Books about Abernathy from Amazon.com

“A powerful, detailed, and exceptionally balanced critique of NCLB. It offers some hope for how we might overcome its faults. No legislator or educational expert should be allowed to get away with not reading it—whether to agree or disagree. It’s a must learning experience.”

—Deborah Meier, Senior Scholar and Adjunct Professor, Steinhardt School of Education, New York University, and author of In Schools We Trust

“A concise, highly readable, and balanced account of NCLB, with insightful and realistic suggestions for reform. Teachers, professors, policymakers, and parents—this is the one book about NCLB you ought to read.”

—James E. Ryan, William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor, University of Virginia School of Law

This far-reaching new study looks at the successes and failures of one of the most ambitious and controversial educational initiatives since desegregation—the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

NCLB’s opponents criticize it as underfunded and unworkable, while supporters see it as a radical but necessary educational reform that evens the score between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Yet the most basic and important question remains unasked: “Can we ever really know if a child’s education is good?”

Ultimately, Scott Franklin Abernathy argues, policymakers must begin from this question, rather than assuming that any test can accurately measure the elusive thing we call “good” education.

When a powerful EF-4 tornado with winds in excess of 200 miles per hour slammed the Union University campus on February 5, 2008, destroying eighteen dormitory buildings and causing $40 million in damage, the immediate assumption was that dozens if not hundreds of lives would have been lost. Miraculously, nobody died, and the next morning major media outlets flocked to Jackson, Tennessee, where Union students and faculty credited God for their survival and got to share their faith with millions worldwide.

God in the Whirlwind recounts the entire experience through twenty eye-of-the-storm accounts from those who saw the walls and ceilings crashing down upon them and felt their ears pop as the pressure dropped, from anxious parents who waited for their child’s call, and from Union leaders who marvel at the university’s unbroken spirit in the face of such devastation. This inspiring book also includes eighty photographs that visualize God’s mighty hand upon nature and his gentle hand of grace.