational foundation that can help improve and strengthen America’s unity, identity, and democracy.
In How to Educate a Citizen, E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America’s public schools, particularly at the elementary level, to educate our children more effectively to help heal and preserve the nation. Since the 1960s, our schools have been relying on “child-centered learning.” History, geography, science, civics, and other essential knowledge have been dumbed down by vacuous learning “techniques” and “values-based” curricula; indoctrinated by graduate schools of education, administrators and educators have believed they are teaching reading and critical thinking skills. Yet these cannot be taught in the absence of strong content, Hirsch argues.
The consequence is a loss of shared knowledge that would enable us to work together, understand one another, and make coherent, informed decisions. A broken approach to school not only leaves our children under-prepared and erodes the American dream but also loosens the spiritual bonds and unity that hold the nation together. Drawing on early schoolmasters and educational reformers such as Noah Webster and Horace Mann, Hirsch charts the rise and fall of the American early education system and provides a blueprint for closing the national gap in knowledge, communications, and allegiance. Critical and compelling, How to Educate a Citizen galvanizes our schools to equip children with the power of shared knowledge.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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