Holly Holland and Kelly Mazzoli, 2001
This 306-page book offers an insider's account of an urban school reform initiative in an unnamed, mid-sized Midwestern city. Authors Holly Holland and Kelly Mazzoli describe how one of the largest private donations ever made to a single high school is giving a troubled urban school a new lease on life. To help students overcome such obstacles as high poverty, low expectations, inadequate teacher training, bureaucracy, and astonishing parental neglect, school officials created a comprehensive freshman academy where faculty members pledged to become so involved in kids' lives - through targeted and aggressive academic and emotional support - that no one would fall through the cracks. End-of-year surveys suggest that the academy is having an impact; school leaders have set many - but not all - failing students on a more promising path to higher academic achievement, better manners, and more constructive personal habits. To order a copy of the book, contact the publisher at Heinemann, 88 Post Road West, P.O. Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881; phone 800-225-5800; fax 203-750-9790. Holland and Mazzoli published an article describing the reform initiative in the December 2001 issue of Phi Delta Kappan (not yet available online).
