SUE BOOKS

current position

professor, department of secondary education

state university of new york at new paltz

education

Degree Date rec’d InstitutionField of study

EdD 1992University of North CarolinaCurriculum cultural studies

at Greensboro

MA 1977Drew University, Madison, NJEnglish literature

BA 1976Guilford College,English literature

Greensboro, NC

  • Coursework in Second Language Education (TESOL): 12 hrs.
  • Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education, January 13, 2010
  • Hudson Valley Writing Project Summer Institute for Teachers (participant), 2008
  • Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research/Human Research Protection Programs conference, December 2005
  • Academy for Leadership Development, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, April 2005

recent professional experience

YearRankInstitution & locationTitle

2014 (fall)Visiting St. Petersburg State University, Sabbatical leave:

scholarRussia visiting scholar

2010 (fall) ProfessorSUNY New PaltzInterim Chair,

Secondary Education

2002-2006 Assoc. Prof/SUNY New PaltzChair, Secondary Education

Professor

Fall 2009 VisitingUniversity of Iceland, Fulbright scholar scholar Reykjavik

Fall 2007Visiting University of Pretoria,Sabbatical leave:

scholarSouth AfricaVisiting scholar

Summer ‘04Assoc. Prof.Teachers College,Instructor

‘05, ‘06Columbia University,

NYC

honors & awards

-Provost Fellow for New Faculty Mentorship, SUNY New Paltz, 2015-2016

-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching,State University of New York, 2014

-Kezai Koho Center Fellow, Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs, June 30-July 10, 2013

-Chinese Bridge Delegation (participant), Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters, November 7-15, 2012

-UNC-Greensboro School of Education Distinguished Career Award, 2011

-Fulbright-Hayes Summer Seminar to Brazil (participant), July 2011

-National Association of College and University Residence Halls, Phi Psi chapter, SOFA (Staff or Faculty Award) “for having a positive impact on the study body at SUNY New Paltz,” 2011

-Fulbright scholar, University of Iceland, fall 2009

-American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Selection Award for Invisible Children in the Society and its Schools (Erlbaum, 1998), 1999

courses taught recently

-Education Across Borders: Schooling in South Africa, Brazil, China, and Afghanistan (undergraduate course)*

-Education Across Borders: International Ideas and Experiences (graduate course)

-Education and Poverty (honors seminar)*

-Work: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Employment-Related Issues in the U.S. (honors seminar)*

-Inquiry: Teaching, Learning, and School (two-semester graduate course on teacher research)**

* Courses I developed

** Collaborative course development

publications: books & guest-edited journals

Invisible Children in the Society and its Schools. Editor of three editions. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1998, 2003, 2007.

Poverty and Schooling in the U.S.: Contexts and Consequences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004.

Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities: A 15-year retrospective. Co-editor (with Amy McAninch), special issue of Educational Studies, 40 (1), September 2006.

Poverty and schooling. Co-editor (with Valerie Polakow), special issue of Educational Studies, 32 (3), September 2001.

publications: book chapters & reports

Books, S. (in press). Inequalities, left to fester, become more savage: Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities (1991). In J.L. DeVitis (Ed.), American Education Classics, 1965-2015: A Reader.

Books, S. (2014). Disparity, austerity, and public schooling in the US: Why Quentin Can’t Read. In H. Hall and C. Robinson, and A. Kohli (Eds.), Uprooting Urban America: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Race, Class, and Gentrification. Peter Lang.

Books, S., and De Villiers, R. (2013). Importing international teachers: A neoliberal assault on public education as we know it. In J. Gorlewski and B. Porfilio (Eds.), Left Behind in the Race to the Top: Realities of School Reform.Information Age Publishing. [Revised and updated version of Books & De Villiers, 2013a]

Books, S. (2013). Funding the right to equal educational opportunity: An overview and call to follow the money. In. J. Hall (Ed.), Children’s Human Rights and Public Schools in the United States. New York: Sense Publishers.

