15 must-read books about K-12 education in the US

Confused by the rhetoric? Here are 15 books to help you understand public education in the US today.

6. 'Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City,' by Barbara J. Miner

In this highly anticipated work of narrative nonfiction (now available for pre-order), journalist Barbara J. Miner tells the fascinating story of how the Civil Rights Movement came to Milwaukee and reshaped its public schools. She also shows how the education reform movement came to Wisconsin and how the city of Milwaukee itself became a lightning rod for efforts at school resegregation. The current education politics of Wisconsin date back at least 50 years, and have important implications for education throughout the country.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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