In districts from Chicago to New York to Washington, DC, neighborhood public schools are being forced to compete with charter schools for students and resources, often under the threat of school closure. In "Compete or Close," Julia A. McWilliams provides a compelling ethnographic study of one such school, a neighborhood high school in…

"The Way We Do School: The Making of Oakland's Full-Service Community School District" offers an in-depth profile of the nation's most ambitious community school initiative. The book focuses on a nearly ten-year effort to transform all eighty-six district schools in Oakland, California into community schools in order to better meet the…

Informed by years of research and on-the-ground reporting, "Schools That Succeed" is Karin Chenoweth's most inspiring and compelling book yet--an essential read for educators who seek to break the stubborn connection between academic achievement and socioeconomic status. Chenoweth draws on her decade-long journey into neighborhood…

"From the Courtroom to the Classroom" examines recent developments pertaining to school desegregation in the United States. As the editors note, it comes at a time marked by a "general downplaying of race and ethnicity as criteria for the allocation of public resources, as well as a weakening of the political forces that support…