Books, S. (2012, November). Food Insecurity in Ulster County. Discussion Brief. Center for Research, Regional Education, and Outreach, SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY. Available online:

Books, S. (2012). Amazing Grace and Ordinary Resurrections: A prophetic cry of rage and anguish. In R. Ognibene (Ed.), A Persistent Reformer: Jonathan Kozol’s Work to Promote Equality in America. Peter Lang.

Books, S. (2011). What we don’t discuss when we talk about “closing the achievement gap.” In R. Ahlquist, P. Gorski, and T. Montano (Eds.), Assault on Kids:HowHyper-Accountability, Corporatization, Deficit Ideologies, and Ruby Payne are Destroying Our Schools. New York: Peter Lang.

Books, S. (2010). Why and how poverty matters in schooling. In G. S. Cannella and L. D. Soto (Eds.), Childhoods: A Handbook (pp. 157-172). Peter Lang.

Books, S. (2009). Mechanics of unfairness: How we undercut poor children’s educational opportunity. In S. Shapiro (Ed.), Education and Hope in Troubled Times: Bold Visions of Change for Our Children's World (pp. 63-75). Routledge.

Books, S. (2008). Brown v. Board of Education. In E. Provenzo and J. Renaud (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education (pp. 92-96). Sage Publications.

Books, S. (2008). School finance. In E. Provenzo and J. Renaud (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education (pp. 673-675). Sage Publications.

Books, S. (2005). Funding accountability: states, courts, and public responsibility. In S. Shapiro and D. Purpel, Critical Social Issues in American Education: Democracy and Meaning in a Globalizing World, 3rd ed. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. [Reprint of 2003 article]

Book, S. (2002). Making poverty pay: Children and the 1996 welfare law. In J. Kincheloe, G. Cannella, and K. Anijar (Eds.), Kidworld: Globalization, Childhood, and Education (pp. 21-38). Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield.

Books, S. (2001). Saying poverty doesn’t matter doesn’t make it so. In J. Kincheloe & D. Weil (Eds.), Schooling and Standards in the U.S.: An Encyclopedia (pp. 245-258). ABC-CLIO Publishers.

Books, S. (2000). Poverty and environmentally induced damage to children. In V. Polakow (Ed.), The Public Assault on America’s Children: Poverty, Violence, and Juvenile Injustice (pp. 42-58). New York: Teachers College Press. [Updated version of 1998 article]

Books, S. (1998). School funding: tinkering with equity in times of ghettoization. Monograph. Progressive Perspectives Monograph Series, 1(1): 1-7. [Abridged version of 1998 article]

publications: articles in refereed journals

Books, S., and De Villiers, R. (2013). Importing educators and redefining what it means to be a teacher in the U.S. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 11(2). Retrieve from

Books, S., and Ndlalane, T. (2011). What the U.S. could learn from South Africa about social justice and education. Educational Foundations, 25 (1-2): 83-102.

Books, S., Ragnarsdottir, H., Jonsson, O. P., Macdonald, A. (2011). A university program with “the whole world as a focus”: An Icelandic response to globalization. Innovative Higher Education, 36(2): 125-139.

De Villiers, R., and Books, S. (2009). Recruiting teachers online: Marketing strategies and

information dissemination practices of UK-based agencies. Educational Review, 61 (3): 315-325.

Books, S. (2008). Training principals in Pretoria. Educational Leadership, 65 (7), 70-73.

Books, S. (2007). What are we talking about when we talk about “closing the achievement gap?” Journal of International Learning (14), 2.

Books, S. (2006). The politics of school districting: A case study in upstate New York. Educational Foundations, 20 (3-4): 15-33.

Books, S. (2005). We need a more "socially relevant" metric. Invited commentary on a feature article on income-based poverty measures. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 3 (4).

Books, S. (2003). Funding accountability: States, courts, and public responsibility. Educational Studies, 34(3): 317-336.

Books, S. (2001). High stakes in New York: From a "last chance, first chance" classroom. Educational Foundations, 15(4): 57-70.

Books, S. (2000). Playing with numbers, playing with need: Schooling and the federal poverty line. Educational Foundations (spring): 5-20.

Books, S. (1999). School funding: Justice v. equity. Equity & Excellence in Education, 32 (3): 53-58. [Revised and updated version of 1998 article.]

