The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Graduates by
Give Your College Graduate the Gift of Lifelong Success Make The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Graduates the perfect college graduation gift. Equip your college graduate with the essential life skills for success. Based on Stephen Covey's bestselling classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (over 40 million sold), this special edition book empowers graduates with timeless wisdom, positive affirmations, and thought-provoking questions to cultivate highly effective habits, maintain focus, and stay motivated. From conquering challenges to embracing growth, this book provides the guidance needed to navigate the post-graduation journey with confidence and build a fulfilling life. The perfect graduation gift idea that will leave a lasting impact. Celebrate your graduate's milestone achievement with a gift that inspires and empowers. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Graduates offers practical advice, inspiring quotes, and daily motivation for teenagers entering adulthood. Help them build a growth mindset, challenge their beliefs, and develop the habits necessary for success in various aspects of life. Whether it's finding their career path, building strong relationships, or staying resilient during setbacks, this book provides the tools to thrive. Inside, you'll find: Practical guidance to help college graduates develop highly effective habits Thought-provoking questions to challenge and shape their beliefs Daily inspiration with powerful quotes and affirmations for motivation and positivity A proven framework based on Stephen Covey's international bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People If you enjoyed books like The Graduates Handbook, Need to Know for Graduates, Navigating College With the 7 Habits, or The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make, you'll love The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Graduates.
Self-Care for College Students by
Make the most out of your college experience with these manageable self-care tips that are easy to incorporate into your busy college lifestyle. As a student in college--you're dealing with a lot. At times this can be physically, mentally, and emotionally draining between classes, homework, activities, and building a new social life for yourself. But the secret to making sure these are the best years of your life is making time for self-care. If you've been working for hours on your latest paper, take a walk around campus to get moving. If you're feeling tired after a long week of classes and activities, give yourself permission to say no to those Friday night plans and take a relaxing evening for yourself. Self-Care for College Students offers suggestions that help you tackle every aspect of taking care of yourself from the simplest tasks to rewarding activities that might require more planning. Whether it is making sure you eat a healthy meal to utilizing your school's support services, there is advice for any situation. In this book, find realistic and practical self-care activities that you can try right away to maximize your college experience. Each activity is designed to help you refuel, such as making sure you get enough sleep to developing an exercise routine. Start making time for you and make your college years the best of your life--all while building lifelong habits for success and happiness for years to come.
The Freshman Survival Guide by
A completely revised and updated values-based guide to navigating the first year of college that speaks to college students in their own language and offers practical tools that readers need to keep from drinking, sleeping, or skipping their way out of college. In the four years since its initial publication, The Freshman Survival Guide has helped thousands of first year students make a successful transition to college life. However, much has changed on campuses. The explosion of technology, ubiquity of social media, and culture changes have all added new layers of complexity to the leap from high school to college. The Freshman Survival Guide's updated edition features new research and advice on issues such as mental health, sexual assault, and finding balance. It also features expanded sections on dating, money management, and an increased focus on how the over 1.5 million incoming freshman can prepare themselves for the biggest change they've encountered in their lives: heading off to college.
Portraits of Promise by
By 2040, more than 30 percent of students in the United States will be immigrants or the children of immigrants. What factors can help these young people thrive in school, despite the many obstacles they face? And how can school staff best support immigrant students' academic and personal success? In Portraits of Promise, educators hear from the ultimate experts--successful newcomer students who have been in the United States for five years or less. Drawing on the students' own stories, the book highlights the kinds of support and resources that help students engage positively with school culture, establish supportive peer networks, form strong bonds with teachers, manage competing expectations from home and school, and navigate the challenges of high-stakes testing and the college application process.
Academic Library Services for First-Generation Students by
Presenting strategies for improving academic library services for first-generation students, this timely book focuses on programs and services that will increase student academic engagement and success. Demographic data and secondary school graduation rates suggest that colleges and universities will enroll growing numbers of first-generation students over the next decade. Academic Library Services for First-Generation Students focuses on ways academic libraries can uniquely contribute to the successful transition to college and year-to-year retention of first-generation students. The practical recommendations in this book include a wide range of ideas for the design and modification of library services and facilities to be more inclusive of the needs of first-generation students. All of the recommendations are specifically aimed at addressing challenges faced by first-generation students. Topics covered range from study spaces and service points to information literacy instruction and campus partnerships. The book makes the case--both explicitly and implicitly--that academic libraries can help address known risk factors (e.g., by helping students build academic cultural competencies) and thereby improve success, persistence, and retention for first-generation students. Academic library professionals in both leadership roles and public service positions will benefit from the actionable strategies presented here.
