School Improvement Catalog

Urgent Message for Parents

Anne Henderson, Anne Lewis, Kathy Boundy, Paul Weckstein, Larry Searcy CLE, 16 pp. In English, softcover (2000). $3 single copy. See order form for discounts on multiple copies.

This low-cost guide answers parents' questions about standards -- what do they mean for my child, what if my child didn't pass the test, how can I help my children learn what they need to know? It gives examples of high and low level student work, explains the difference between the new and the old tests, and tells how families can improve student achievement. This is an excellent resource for staff development, parent training and conferences.

Use Urgent Message to:

help parents to look more critically at student work;
explain your school's test data and thier childern's test scores;
help parents understand how a standards-based system works; and,
to engage parents and families in improving student achievement

Written at a fifth grade reading level, this book can reach people of all backgrounds.

Also Available in Spanish

Parents Are Powerful...
Is Powerful!

Thousands of this handy, low-cost guide already are in the hands of parents even though the publication is only a few months old.

We've rushed a new version to you in Spanish -- with the same information, same colorful format, same low price!

This easy-to-read magazine-style resource is helping parents all over the country support their children's learning in lots of ways. They are finding out:

what their rights are as parents
how to advocate for their children
why tracking may be harmful to their children
what federal programs are all about and what parents should expect from them
what high standards mean for their children
the special things they need to know at pre-school, elementary, middle and high schools levels.

Use Parents Are Powerful in lots of ways:

As an educational tool to give to parents at meetings and workshops. The format allows easy copying of background information on federal programs, for example.
To help with your grassroots mobilizing among parents and community groups.
As a great resource for schools to show parents they care about their involvement. Give it out at back-to-school nights, conferences and other activities.
As a family literacy tool. Written at a 6th-grade reading level, it defines terms that parents need to know to work with schools.

Parents Are Powerful
	by Anne T. Henderson, CLE, 32 pp., softcover (1996). $2 each; (Bulk orders available for as low as $1 per copy.)

Los Padres Tienen Poder
	by Anne T. Henderson, translated by Bernardeta McCormick, CLE, $2 single copy (Bulk orders available for as low as $1 per copy.)

Beyond the Bake Sale: An Educator's Guide to Working with Parents

Anne T. Henderson, Carl Marburger and Theodora Ooms, 160 pp. Softcover (1996). $10.95 each.

Think about parents' roles beyond fund-raising and boosterism, enlist them in ways to improve student achievement and school climates. This book was ahead of its time in transforming parent involvement and is essential if you want to create stronger links with families. Learn how to create partnerships with low-income, single and working parents. This is a real classic. It includes a newly updated Resources section.

URGENT MESSAGE! School reforms need parents, now!
	Current school reforms promise quality education in every classroom for every child, but that is not happening. The only way to make it happen and make the reforms stick is for parents to become more active in pushing for fundamental changes in education and to insist that people be held accountable for student success.

Urgent Message:Families Crucial to School Reform will help you make the case for including parents in school reform efforts. You will learn how parent involvement leads to student success and what kinds of parent involvement have the best payoff for kids.

Urgent Message gives you solid research to support greater parent involvement. It describes how parents are included in major reform efforts. It helps you visit eight schools across the country where parents are making a huge difference in student learning with details about how these schools and parents learned to work together. In every school, student achievement went up!

Urgent Message tells you how to start building new kinds of parent involvement. It describes the three most important priorities for people who want schools to help all students meet high standards.

Finally, Urgent Message is full of suggestions about resources you can use. It also describes more than 40 organizations that met together and came up with the message of Urgent Message. This is a report you must have if you want to know how to bring parents and schools together for kids' success.

Use Urgent Message to:

Inform yourself of the issues
Find out how parents' involvement helps children achieve
Learn from others about how schools can become great partners with parents
Share its wealth of information with teachers, parents and community groups
Know what's been written about parents and school reforms and which groups to contact for help.