Books, S. (1998). School funding: Tinkering with equity in times of ghettoization. Educational Foundations, 12 (4): 53-68.

Books, S. (1998). Environmentally-induced damage to children: A call for broadening the critical agenda. Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, 11 (2): 10-21.

Books, S. (1998). A critique of the discourse of potential. Journal of Thought (spring): 15-28.

Books, S., & Slattery, P. (1997). Prophetic curriculum leadership. Religion and Education Journal, 24 (1): 59-69.

Books, S. (1997). The other poor: Rural poverty and education. Educational Foundations, 11 (1): 73-85.

Books, S. (1996). Stigmatization, scapegoating, and other discursive dangers in the lives of children and young people. Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, 13 (2): 9-14.

Books, S. (1996). “Us,” “them,” and the public discourse on school violence. Taboo: Journal of Culture and Education, 2 (2): 25-47.

Books, S. (1996). Fear and loathing: The moral dimensions of the politicization of teen pregnancy. Journal of Thought, 31 (1): 9-24.

Books, S. (1995). The cultural politics of condemnation: Popular response to The Bell Curve. Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies, 17 (3): 297-306.

Books, S. (1994). Education and work: Reflections on the moral and spiritual dimensions of the job crisis. Journal of Thought, 29 (4): 31-45.

Books, S. (1994). Social foundations in an age of triage. Educational Foundations 8 (4): 27-41.

Books, S. (1994). Blaming villains: Stories of displacement and disengagement. Educational Foundations, 8 (1): 5-16.

Books, S. (1994). Educational criticism as witness. Journal of Thought, 29 (1): 69-81.

Books, S. (1992). Literary journalism as educational criticism: A discourse of triage.

Holistic Education Review, 5 (3): 41-51.

publications: book reviews & commentary

Books, S. (2012). Forward. J. Gorlewski and D. Gorlewski (Eds.), Making it Real: Case Stories for Secondary Teachers. Sense Publishers.

Books, S., and de Villiers, R. (2011, September 26). “Teacher shortages” in the U.S. and the politics of recruiting abroad. Commentary. Teachers College Record. Available at:

Books, S. (2006, September 14). It’s way past time for school funding reform. My View. Times Herald-Record.

Books, S. (2006). Book Review. Losing Heart: The Moral and Spiritual Miseducation of America's Children, by Svi Shapiro. Tikkun (July/August), pp. 68-70.

Books, S. (2003). Book Review [invited]. Silent No More: Voices of Courage in American Schools, edited by ReLeah Cossett Lent and Gloria Pipkin. Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, 16(3).

Books, S. (February 2002). School funding: Democracy vs. demography in New York State. Chronogram, pp. 12-15.

President’s columns, Newsletter of the NYS Foundations of Education Association -- December 2003, September 2003, June 2003, March 2003, December 2002, and September 2002.

invited talks

Books, S. (2015, August 21). Convocation Address. SUNY New Paltz.

Books, S. (2013, November 20). Education in post-apartheid South Africa. Shawangunk Correctional Facility, Wallkill, NY

Books, S. (2013, August 16). Post-apartheid South Africa. Shawangunk Correctional Facility, Wallkill, NY

Books, S. (2009, December 4). Educational opportunity in the U.S.: Ideals and realities. Menntaskoli, Reykjavik.

Books, S. (2009, February 3). Popular Books at Siena: Michael Eric Dyson’s April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America. Commentator. Siena College,Loudonville, NY.

Books, S., and Ndlalane, T. (2008, October 15). Context and continuing challenges of educational reform in South Africa. New Paltz Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, SUNY New Paltz.

Books, S. (2007, October 26). Zero tolerance policies in U.S. Schools. Graduate class in education law, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Books, S. (2007, September 14). Issues in education in the U.S.: Funding, desegregation, and NCLB. Graduate class in education policy, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Books, S. (2007, October 17). The No Child Left Behind Act and special education in the U.S. Guest talk for special education faculty, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Books, S. (2007, March 21). Popular Books at Siena 2007: Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. Commentator. Siena College, Loudonville, New York.

