Making Change: Three Educators Join the Battle for Better Schools (Heinemann, 1998) "Making Change by Holly Holland offers a rare inside look into the complex, painful, and occasionally exhilarating work of major school reform. The book looks at the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), a sweeping re-imagining of public education...Holland weaves a compelling story despite—or perhaps because of—the imperfections in the main characters. Although Holland is not a researcher by profession (she is a journalist), this is an extensive piece of research...Readers are given an inside look into the KERA reforms, and we are left, at the end, wiser but not necessarily more hopeful about the work of major school change."
—MiddleWeb.combook review
“…provides richly textured behind-the-scenes glimpses into…what the complex process of strengthening Kentucky’s public schools looks and feels like from the trenches.”
—Laurel Shackelford, The Courier-Journal
“…an incisive, documentary account of how the Kentucky Education Reform Act affected the lives of three educators…Reporters will find this book a primer on narrative writing…”
--Education Reporter
—MiddleWeb.combook review
“…provides richly textured behind-the-scenes glimpses into…what the complex process of strengthening Kentucky’s public schools looks and feels like from the trenches.”
—Laurel Shackelford, The Courier-Journal
“…an incisive, documentary account of how the Kentucky Education Reform Act affected the lives of three educators…Reporters will find this book a primer on narrative writing…”
--Education Reporter
Whatever It Takes: Transforming American Schools: The Project GRAD Story (Teachers College Press, 2005).
"Whatever It Takes offers practical insight and inspiration for educators, policymakers, business and community leaders seeking to work together for successful school reform. Holland includes real stories that remind us of what is at stake and how we must believe in the resilience and potential of poor and minority students if they are to believe in themselves.”
—Patricia Wasley, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington
“A fascinating account of Jim Ketelsen's heroic efforts to address one of the critical issues of our time - public school reform. Through her candid treatment of the Project GRAD story, Holland shows how the program is gaining ground and winning converts by helping struggling students and beleaguered schools close the achievement gap.”
—Beverly L. Hall, Superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools
“We should read this book carefully if the promise of higher education for all is to become more than mere empty rhetoric.”
—Julian M. Edgoose, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Puget Sound
"Whatever It Takes offers practical insight and inspiration for educators, policymakers, business and community leaders seeking to work together for successful school reform. Holland includes real stories that remind us of what is at stake and how we must believe in the resilience and potential of poor and minority students if they are to believe in themselves.”
—Patricia Wasley, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington
“A fascinating account of Jim Ketelsen's heroic efforts to address one of the critical issues of our time - public school reform. Through her candid treatment of the Project GRAD story, Holland shows how the program is gaining ground and winning converts by helping struggling students and beleaguered schools close the achievement gap.”
—Beverly L. Hall, Superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools
“We should read this book carefully if the promise of higher education for all is to become more than mere empty rhetoric.”
—Julian M. Edgoose, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Puget Sound
Making the Most of Middle School: A Field Guide for Parents and Others (Teachers College Press, 2004)
"Making the Most of Middle School gives parents a refreshing look at young adolescents and signals what they should look for in their children’s schools. It provides advocacy strategies so all parents can ensure that their children experience the very best."
—Deborah Kasak, Executive Director of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform
“This book is an invaluable guide through the thicket of the middle school years, describing how schools and parents can work separately and together to clear a path for student success.”
—Hayes Mizell, National Staff Development Council
"Making the Most of Middle School gives parents a refreshing look at young adolescents and signals what they should look for in their children’s schools. It provides advocacy strategies so all parents can ensure that their children experience the very best."
—Deborah Kasak, Executive Director of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform
“This book is an invaluable guide through the thicket of the middle school years, describing how schools and parents can work separately and together to clear a path for student success.”
—Hayes Mizell, National Staff Development Council
The Heart of a High School: One Community's Effort to Transform Urban Education (Heinemann, 2001)
"Written by two editors of Middle Ground magazine, this book is engaging and easy to read. You feel as though you are there, in the trenches, with the visionaries who were determined to take a large private grant and turn a troubled high school around."
—Beverly Glenn, director, Hamilton Fish Institute
"The urban high school has been the target of education reforms for at least 40 years, but has proved remarkably resistant to change. The Heart of a High School offers a sympathetic but clear-eyed view of the enormous challenges facing those who try to bring about the transformation of this troubled institution...This story is by turns sobering and exhilarating, but it is never less than engaging. This book is a most welcome addition to the high school reform literature."
—Robert Schwartz, President, Achieve Inc.
"Holland and Mazzoli get behind the rhetoric and research of education reform to show how educators struggle to interpret, internalize, and implement the new strategies for improving student achievement...The careful reporting in The Heart of a High School helps us sift through the clues to find solutions to one of America's most vexing problems--how to improve urban education."
—William Porter, former director of the (Washington) Partnership for Learning
"Written by two editors of Middle Ground magazine, this book is engaging and easy to read. You feel as though you are there, in the trenches, with the visionaries who were determined to take a large private grant and turn a troubled high school around."
—Beverly Glenn, director, Hamilton Fish Institute
"The urban high school has been the target of education reforms for at least 40 years, but has proved remarkably resistant to change. The Heart of a High School offers a sympathetic but clear-eyed view of the enormous challenges facing those who try to bring about the transformation of this troubled institution...This story is by turns sobering and exhilarating, but it is never less than engaging. This book is a most welcome addition to the high school reform literature."
—Robert Schwartz, President, Achieve Inc.
"Holland and Mazzoli get behind the rhetoric and research of education reform to show how educators struggle to interpret, internalize, and implement the new strategies for improving student achievement...The careful reporting in The Heart of a High School helps us sift through the clues to find solutions to one of America's most vexing problems--how to improve urban education."
—William Porter, former director of the (Washington) Partnership for Learning
