Teacher Benn sounds the alarm from page one of this boots-on-the-ground call-to-action, declaring “Our classrooms are under siege and teachers are the only ones who can save them.” Addressed to an audience of teachers, Benn—who has taught for 20 years in Los Angeles public schools—draws on his experience in the nation’s second-largest public school system to present practical ideas for overall educational improvement, with an emphasis on strategies that enable teachers to acheive powerful, equitable outcomes, moving students through Benn’s “Eight Attributes of Student Success” (these include Knowledge, Intelligence, Confidence, Curiosity, and more) while “closing the gap between the lowest and highest” achievers. Non-teachers, such as administrators and parents, may also find the observations eye-opening as Benn addresses challenges he and his fellow teaching professionals have regularly faced, such “harmful systems” created to “meet the needs of administrators, district officials, educational researchers, pundits, and politicians.”

Benn’s solution lies in autonomy. To save our students, he argues, teachers need to demonstrate that they should be solely responsible for what goes on in classrooms. To that end, he presents fresh, actionable systems, techniques, and “Tiers to Tenacious Teaching” that, in clear and brisk language, encourage student success while helping teachers evaluate both themselves and their classes, diagnose and address problems, prevent students from misunderstanding lessons and assignments, and connect material into a coherent whole. Benn writes with sympathy about obstacles confronting teachers, from disadvantaged students and widely varying skill levels to a dysfunctional college admission process.

Benn began teaching after a career as a mechanical engineer, and his guidance holds to an orderly, systemic approach, something he has found lacking in education. As a middle-school math teacher, he encountered frustrated students, behavioral problems, overcrowded classrooms, apathetic or politically driven administrators, factors that could compel any teacher to question their path. The tools, advice, and clarity of goals here offer a roadmap through all that—and to better serving students and our future, one class at a time.

Takeaway: Vital, practical guide for teachers striving to guide students to success.

Comparable Titles: Tom Hierck and Alex Kajitani’s You’re a Teacher Now! What’s Next?, Todd Whitaker’s What Great Teachers Do Differently.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-