Parenting to a Degree by
Helicopter parents--the kind that continue to hover even in college--are one of the most ridiculed figures of twenty-first-century parenting, criticized for creating entitled young adults who boomerang back home. But do involved parents really damage their children and burden universities? In this book, sociologist Laura T. Hamilton illuminates the lives of young women and their families to ask just what role parents play during the crucial college years. Hamilton vividly captures the parenting approaches of mothers and fathers from all walks of life--from a CFO for a Fortune 500 company to a waitress at a roadside diner. As she shows, parents are guided by different visions of the ideal college experience, built around classed notions of women's work/family plans and the ideal age to "grow up." Some are intensively involved and hold adulthood at bay to cultivate specific traits: professional helicopters, for instance, help develop the skills and credentials that will advance their daughters' careers, while pink helicopters emphasize appearance, charm, and social ties in the hopes that women will secure a wealthy mate. In sharp contrast, bystander parents--whose influence is often limited by economic concerns--are relegated to the sidelines of their daughter's lives. Finally, paramedic parents--who can come from a wide range of class backgrounds--sit in the middle, intervening in emergencies but otherwise valuing self-sufficiency above all. Analyzing the effects of each of these approaches with clarity and depth, Hamilton ultimately argues that successfully navigating many colleges and universities without involved parents is nearly impossible, and that schools themselves are increasingly dependent on active parents for a wide array of tasks, with intended and unintended consequences. Altogether, Parenting to a Degree offers an incisive look into the new--and sometimes problematic--relationship between students, parents, and universities.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Action by
All too often, in a hurried attempt to "catch up," diversity training can create division among staff or place undue burdens on a handful of employees. Instead, academic libraries need approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that position these priorities as ongoing institutional and professional goals. This book's model programs will help academic libraries do exactly that, sharing a variety of initiatives that possess clear goals, demonstrable outcomes, and reproducible strategies. Librarians, administrators, and directors will all benefit from the programs detailed inside, which include such topics as a university library's community of practice for interactions and learning around DEI; cultural competency training to create more welcoming instruction spaces; student workshops on literature searches that mitigate bias; overcoming the historic tendency to marginalize LGBTQ+ representation in archives; a curriculum and design workshop that moved from discussing social values to embedding them in actions; the founding of a library-led LGBT club for students at a rural community college; a liberal arts college's retention-boosting program for first-generation students; tailoring a collection and library services to the unique needs of student veterans; and a framework for moving from diversity to equity and inclusion, toward a goal of social justice.
Supporting Today's Students in the Library by
"Supporting Todays Students in the Library collects current strategies from all types of academic libraries for retaining and graduating nontraditional students, with many of them based on learning theories and teaching methodologies. The book explores methods for overcoming language barriers, discusses best practices, and presents case studies that support the changing student population. Additionally, Supporting Todays Students in the Library provides a variety of ideas for new services, spaces, and outreach opportunities that support nontraditional students on campus and beyond"--
Student Wellness and Acad Libraries Case Studies and Activity by 
Understanding the Adult Learner by
Adults seek out learning for very different reasons in different contexts, and this book is intended to support adult educators' development in responding to this rich array. There is no single way to be an adult learner, and so it should not be surprising that there is no single way to be an adult educator. However, the authors believe that all educators must demonstrate a commitment to meeting adult learners where they are. Adult educators should help learners move forward not only with new content knowledge, information, and skills, but also with new ways of making meaning and seeing themselves, their role, and the world. This volume introduces many theories and concepts that can help adult educators do this effectively.