An invaluable, new resource for everyone who wants all kids to have a quality education. Order today. Just $14.95 per copy plus $5 for postage and handling. See order form below. By Anne T. Henderson and Anne C. Lewis, Center for Law and Education, 120 pages, softcover (1997). Discounts on orders of 10 copies or more.

The New Urban High School: A Practitioner's Guide!
Drawn from the work of the New Urban High School Project (NUHS), this new volume offers a rich resource for practitioners, parents, and other community partners, NUHS identified and has supported urban schools that built around personalizations, connection to the adult world, context for reflection, strong intellectual mission, family and community partnership, and teachers as designers.

The Practitioner's Guide features:
1. case studies of six urban high schools
The case studies are stories of change. They look closely at schools that have developed new designs for teaching and learning, overcome significant barriers to reform, and approached school-to-work as a context for reflection and learning to high academic standards.

The schools are: Central Park East Secondary School, New York, NY; Chicago Vocational Career Academy, Chicago, IL; Hoover High School, San Diego, CA; St. Louis Career Academy, St. Louis, MO; Turner Technical Arts High School, Miami, FL; and the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, Providence, RI.

2. practitioner materials for connecting students with the adult world and personalizing
the learning environment.

These materials consist of easy to adapt tools to help students connect school, workplace, and community. Activities for connecting school work with the "real world" include students projects, career observation and exploration, autobiography and addressing workplace issues. The Guide also includes advice and tools for developing quality mentoring programs. Professional development tools are included such as a guide to creating and assessing integrated curriculum units that meet the full range of needs and abilities.

The New Urban High School is a joint initiative of the Big Picture Company and the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education. The Center for Law and Education has been a major partner and the main subcontractor.

The Big Picture Company, 170 pp. (1998), $25.00 single copy (No Discounts Available)

Small Schools, Big Imaginations - A Creative Look at Urban Public Schools

This is the first comprehensive guide to the growing demand for smaller school environments that is radically changing what goes on in large, mostly urban schools. The evidence is compelling. Small schools can create a sense of belonging, set high expectations for student academic work, transform teaching and accountability, reduce violence and increase parent involvement. Professional development becomes focused on what teachers need for their students and their school. Efforts in Philadelphia, New York City and Chicago provide the evidence.

Small Schools, Big Imaginations describes smaller learning environments from several perspectives -- administrators, teachers, parents and students. It includes the essential elements of small schools, a review of the literature, resources and a case study of costs.

Small Schools, Big Imaginations
Edited by Michelle Fine and Janis Somerville, PUblished by the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform 158 pp. $15 each

This true grassroots guide to organizing in neighborhoods to make schools and communities stronger. It is based on the experience of four public elementary schools and several community groups in Seattle, Wash., but its message is universal.

The Powerful Schools Handbook tells how to start an effort to improve student-performance while building stronger communities; outlines fund raising and managing volunteers, describes family involvement and community involvement; and explains the role of community schools and their adult education programs in improving outcomes for children. It also includes samples of all the materials used by Powerful Schools.

Powerful Schools Handbook: Starting and Running a Collaborative School Improvement Program

Everyone Who Wants to Improve Schools Needs These Classics...

As useful and relevant as the day they were published, these resources belong on the desk of anyone who wants schools and parents to work together. They are common-sense, no-nonsense references with lots of research, guides and advice.

A New Generation of Evidence: The Family Is Critical to Student Achievement

Anne T. Henderson and Nancy Berla, editors, 176pp. softcover (1994). $14.95 each.

A compelling body of research -- 66 studies in all -- shows that family involvement, not income or social status, is the most accurate predictor of student achievement in school. Build your case for reaching out to low-income families with solid research about what happens when schools work with them-improved grades and test scores, increased attendance and higher graduation rates and college attendance.

This is full of research you need to know. It also gives specific information on the benefits of family involvement strategies at all levels -- pre-school through high school.