New York City's Best Public Middle Schools, Third Edition NEW
by Clara Hemphill, Teachers College Press, 2008

Reflecting recent changes brought about by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reorganization of New York City’s public school system, this third edition features all new reviews of 74 of the city’s best public middle schools. Providing everything parents need to know in choosing a middle school that is just right for their child, New York City’s Best Public Middle Schools features interviews with teachers, parents, and students to uncover the “inside scoop” on schools—including atmosphere, homework, student stress, competition among students, the quality of teachers, gender issues, the condition of the building, and more.

"This book can save your life if you are trying to navigate the confusing world of middle school choice. The research is thorough, the guidance is sound, and the authors get that there is not one right answer about what are the 'best' schools, but rather that parents want to know a whole range of details so they can make the 'best' choices for their own individual children," Susan Brenna, middle school parent.

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New York City’s Best Public Elementary Schools, A Parents’ Guide, Third Edition
by Clara Hemphill with Deborah Apsel, Catherine Man, and Pamela Wheaton; Teachers College Press, 2005

Featuring all new profiles of 200 schools, reviewed by the Insideschools staff. The 3rd edition of this acclaimed reference work includes a 30-page introduction on how to choose a school, questions to ask and what to look for on a tour, as well as descriptions of different neighborhoods, and explanations of the city's new teaching methods for math and reading.

"All about city public schools, including what to look for, how to apply, special education, and more. Clara Hemphill’s invaluable guides are “..brisk, thoughtful profiles of top-notch, intriguing schools….” --New York Daily News

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The newest edition is completely updated and revised to reflect the significant changes in NYC’s schools and the latest Department of Education reorganization, this latest in the series has the inside scoop on everything parents need to know when embarking on the daunting high school application process. Descriptions of schools are based on site visits and interviews with teachers, parents and students.

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A Parent's Guide to Special Education in New York City and the Metropolitan Area
by Laurie DuBos and Jana Fromer, Teachers College Press, 2006

A useful directory for parents considering private special education schools in New York City, this book includes profiles of 33 schools and a check list for school visits. Also included are directories of evaluation centers, therapists, medical professionals, therapists, attorneys and advocacy groups. The authors, one the parent of a child with learning disabilities and the other the co-founder of the Gillen Brewer School, share their personal experiences.

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The Manhattan Family Guide to Private Schools and Selective Public Schools, 5th Edition
by Victoria Goldman and Catherine Hausman, New York, Soho Press, Inc., April 2005.

This updated edition to a popular guide includes new private schools such as the elementary school at Columbia University. Buy it online here and a portion of the sales price benefits Insideschools.

The Manhattan Directory of Private Nursery Schools
by Victoria Goldman and Marcy Braun, Soho Press, Inc., August 2002

Every thing a parent wants to know about private nursery schools – mostly in Manhattan. Includes a list of parent-toddler programs and programs for special needs.

Paul Tough, who writes about education for the New York Times Magazine, tackles hefty social science quandaries – like what causes poverty and how it can be alleviated – within the narrative of Geoffrey Canada's dramatic and ongoing struggle to alter the life-prospects for children in Harlem. Canada, who grew-up in the South Bronx , has devoted his professional life to figuring out how to solve poverty by transforming a neighborhood rather than "saving" a few individuals. Canada 's solution, which has been endorsed by President-elect Barack Obama, is to create a safety net of interrelated programs and services that carry enough children from conception to college that the entire neighborhood is "contaminated" with a higher set of expectations. After five years of reporting, Tough describes Canada 's venture – the Harlem Children's Zone – through the stories of the people who work for or are served by the project, which includes two schools. He also explains the research behind anti-poverty efforts, relating it to the sometimes nail biting, sometimes heartbreaking, yet surprisingly hopeful story of Canada's work. (Lindsey Whitton-Christ)

American Public Education Law Primer (Peter Lang Primers)
by David Bloomfield, Peter Lang Pub Inc., September 2007

This readable introduction to American public education law by David Bloomfield, professor of education at Brooklyn College and past president of the Citywide Council on High Schools, is designed to assist practicing educators, students, and parents in acting on everyday legal issues such as student expression, church/state separation, student and teacher discipline, curriculum, legislating and lobbying, parent associations, discrimination, special education, No Child Left Behind, student privacy, and more. Unique features include practical situations, the "Facts and Find" research method, and the "Cascade" approach to understanding the American legal system.

Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade
by Linda Perlstein, Henry Holt and Co., July 2007

Veteran education journalist Linda Perlstein's Tested presents a picture of what it means to be a teacher or student in the era of high-stakes testing. At the Maryland school she profiles, teachers use scripted programs to prepare students for standardized tests that are used to evaluate the school under the federal No Child Left Behind act. While kids post higher test scores, teachers aren't confident that their kids are working on grade level, social studies and science are all but abandoned, and school just isn't much fun. What's more, Perlstein says No Child Left Behind's overwhelming focus on test scores reduces schools' incentives to address kids' non-academic needs. "To deny that what happens outside of school affects what happens inside it is to deny reality," she writes. (Philissa Cramer)

All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education
by Charles J. Ogletree, New York, W.W. Norton & Company; April 2004