The Infographic Guide to College by
For fans of the popular Show Me How series, this illustrated guide to college life has everything a student needs to excel in their first year, from tips on getting involved around campus to advice about applying for loans and studying for exams. College survival just got graphic! Get a head start at school with this infographic guide to college life, with colorful descriptions of all the skills you need to survive and thrive in college, and advice about how to: -Avoid the Freshman 15 -Declare a major -Get around town -Apply for a loan -Ace your exams -Master study habits -Stay healthy -And so much more! With over fifty colorful, easy-to-read infographics, you'll know how to make the most of your time in college and be fully prepared for the next step in your education.
College Students' Sense of Belonging by
This book explores how belonging differs based on students' social identities, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, or the conditions they encounter on campus. Belonging--with peers, in the classroom, or on campus--is a critical dimension of success at college. It can affect a student's degree of academic adjustment, achievement, aspirations, or even whether a student stays in school. The 2nd Edition of College Students' Sense of Belonging explores student sub-populations and campus environments, offering readers updated information about sense of belonging, how it develops for students, and a conceptual model for helping students belong and thrive. Underpinned by theory and research and offering practical guidelines for improving educational environments and policies, this book is an important resource for higher education and student affairs professionals, scholars, and graduate students interested in students' success. New to this second edition: A refined theory of college students' sense of belonging and review of current literature in light of new and emerging theories; Expanded best practices related to fostering sense of belonging in classrooms, clubs, residence halls, and other contexts; Updated research and insights for new student populations such as youth formerly in foster care, formerly incarcerated adults, and homeless students; Coverage on a broad range of topics since the first edition of this book, including cultural navigation, academic spotting, and the "shared faith" element of belonging.
College Student Retention by
Although access to higher education is virtually universally available, college student retention stills remains a vexing and puzzling problem for educators and legislators. In College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success, second edition, Alan Seidman deals with this problematic issue by examining a number of areas critical to the retention of students, including the history, the theories and concepts, models, and a standardized definition of the term. Seidman and his contributors also lay out the financial implications and trends of retention in one of their updated chapters. Completely new to this edition are three chapters that examine several recent issues: the current theories of retention, retention of online students, and retention in community colleges. Tying all of these components together, Seidman then presents his formula and highly successful model for student success that colleges can implement to effect change in retaining students and helping them to complete their academic and personal goals.
The First Year of College by
This book is premised on a very powerful social/educational concern about college retention rates: one-third of first-year students seriously consider leaving college during their first term, and only half of all students who start college ultimately graduate. This book examines the first year of college from a variety of perspectives to paint a comprehensive picture of the intersecting challenges facing today's students and higher education institutions. Technological advances, increases in college attendance costs, and increasing political pressure on colleges to prove their value have changed the landscape of the first year of college, but researchers have identified new approaches to improve student and institutional success that have shown considerable success and promise. In this comprehensive volume, top educational researchers explore topics of student success, persistence, and retention in the first year of college.
Thinking Critically in College by
Finally, a college prep book that actually prepares students for college! Almostall first-year college students discover that college courses are moreacademically challenging than they expected, and certainly harder thanclasses in high school. Professors expect students not just to absorbmaterial, but to analyze and synthesize it, consider multipleperspectives, evaluate conflicting evidence, and then apply what they've learned in new contexts. Thinking Critically in College explains how to do all this and more. Louis E. Newman draws on decades of experience as a professor atCarleton College and Dean of Academic Advising and Associate ViceProvost for Undergraduate Education at Stanford, offering the guidanceyou need to succeed both in college and in life post-graduation. Uniqueamong college prep books, Thinking Critically in College buildson the latest research in learning, spells out the key critical thinkingskills you need, shows you how to tackle actual college assignments,and provides exercises throughout to reinforce the lessons. Written in a personal, engaging style, Thinking Critically in Collegeexplains how to do the work your professors will require--exactly thepreparation you need, no matter what your academic background.Practical, accessible, comprehensive, and interactive, Thinking Critically in Collegeis the definitive guide, not only for those in college or headed there,but for everyone who needs a refresher on thinking clearly.
