Some Solid Ground in our Shifting Schools

This book is a portfolio of formal research studies conducted by 16 teachers and principals who work in the public schools of Northwest Georgia. The portfolio represents more than a full year in which an assistant professor and his graduate students spent studying the reality within public schools. Their 16 chapters of action research are vividly authentic, practical and personal. One cannot help but be swept away with the complexity of serving the developmental needs of students, attending to their humanity, showing them appropriate paths in life through their teaching, companionship and discipline. The objectives of these research studies were to ethically describe and deconstruct the data we found, but our goal for doing so was to inform future actions to systemically improve schools. This book contains a mutual advocacy and common hope that our citizens, communities and leaders also consider this base of research and take responsible actions to improve public schools.