In the historic Brown v. Board of Education, handed down 50 years ago by the United States Supreme Court, the doctrine of "separate but equal" public schools was declared unconstitutional. But significantly, in a second decree, the court ordered integration "with all deliberate speed." All Deliberate Speed serves triple duty as an analysis of the Supreme Court and its evolution in the past 50 years as well as a memoir that traces the rise of a small town California boy to a position of prominence at Harvard Law School and a leader in the civil rights movement. (Judy Baum)

The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle
by Dan Brown, Arcade Publishing, August 2007

Dan Brown, who taught for one year at PS 85 in the Bronx, zooms in on New York City as a laboratory for education reform. His term at PS 85 coincided with Chancellor Joel Klein's earliest reforms, which are on full view in the school. We read about how supervisors cared more about the way Brown's bulletin boards looked than the content of his lessons, how programs were purchased and mandated without regard to what was already working, and how increasing bureaucratic requirements and discipline problems prevented him from becoming a better teacher. Brown certainly isn't the most elegant writer ever to tackle his own experience in the classroom, and he doesn't have years of perspective, but he provides useful insight into the effect of reform on individual classrooms and especially into why many young, bright people choose to depart from teaching almost as soon as they begin. (Philissa Cramer)

A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America's Best High Schools
by Alec Klein, Simon & Schuster, August 2007

Journalist Alec Klein's new book is a chronology of several months spent at the highly regarded Stuyvesant High School in the spring of 2006 in which he observes that in some ways, it's not terribly different from other city schools. Grade point averages, pressure from parents, and Ivy League college admissions rank among the most intense issues at the school, but we also learn that academics, while important, are not the most salient features of the typical day; kids still struggle with drugs, court involvement, and putting teen love before homework. A Class Apart also provides a rare look into everyday school governance. While the particular decisions that Principal Stanley Teitel must make are different from those in other schools, the complexity of those choices and the many diverse interests he must satisfy shed light on just how complicated school leadership is. (Philissa Cramer)

Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice
by Sol Stern, New York, Encounter Books; May 2003

A crusty libertarian examines New York City public schools. Politics aside, he really “gets” what goes on in PS 87 and Stuyvesant High School. An engaging, if controversial, look at the arguments for privatization of public schools.

Everyday Goodbyes, Starting School and Early Care, a Guide to the Separation process
by Nancy Balaban, Teachers College Press; January 2006

As the title suggests the book is about how to recognize and cope with problems saying good bye. The book focuses mostly on very young children, but similar problems often surface on the first days of kindergarten.

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Playing to Get Smart
by Elizabeth Jones and Renatta M. Cooper, Teachers College Press; November 2005

In Playing to Get Smart, Jones and Cooper assert that “play is what young children do best,” and “it’s through play that young children get smart.” Their book is an argument on play as an important and much neglected component of early childhood education. The book is not only a serious academic/ philosophic treatise, but also describes many instances of children at play that illustrate how play contributes to critical thinking, promotes language development, exploration and investigation and more. And its fun too: throughout there are sprinkled the kind of jokes that kids love: “Why did the whale cross the ocean? To get to the other tide.” “Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide.” (Judy Baum)

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Significant Studies for Second Grade: Reading and Writing Investigations for Children
by Karen Ruzzo, Mary Anne Sacco, Heinemann; February 2004

A year in the life of second graders at Manhattan New School.

The Art of Teaching Writing, New Edition
by Lucy McCormick Calkins, Heinemann; September 1994

Calkins’ Writing process method is the gold standard for teaching writing in the city and throughout the country. This updated edition includes new chapters on assessment, thematic studies home/school connections and more.

Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
by Lisa D. Delpit, New York, New Press, February 1996

Essays in the complexities of teaching and learning in dirverse classrooms. Delpit’s book is “provocative, good reading and appropriately disturbing.” -- Deborah Meier.

Teaching Your Child to Love Learning: A Guide to Doing Projects at Home
by Judy Harris Helm, Stacey Berg and Pam Scranton, New York, Teachers’ College Press; April 2004

Here's an easy to understand book about the importance of offering children a lot of different ways to experience the world and to transform their experience through hands on projects. There are seven examples of activities that real children and their parents or grandparents completed. The authors detail a step-by-step approach, from choosing a topic to selecting materials to celebrating completion. The book also includes ideas for adopting the project approach to family day care centers and home schooling.

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Making the Most of Middle School: A Field Guide for Parents and Others
by Anthony Jackson, P. Gayle Andrews, Holly Holland and Priscilla Pardini, New York, Teachers’ College Press; May 2004

As young adolescents stumble their way to adulthood, they need parent support more than ever. Making the Most of Middle School, a Field Guide for Parents and Others offers ways that home and school and parent and child can form partnerships to ease the stress and foster learning. The book includes the authors' personal experiences, their surveys of middle-grades students in eight states and their distillation of the landmark reports Turning Points (1989) and Turning Points 2000 (which they wrote).

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The Elements of Style
by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, Longman, January 2000

Teachers, parents, and high school students should read this fun and easy to read guide to writing that offers simple techniques to transform awkward, confusing sentences into clear and concise ones. Humorous explanations will surprise and amuse most readers.

Reading Strategies: A Guide for Parents and Caregivers,
by Renee Jones, MS. Ed

Parents looking for ways to reinforce their kids' reading ability will find this guide straightforward and practical. There are more than 60 easy to follow one page lessons, often based on materials you can find at home. In addition you'll find vocabulary and grammar tips and lists of follow-up books you can find at the library. $14.95. Available by calling 678-860-4343 or emailing at readingstrategies@yahoo.com