Becoming a Student-Ready College by
Boost student success by reversing your perspective on college readiness The national conversation asking "Are students college-ready?" concentrates on numerous factors that are beyond higher education's control. Becoming a Student-Ready College flips the college readiness conversation to provide a new perspective on creating institutional value and facilitating student success. Instead of focusing on student preparedness for college (or lack thereof), this book asks the more pragmatic question of what are colleges and universities doing to prepare for the students who are entering their institutions? What must change in an institution's policies, practices, and culture in order to be student-ready? Clear and concise, this book is packed with insightful discussion and practical strategies for achieving your ambitious student success goals. These ideas for redesigning practices and policies provide more than food for thought--they offer a real-world framework for real institutional change. You'll learn: How educators can acknowledge their own biases and assumptions about underserved students in order to allow for change New ways to advance student learning and success How to develop and value student assets and social capital Strategies and approaches for creating a new student-focused culture of leadership at every level To truly become student-ready, educators must make difficult decisions, face the pressures of accountability, and address their preconceived notions about student success head-on. Becoming a Student-Ready College provides a reality check based on today's higher education environment.
College (Un)Bound by
What is the value of a college degree? The four-year college experience is as American as apple pie. So is the belief that higher education offers a ticket to a better life. But with student-loan debt surpassing the $1 trillion mark and unemployment of college graduates at historic highs, people are beginning to question that value. InCollege (Un)bound, Jeffrey J. Selingo argues that America's higher education system is broken. The great credential race has turned universities into big business and fostered an environment where middle-tier colleges can command elite university-level tuition while concealing staggeringly low graduation rates, churning out graduates with few of the skills needed for a rapidly evolving job market. Selingo not only turns a critical eye on the current state of higher education but also predicts how technology will transform it for the better. Free massive online open courses (MOOCs) and hybrid classes, adaptive learning software, and the unbundling of traditional degree credits will increase access to high-quality education regardless of budget or location and tailor lesson plans to individual needs. Incisive, urgent, and controversial,College (Un)bound is a must-read for prospective students, parents, and anyone concerned with the future of American higher education.
Erasing the Finish Line by
Moving beyond a prescribed path for success, Erasing the Finish Line highlights the essential skills to help each young person thrive in school and life For years, we've been led to believe that great grades, high test scores, and college acceptance are key to a successful life. Yet our laser focus on these achievements leaves students feeling anxious, demoralized, and unprepared. What if we've overlooked the critical skills young adults need to navigate an ever-changing world? What fundamental skills help young people adapt, persevere, and thrive? Academic advisor and early career development expert Ana Homayoun answers these questions and more in her accessible and solutions-oriented guide to transforming future generations. In her ground-breaking new book, Erasing the Finish Line, Homayoun flips the way we think about education. In this refreshing approach, Homayoun reveals new strategies to help each student develop their own blueprint for success, including how to: Develop a system based on executive functioning skills Build valuable social capital while fostering genuine connections Identify energy profile and how to recharge Expand perspective through immersive exposure Remain adaptable in the face of disappointments and setbacks Through a powerful blend of theory, strategies and storytelling from former and current students, Homayoun's layered approach to revisioning education will bring sharp realization to parents, educators, and policy-makers alike.
Redesigning America's Community Colleges by
In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year-nearly half of the nation's undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This fact has put pressure on community colleges to improve academic outcomes for their students. Redesigning America's Community Colleges is a concise, evidence-based guide for educational leaders whose institutions typically receive short shrift in academic and policy discussions. It makes a compelling case that two-year colleges can substantially increase their rates of student success, if they are willing to rethink the ways in which they organize programs of study, support services, and instruction. Community colleges were originally designed to expand college enrollments at low cost, not to maximize completion of high-quality programs of study. The result was a cafeteria-style model in which students pick courses from a bewildering array of choices, with little guidance. The authors urge administrators and faculty to reject this traditional model in favor of "guided pathways"-clearer, more educationally coherent programs of study that simplify students' choices without limiting their options and that enable them to complete credentials and advance to further education and the labor market more quickly and at less cost. Distilling a wealth of data amassed from the Community College Research Center (Teachers College, Columbia University), Redesigning America's Community Colleges offers a fundamental redesign of the way two-year colleges operate, stressing the integration of services and instruction into more clearly structured programs of study that support every student's goals.
