I occasionally get questions from parents, alumni, and members of the community on my thoughts on the state of public schools and Northwest Classen in particular.  I am happy that people are interested, but I am usually only able to drop a few words and not really help the individuals.  Thus, I have provided here a list of references on schools and school reform which may serve as a guide to parents and other interested people wanting to know more about education.  Some are a bit obscure so you might have to try Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com, or order them thought your local bookstore.

Chasing Hellhounds, by  Marvin Hoffman, Milkweed Press, 1997

Something of a memoir of Hoffman's experiences as a school teacher at all level, this book gives insight into the learning process for children, their struggles of an academic and personal nature, as well as the general problems facing schools today. This is a great book for anyone interested in becoming a teacher.  It's also a very pleasent read -- a bit less academic than the other books on this list.

Community Organizing for Urban School Reform, by Dennis Shirley, University of Texas Press, 1999.
This is a great book for those looking for information on broad school reform based on parental involvement. The book rejects the old model of school reform in which the school is seen as seperate from the community.  Based on case studies in urban Texas schools, the book demonstrates how low-income parents can organized to be advocates for their children at the school, district, county and state level.  Through this new level of involvement, the parents learn to address the issues hindering their children's education and learn to help their community at large.

Catholic Schools and the Common Good, by Anthony Bryk, Valerie Lee, and Peter Holland, Harvard Press, 1993

In some ways, this book is similar to Dennis Shirley's book listed above.  The book contains several case studies of Catholic schools, which have become the focus of much controversy lately as their back-to-basics attitude and mixture of faith and education have shown to be effective at educating children.  Even though it is talking about parochial schools, the book points to many things that Catholic schools do right (namely letting parents and the community have greater control over the curriuculum and other aspects of the school) that the public schools should and can do.

Beyond the Classroom, by Laurence Steinberg, Simon and Schuster, 1996

This is a very interesting study of how the peer culture of a school and other factors beyond the reach of educators effects the education of children.  Although the findings of this book could be used to support a "well it's not our fault" attitude among schools, it gives a very good idea of the kind of limitations that schools and teachers have and the kind of things parents have to do to change those situations.