A comprehensive exploration of 21st Century school politics, Teachers versus the Public offers the first comparison of the education policy views of both teachers and the public as a whole, and reveals a deep, broad divide between the opinions held by citizens and those who teach in the public schools. Among the findings: - Divisions between teachers and the public are wider and deeper than differences between other groups often thought to contest school policy, such as Republicans and Democrats, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, or African Americans and whites. - The teacher-public gap is widest on such issues as merit pay, teacher tenure reform, impact of teacher unions, school vouchers, charter schools, and requirements to test students annually. - Public support for school vouchers for all students, charter schools, and parent trigger laws increases sharply when people are informed of the national ranking of student performance in their local school district. - Public willingness to give local schools high marks, its readiness to support higher spending levels, and its support for teacher unions all decline when the public learns the national ranking of their local schools. - On most issues, teacher opinion does not change in response to new information nearly as much as it does for the public as a whole. In fact, the gap between what teachers and the public think about school reform grows even wider when both teachers and the public are given more information about current school performance, current expenditure levels, and current teacher pay. The book provides the first experimental study of public and teacher opinion. Using a recently developed research strategy, the authors ask differently worded questions about the same topic to randomly chosen segments of representative groups of citizens. This approach allows them to identify the impact on public opinion of new information on issues such as student performance and school expenditures in each respondent's community. The changes in public opinion when citizens receive information about school performance are largest in districts that perform below the national average. Altogether, the results indicate that support for many school reforms would increase if common core state standards were established and implemented in such a way as to inform the public about the quality of their local schools. These and many other findings illuminate the distance between teacher opinions and those of the public at large. About the Research: In partnership with the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance and the journal, Education Next, authors Paul E. Peterson, Martin West and Michael Henderson surveyed nationally representative samples of teachers and the public as a whole annually between 2007 and 2013.

Geology Applied to Engineering bridges the gap between the two fields through its versatile application of the physical aspects of geology to engineering design and construction. The Second Edition elucidates real-world practices, concerns, and issues for today’s engineering geologists and geotechnical engineers. Both undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from the book’s thorough coverage, as will professionals involved in assessing sites for engineering projects, evaluating construction materials, developing water resources, and conducting tests using industry standards. West and Shakoor offer expanded coverage of important topics such as slope stability and ground subsidence and significant fields in engineering geology, such as highways, dams, tunnels, and rock blasting. In order to allow for the diverse backgrounds of geologists and engineers, material on the properties of minerals, rocks, and soil provides a working knowledge of applied geology as a springboard to more comprehensive subjects in engineering. Example problems throughout the text demonstrate the practical applications of soil mechanics, rock weathering and soils, structural geology, groundwater, and geophysics. Thought-provoking and challenging exercises supplement core concepts such as determining shear strength and failure conditions, calculating the depth needed for borings, reading and analyzing maps, and constructing stratigraphic cross sections.

The first broad account offering a non-mathematical, unified treatment of solid state chemistry. Describes synthetic methods, X-ray diffraction, principles of inorganic crystal structures, crystal chemistry and bonding in solids; phase diagrams of 1, 2 and 3 component systems; the electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of solids; three groups of industrially important inorganic solids--glass, cement, and refractories; and certain aspects of organic solid state chemistry, including the ``organic metal'' of new materials.

Table of contents

This history of mathematics stresses the historical imperative as to why maths happened from its beginnings to 1800 in Europe and beyond.

In Mill's 'Utilitarianism': A Reader's Guide, Henry R. West offers a clear, thorough and detailed review of the key themes and a lucid commentary that will enable readers to rapidly navigate the text. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of the text as a whole, the guide explores the complex and important ideas inherent in the text and provides a cogent survey of the reception and influence of Mill's seminal work.

A Brookings Institution Press and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute publication From race to speech, from religion to school funding, from discipline to special education, few aspects of education policy have escaped the courtroom over the past fifty years. Predictably, much controversy has ensued. Supporters of education litigation contend that the courts are essential to secure student (and civil) rights, while critics insist that the courts distort policy and that the mere threat of litigation undermines the authority of teachers and administrators. From Schoolhouse to Courthouse brings together experts on law, political science, and education policy to test these claims. Shep Melnick (Boston College) and James Ryan (University of Virginia School of Law) draw lessons from judicial efforts to promote school desegregation and civil rights. Martha Derthick (University of Virginia), John Dinan (Wake Forest University), and Michael Heise (Cornell Law School) discuss litigation over high-stakes testing and school finance in the era of No Child Left Behind. Richard Arum (New York University), Samuel R. Bagenstos (Washington University Law School), and Frederick M. Hess (American Enterprise Institute) analyze the consequences of court rulings for school discipline, special education, and district management. Finally, editors Joshua Dunn and Martin R. West probe the tangled relationship between religious freedom, student speech, and school choice.

Growing up in Peculiar County, Kansas, is a mighty...well, peculiar experience. In 1965, things get even stranger for Dibby Caldwell, the mortician's fifteen year old daughter. A young boy's ghost haunts Dibby into unearthing the circumstances of his death. Nobody—living or dead—wants her to succeed. James, the new mop-topped, bad boy at school doesn’t help. Dibby can’t get him out of her head, even though she doesn’t trust him. No, sir, there's nothing much more peculiar than life in Peculiar County…except maybe death in Peculiar County.

Selected contributions to the Ninth World Shakespeare Congress, which took place in July 2011 in Prague, represent the contemporary state of Shakespeare studies in thirty-eight countries worldwide. Apart from readings of Shakespeare’s plays and poems, more than forty chapters map Renaissance contexts of his art in politics, theater, law, or material culture and discuss numerous cases of the impact of his works in global culture from the Americas to the Far East, including stage productions, book culture, translations, film and television adaptations, festivals, and national heritage. The last section of the book focuses on the afterlife of Shakespeare in the work of the leading British dramatist Tom Stoppard. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Synthesizing rhetorical and cultural theory, Signs of Struggle generates innovative approaches to current critical theories of difference, culture, gender, and race, sheds new light on multicultural issues, and suggests productive avenues for further exploration. Through a critical examination of the more cherished ideals of liberalism—governance through negotiated consensus, tolerance, and civility—West calls for the expansion of the ground rules for risky interaction that involves attention to the "emotional politics" of cultural difference. In an engaging and pointedly straightforward style, West encourages a more productive engagement with difference, rather than an approach that merely celebrates diversity.