How to Study in College by
This best-selling text has helped over a million students transform adequate work into academic success. Based on widely tested educational and learning theory, How to Study in College teaches useful study techniques such as visual thinking, active listening, concentration techniques, note-taking strategies, and test taking, while incorporating material on life skills.Questions in the Margin, a useful in-text study tool, encourages students to reflect on content and then formulate and record questions based on the most important points conveyed in the text. A second TOC featuring brief summaries of each chapter has been added.
Becoming a Master Student by
BECOMING A MASTER STUDENT, Sixteenth Edition, is all about discovery, intention, and action. As students begin their college education, they embrace a new culture and need new tools to be successful. BECOMING A MASTER STUDENT can be their guide! Tools like the Discovery Wheel, Discovery and Intention Journal System, Power Process articles, Master Student Profiles, and the Kolb Learning Style Inventory will give students a deeper knowledge of themselves and their power to be successful in college. Integrated technology discussions and tips throughout the chapters help today's students navigate the wide variety of web resources and apps that can support them throughout college. And, with this edition, Cengage's MindTap course brings all of these assets to one place with an integrated technology solution. New for 2021: Empower your students to connect the dots between what they�re learning now and their current or future careers with �How Transferable Are Your Skills?� - a new MindTap activity that challenges students to identify how their personal and academic experiences can help them become career-ready.
The Career Arts by
A persuasive case for building career success through broad education, targeted skills, and social capital Young people coming out of high school today can expect to hold many jobs over the course of their lives, which is why they need a range of essential skills. The Career Arts provides a corrective to the widespread and misleading notion that there is a direct trade-off between going to college and acquiring practical job skills. Ben Wildavsky cuts through the noise and anxiety surrounding this issue to offer sensible, clear-eyed guidance for anyone who is making decisions about education and career preparation with a view to getting ahead in the workforce. Drawing on evidence-based research, illuminating case studies, and in-depth interviews, Wildavsky shares the most vital lessons of what he calls the career arts, which include cultivating a mix of broad and targeted skills, taking advantage of employer-funded education benefits, and preparing for the world as it is, not as you wish it could be. He explains why college remains the gold standard of credentials, and presents the most promising high-quality supplements and alternatives to college that can help learners combine general and job-specific skills. He shows how building social capital is also critical to success, particularly for disadvantaged students. An invaluable guidebook for students, parents, counselors, and educators, The Career Arts reveals why college education and job preparation are not either-or propositions and identifies the blend of education and networking needed to support real-world career aspirations.
Check It Off! by
Check It Off! Pave Your Way through College to Career is an excellent resource for high-school students entering college and a great read for parents too! Vera Teller, a college lecturer of first-year seminars, shows readers what they need to do in college to prepare themselves to seek employment and obtain a career once graduated. Check It Off! provides a checklist of activities for each year of college to prepare the student for a career and to help him or her answer the three most important questions: 1. What do I like to do? 2. What do I want to do? 3. What does the world need? This book is a quick, easy read that uniquely focuses on the activities students should pursue during college rather than after college. Check It Off! provides a proactive approach to career planning that steers the student to explore activities in preparation of a career and career direction.
College Admission Essentials by
You can get into the perfect school! You may think that getting an acceptance letter from selective colleges and universities is a mad dash to the top that only the very best students survive, and those who make it are just the lucky ones. Stress levels soar as it feels like the bar is rising higher and everything is out of your control. But that's not true! You can take control, and you can do it in a way that's as effective as it is empowering. From describing your extracurriculars to interviews with admission officers, it comes down to two questions: What matters most to you? How does it manifest in your life? The answers will give direction to every part of the admission process. Ethan Sawyer (the College Essay Guy), along with dozens of top admission experts, will help you stand out by showing colleges and universities how your values and your drive will change you, your alma mater, and the world. Inside you'll find... Advice and insight from a team of counselors, advisors, and deans of admission Interactive exercises that quickly and easily provide the best content for your application Access to a massive database of online resources, including organizational tools and in-depth guides Guidance for veterans, students with learning differences, LGBTQ+ students, students interested in women's colleges or HBCUs, and more www.collegeessayguy.com
College Success for Students with Learning Disabilities by
The complete handbook for college-bound kids with learning disabilities. Planning for college can be one of the biggest moments in a teen's life, but for those students with learning and other disabilities, the college experience can be fraught with frustration, uncertainty, and lowered self-confidence. College Success for Students with Learning Disabilities offers teens the confidence, strategies, and guidance they need to effectively choose a college, get prepared for university life, and make the most of their collegiate experience. Special sections also discuss ADD/ADHD and Asperger's syndrome. The book covers pertinent topics such as understanding the rights and responsibilities of students with special needs, talking to professors and peers, getting involved, asking for and receiving accommodations, and utilizing one's strengths to meet and exceed academic standards. This unique reference book also includes ahandy guide to universities with special programs and advice from current college students with disabilities to empower future students and provide them with hope for success.
