Making the Best of Schools: A Handbook for Parents, Teachers, and Policymakers

This practical, informative book shows parents and professionals alike how they can work with schools to help children receive the best possible education. Throughout, Oakes and Lipton provide invaluable guidance on such topics as how children learn; how changes at home can increase a child’s success at school; how basic subjects might be taught in more meaningful ways; how children with physical, emotional, social, or learning problems can be mainstreamed successfully; and what reforms are necessary to give all children the schools they need. "A true handbook. . . . This book will give adults confidence in themselves as reformers and in their children as scholars."-- Parents Magazine "Finally! A readable book about schools and learning that doesn’t talk down to parents, the public, and teachers. If knowledge is power, then this book is an arsenal of intelligence for dealing with education."-- Albert Shanker, President, American Federation of Teachers "The book speaks to parents who feel too excluded from the inner workings of schools to know how to influence them, and educators who may be too close to see the larger implications of their daily decisions."-- Beth Hakola, Education USA "Making the Best of Schools gives all of us – parents, educators, policymakers, and concerned citizens – some cogent advice on how to make schools work for all young Americans."-- Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund "A fine primer for new board members or board members whose expertise lies somewhere outside education. . . . It’s an inviting exploration, steeped in anecdotes and examples of good and bad practice."-- American School Board Journal