School Leadership for Tough Times
It takes more than a brilliant teacher or two to ensure that our youth leave school with the skills, confidence, and critical consciousness to be productive and thoughtful participants in the world. It takes vibrant school communities with strong, visionary leadership. The fall issue of Rethinking Schools shines a light on the possibilities when principals and superintendents buck the trend toward testing and standardization:

Another Path Is Possible: Two Chicago Principals Keep an Eye on What Matters
by Gregory Michie
Two neighborhood schools find their way, thriving on collaboration and commitment to a shared vision. By the author of Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students.

Big City Superintendents: Dictatorship or Democracy? Lessons from Paulo Freire
by Bob Peterson
Did you know Paulo Freire was once superintendent of schools in São Paulo, Brazil? Rethinking Schools editor and 5th grade teacher Bob Peterson describes how the world-famous author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed put his theories into practice in a poverty-stricken urban school district.

Editorial: Where Is Our Community Organizer-in-Chief?
by the editors of Rethinking Schools
There is a disturbing overlap between Obama’s educational policies and those of George W. Bush. The nation’s schools don’t need an entrepreneur-in-chief; we need national leadership that supports critical thinking, educating the whole child, and democratic participation from the ground up.

Trolling for Stories: Lessons from Our Lives
by Linda Christensen
Editor’s note: This article is a chapter in Linda Christensen’s new Rethinking Schools book, Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-imagining the Language Arts Classroom. If you are inspired by this article to troll for stories, the book includes student examples and additional materials.

There's a lot more inside this issue.