Critical Writing by
The main goal of Critical Writing is to provide students with a set of robust, integrated critical concepts and processes that will allow to them think through and write about a topic in a way that is built on--and permeated by--substantive critical thinking. This step-by-step guide shows: how to construct a thesis statement and the other main points that constitute the structure of the paper; how to write the paragraphs that make up the body of the paper; how to engage in productive research in a planned, self-directed way; how to make a point clear--not just grammatically or stylistically but also how to clearly convey ideas to an audience; how to think your way through the numerous unanticipated issues (including aspects of grammatical correctness, transitions, and many others) that arise while writing papers. Each step provides close and careful processes for carrying out each of these tasks, through the use of critical thinking.
How to Succeed at University (and Get a Great Job!) by
Going to university is an exciting time of life that involves many things: learning, meeting new people, making decisions, building relationships, and gaining greater independence. But getting a university education can also be a source of undue stress. What courses should I take? What program should I get in to? Will I get a job after graduation? It's easy to become discouraged, especially when you don't see what relationship studying Plato, Shakespeare, or Sartre has to the real world. How to Succeed at University (and Get a Great Job!) shows that the best preparation for success at life and on the job is succeeding at university. Giving oral presentations, working in teams, meeting deadlines, overcoming challenges, locating information, explaining events, writing well, and dealing with people in authority are essential in any professional job. These same skills are also vital for becoming a strong student. This book gives you advice and strategies, along with real-life examples, on how to improve the skills that guarantee success at school, work, and in life. More than that, by mastering these easy-to-learn skills, you will also have the time to enjoy all the other benefits that a university education provides. This practical guide is meant for university, college, and high school students, as well as instructors, guidance counsellors, and parents. In answering many of the questions that students and recent graduates have about succeeding in their courses and in their post-school careers, this book shows that the path from university to the real world can be straightforward and exciting if you know what you are doing.
Increasing Persistence by
INCREASING PERSISTENCE "Of all the books addressing the puzzle of student success and persistence, I found this one to be the most helpful and believe it will be extremely useful to faculty and staff attempting to promote student success. The authors solidly ground their work in empirical research, and do a brilliant job providing both an overview of the relevant literature as well as research-based recommendations for intervention." --GAIL HACKETT, PH.D., provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs; professor, counseling and educational psychology, University of Missouri, Kansas City Research indicates that approximately forty percent of all college students never earn a degree anywhere, any time in their lives. This fact has not changed since the middle of the 20th century. Written for practitioners and those who lead retention and persistence initiatives at both the institutional and public policy levels, Increasing Persistence offers a compendium on college student persistence that integrates concept, theory, and research with successful practice. It is anchored by the ACT's What Works in Student Retention (WWISR) survey of 1,100 colleges and universities, an important resource that contains insights on the causes of attrition and identifies retention interventions that are most likely to enhance student persistence.?? The authors focus on three essential conditions for student success: students must learn; students must be motivated, committed, engaged, and self-regulating; and students must connect with educational programs consistent with their interests and abilities. The authors offer a detailed discussion of the four interventions that research shows are the most effective for helping students persist and succeed: assessment and course placement, developmental education initiatives, academic advising, and student transition programming. Finally, they urge broadening the current retention construct, providing guidance to policy makers, campus leaders, and individuals on the contributions they can make to student success.
