This list focuses primarily on the history and current issues in school reform and education policy. Our booklists include many more titles on teaching. We also highly recommend a subscription to the Rethinking Schools journal for articles on education from a social justice perspective.

• General
• Critical Literacy
• Lessons for the Classroom

• History
• Early Childhood
• Testing

• Multicultural Education
• School Reform
• Parent Engagement and Organizing

Brooklyn Dreams: My Life in Public Education

By Sonia Nieto

 

City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education

By Pedro Noguera

 

Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap

By A. Wade Boykin, Pedro Noguera

Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation

By Jeff Bale (Editor), Sarah Knopp (Editor)

 

For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education

By Christopher Emdin

Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students

By Gregory Michie

 

Innovative Voices in Education: Engaging Diverse Communities

By Eileen Gale Kugler (Editor)

 

Keeping the Promise? The Debate Over Charter Schools

By Stephanie Walters

 

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

By James W. Loewen

The MIS-Education of the Negro

By Carter Godwin Woodson

 

Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

By Lisa Delpit

Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition

By Paulo Freire

 

Pedagogy of Insurrection: From Resurrection to Revolution

By Peter McLaren

Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap

By Paul C. Gorski

 

The Real Ebonics Debate

By Theresa Perry (Editor), Lisa D. Delpit (Editor)

 

Taking Down Ms. Moody *

By the teen authors of Reach Incorporated

Teach Freedom: Education for Liberation in the African-American Tradition

By Charles M. Payne (Editor)

Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom

By Rick Ayers with William Ayers

 

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria - Revised and Updated Edition

By Beverly Tatum

Why We Teach Now: Why We Teach Now

By Sonia Nieto (Editor)

Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students

By Theresa Perry, Asa G. Hilliard, III (Joint Author), Claude Steele (Joint Author)

 

Critical Media Pedagogy: Teaching for Achievement in City Schools

By Ernest Morrell with Rudy Dueas

 

Doing Critical Literacy

By Hilary Janks

Rethinking Popular Culture and Media - 2nd Edition

Edited by Elizabeth Marshall, Özlem Sensoy

A People's History for the Classroom

By Bill Bigelow

 

A People's Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching about the Environmental Crisis

By Bill Bigelow (Editor), Tim Swinehart (Editor)

 

Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching about Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word

By Linda Christensen

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years: Resources for Teaching about the Impact of the Arrival of Columbus in the Americas

By Bill Bigelow (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)

Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World

By Bill Bigelow (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)

Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers

By Eric (Rico) Gutstein (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)

Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality

By Kim Cosier (Editor), Rachel Harper (Editor), Jeff Sapp (Editor)

Rhythm and Resistance: Teaching Poetry for Social Justice

By Linda Christensen (Editor), Dyan Watson (Editor)

 

Teaching for Black Lives

By Rethinking Schools

Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents: Reading, Writing, and Making a Difference

By Richard Beach, Jeff Share, Allen Webb

A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South

By Adam Fairclough

 

Education for Extinction

By David Wallace Adams

The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935

By James D. Anderson

Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865-1890

By Hilary Green

The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

By Jon Hale

Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom

By Heather Andrea Williams

Simple Justice: The History of Brown V. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality

By Richard Kluger

The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession

By Dana Goldstein

 

Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves

By Louise Derman-Sparks, Julie Olsen Edwards

Anti-Bias Education in the Early Childhood Classroom: Hand in Hand, Step by Step

By Katie Kissinger

Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades

By Mary Cowhey

Negotiating Critical Literacies with Young Children: 10th Anniversary Edition

By Vivian Vasquez

Rethinking Early Childhood Education

By Ann Pelo (Editor)

 

The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy

By Nicholas Lemann

More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing

By Jesse Hagopian (Editor)

 

Pencils Down: Rethinking High-Stakes Testing and Accountability in Public Schools

By Wayne Au (Editor), Melissa Bollow Tempel (Editor)

Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education, 7th Edition

By Sonia Nieto, Patty Bode

Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development

By Enid Lee (Editor), Deborah Menkart (Editor), Margo Okazawa-Rey (Editor)

 

Finding Joy in Teaching Students of Diverse Backgrounds: Culturally Responsive and Socially Just Practices in U.S. Classrooms

By Sonia Nieto

 

Open Minds to Equality: A Sourcebook of Learning Activities to Affirm Diversity and Promote Equity

By Nancy Schniedewind, Ellen Davidson

Rethinking Multicultural Education

By Wayne Au

 

Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About and To Students Every Day

By Mica Pollock

Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice

By Maurianne Adams (Editor), Lee Anne Bell (Editor)

Teachers as Allies: Transformative Practices for Teaching Dreamers and Undocumented Students

By Shelley Wong (Editor)

Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education

By Noliwe Rooks

 

"lift Us Up, Don't Push Us Out!" Voices from the Front Lines of the Educational Justice Movement

By Mark R. Warren, David Goodman

Multiplication Is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

By Lisa Delpit

 

Quality Education as a Constitutional Right: Creating a Grassroots Movement to Transform Public Schools

By Theresa Perry (Editor), Robert P. Moses (Editor), Joan T. Wynne (Editor)

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools

By Diane Ravitch

 

Rethinking School Reform

Edited by Linda Christensen, Stan Karp

 

Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools

By Jonathan Kozol

Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life]

By Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis

 

School Reform, Corporate Style: Chicago, 1880-2000

By Dorothy Shipps

 

So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools

By Charles M. Payne

 

Teach for America Counter-Narratives: Alumni Speak Up and Speak Out

By Jameson T. Brewer (Editor), Kathleen Demarrais (Editor)

These Schools Belong to You and Me: Why We Can't Afford to Abandon Our Public Schools

By Deborah Meier, Emily Gasoi

This Is Not a Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education

By Jose Vilson

 

A Chord of Three Strands

By Soo Hong

A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing for School Reform

By Mark R. Warren, Karen L. Mapp

 

Between Families And Schools: Creating Meaningful Relationships

By Teaching for Change

Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships

By Anne T. Henderson (Editor)

School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing Educators and Improving Schools

By Joyce L. Epstein

Tapping the Potential of Parents: A Strategic Guide to Boosting Student Achievement Through Family Involvement

By Patricia Edwards

 

---

If you value this book list, please help us promote it and create more book lists.

Donate Today