Books, S. (2004, October 24). Presentation on Invisible Children in the Society and its Schools. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, MA.

Books, S. (2003, December 2). No Child Left Behind and the schooling of poor children. Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York.

professional presentations: since 2004; others available upon request

Books, S. (2014, October 23). Use of memoir in undergraduate instruction. Conference on Text and Teaching. Presentation. St. Petersburg, Russia.

Books, S. (2014, November 15). Politics of liberal education in the U.S. Third International Conference on the Intellectual Foundations of Modern Liberal Education, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Books, S. (2013, April 30). Importing international educators: An assault on public education as we know it. Panel presentation. American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.

Books, S. (2011, November 3). Apersistent reformer: Jonathan Kozol’s work to promote equality in America. Panel presentation. American Educational Studies Association, St. Louis, MO.

Books, S. (2010, October 28). An educational studies program with "the whole world" as a focus: An Icelandic response to globalization. Paper presentation. American Educational Studies Association, Denver, CO.

Books, S. (2010, October 29). Transformative ideas in David Purpel’s cultural criticism. Panel presentation. American Educational Studies Association, Denver, CO.

De Villiers, J.J.R. & Books, S. (2010). Matchmaking schools and South African teachers: Marketing strategies and information dissemination practices of UK-based recruitment agencies. Paper presentation by J.J.R. de Villiers. Education Association of South Africa, Vaal Triangle Campus, North-West University.

Books, S. (2009, November 18). Educational opportunity in the U.S.: Ideals and realities. Public presentation. University of Iceland, Reykjavik.

Books, S. (2009, April 14). School fee policy in South Africa: An ethnographic assessment. Paper presentation. American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA.

Books, S. (2009, April 13). What education policymakers could learn from South African teachers. Paper presentation. American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA.

Books, S. (2008, March 18). Are teachers interested in equity? Perspectives from Serbia, South Africa and the U.S. Panel presentation. Comparative and International Education Society Conference, New York City.

Books, S. (2007, June 29). What are we talking about when we talk about “closing the achievement gap?” Paper presentation. International Conference on Learning, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Books, S. (2007, April 10). Challenging deficit view in teacher education: Uncovering classism, linguicism, and racism in Ruby Payne’s framework. Panel discussant. American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Books, S., and Johns, D. (2006, March 31). The politics of the “achievement gap”: Reflections on the rhetoric and a view from the classroom. Paper presentation. New York State Foundations of Education Association, Rochester, NY.

Books, S. (2005, November 3). Where is the “public” in public education? Schooling, privatization, place, and social justice in urban communities. Symposium discussant, American Educational Research Association, Charlottesville, VA.

Books, S. (2004, November 5). A case study in the politics of school districting in upstate New York. Paper presentation. American Educational Studies Association, Kansas City, MO.

Board memberships

Current:

-CRREO (Center for Regional Research and Educational Outreach), SUNYNew Paltz, 2013-present

-SUNY Press Editorial Board, through 2015

former board memberships:

-RiverTides: International Center for Integrative Studies – UN-affiliated NGO (vice president and UN delegate), 2013-2015

-Educational Change: Journal of the NYS Foundations of Education Association, 2008-2011

-Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice(journal),1998-2004

-Educational Theory(journal),1997-2000

University, professional, & community service

Current:

-Provost Fellow for New Faculty Mentorship, SUNY New Paltz

-Search Committee: Provost

-Search Committee: Art Education

-Committee on Academic Standing

Former,college/university (selected):

-Lead author, Middle States Commission on Higher Education institutional report, 2010-2011

-Provost Search Committees, 2008-2009 (co-chair), 2011-2012 (member)

-Committee on Tenure and Reappointment (member), 2007-2008

-Institutional Review Board (member), 2005-2008

-Ad Hoc Committee on Liberal Learning / Committee on Liberal Learning, 2011-2014

-School of Education Council, 2012-2014

-General Education II, IIa, and III Task Forces (member), 1991-1992, 2000-2001, and 2001-2002

-Committee to Review/Envision Honors Opportunities at New Paltz (member), 2010-2011

Other: Community Fund Volunteer, Ulster County (NY) United Way, since 2010

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