Learning Communities by
Learning Communities is a groundbreaking book that shows how learning communities (LCs) can be a flexible and effective approach to enhancing student learning, promoting curricular coherence, and revitalizing faculty. Written by Barbara Leigh Smith, Jean MacGregor, Roberta S. Matthews, and Faith Gabelnick¾acclaimed national leaders in the learning communities movement¾this important book provides the historical, conceptual, and philosophical context for LCs and clearly demonstrates that they can be a key element in institutional transformation.
Learning in the Fast Lane by
The first book to tell the story of the Advanced Placement program, the gold standard for academic rigor in American high schools The Advanced Placement program stands as the foremost source of college-level academics for millions of high school students in the United States and beyond. More than 22,000 schools now participate in it, across nearly forty subjects, from Latin and art to calculus and computer science. Yet remarkably little has been known about how this nongovernmental program became one of the greatest success stories in K-12 education--until now. In Learning in the Fast Lane, Chester Finn and Andrew Scanlan, two of the country's most respected education analysts, offer a groundbreaking account of one of the most important educational initiatives of our time. Learning in the Fast Lane traces the story of AP from its mid-twentieth-century origins as a niche benefit for privileged students to its emergence as a springboard to college for high schoolers nationwide, including hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged youth. Today, AP not only opens new intellectual horizons for smart teenagers, but also strengthens school ratings, attracts topflight teachers, and draws support from philanthropists, reformers, and policymakers. At the same time, it faces numerous challenges, including rival programs, curriculum wars, charges of elitism, the misgivings of influential universities, and the difficulty of infusing rigor into schools that lack it. In today's polarized climate, can AP maintain its lofty standards and surmount the problems that have sunk so many other bold education ventures? Richly documented and thoroughly accessible, Learning in the Fast Lane is a must-read for anyone with a stake in the American school system.
Recipes for Mindfulness in Your Library by
Mindfulness not only offers the possibility of a healthy life/career balance for librarians themselves, but in challenging times of rapid social change and uncertainty, it also represents a powerful way to build community resilience. In fact, mindfulness experiences can be structured to nurture the kind of civic engagement and discourse essential for library support. This collection explores a wide range of approaches that demonstrate how librarians have integrated mindfulness into their teaching, collections, services, programming, spaces, partnerships, and professional development. An inspirational idea generator for library administrators, marketers, and outreach staff, in this book the contributors delve into such mindful activities as using a work journal to practice reflective writing; mindful strategies for leading library teams; yoga and meditation groups at public libraries; helping students destress with a library Zen Zone; deploying digital resources to promote mindfulness; mindful scholarship at Minneapolis College; and overcoming research anxiety using a mindful approach. As more librarians commit to individual and sustained reflection and practices in their own lives, those approaches can expand to include the communities they serve. This collection offers more than a dozen in-depth examples of mindfulness in action.
Supporting Success for LGBTQ+ Students by
The newest edition to the National Resource Center's series on Special Student Populations focuses on supporting LGBTQ+ students on campus. Despite increasing visibility and acceptance in some spheres, many LGBTQ+ students continue to experience a negative climate on college campuses, presenting barriers to their academic and personal success. This volume explores the last decade of research on LGBTQ+ college students with an eye toward understanding their needs and the unique conditions related to their college success. The opening chapter offers useful definitions to help ground practitioners in the current conversation. Readers will also find examples of inclusive excellence and questions for guidingpractice to promote a more inclusive learning environment not only for LGBTQ+ students but for all students on the campus.
U Thrive by
From the professors who teach NYU's most popular elective class, "Science of Happiness," a fun, comprehensive guide to surviving and thriving in college and beyond. Every year, almost 4,000,000 students begin their freshman year at colleges and universities nationwide. Most of them will sleep less and stress out a whole lot more. By the end of the year, 30% of those freshmen will have dropped out. For many, the unforeseen demands of college life are so overwhelming that "the best four years of your life" can start to feel like the worst. Enter Daniel Lerner and Dr. Alan Schlechter, ready to teach students how to not only survive college, but flourish in it. Filled with fascinating science, real-life stories, and tips for building positive lifelong habits, U Thrive addresses the opportunities and challenges every undergrad will face -- from finding a passion to dealing with nightmarish roommates and surviving finals week. Engaging and hilarious, U Thrive will help students grow into the happy, successful alums they all deserve to be.