Product Details

San Jose Mercury News

She's earned the right to get up on the soapbox; but it's at the front of the class, as a storyteller, that Maran best captures our attention.

Newsweek

Class Dismissed is a moving and, at times, heartbreaking, account of three kids from very different backgrounds...Maran tells their stories with great sensitivity. You can't help rooting for them and wishing for a sequel with a happy ending.

USA Today - JoAnn Goslin

Writer Meredith Maran spent a year in the lives of three seniors in the Class of 2000 at Berkeley (California) High School. Her efforts led to Class Dismissed: A Year in the life of an American High School, a Glimpse Into the Heart of a Nation, an intriguing work of non-fiction. Because Maran focuses on Berkely as "the most integrated school in the country," much of the book is devoted to race relations, in particular how students, even in such a tossed-salad, multicultural environment, tend to self-segregate. What is hopeful is how their teachers attempt to cajole students out of their comfort zones.

A great deal of the book is devoted to the school's failures: A counselor's ineptitude shatters several students college hopes: arsons plague the school community. But much is made of its successes.

Throughout the book are excerpts from the students' award-winning newspaper, the Berkeley High Jacket, as well as original works several students perform in poetry slams. The Jacket articles and editorials are thoughtful, well-written and hard-hitting. And the poetry is fist-in-the-face powerful; it truly reveals the students' inner lives. This is the reason to read Class Dismissed

Publishers Weekly

Having spent the 1998-1999 school year closely following three seniors at "the most integrated school in the country," Berkeley (Calif.) High, Maran delivers an altogether engrossing and often humbling account of the stark realities of public education in "a country that has yet to deliver on its founding promise of equal opportunity." While the year was overshadowed by the Columbine shootings, Maran reveals that "Berzerkeley High" faces profound problems of its own. From an inept counselor who ruins students' chances of attending the colleges of their choice to an arsonist whose fires are increasingly dangerous, "the enormity of the issues these teenagers are dealing with" makes their individual achievements sometimes astounding. Skillfully integrating multiple and quite disparate voices, Maran gives clear and chilling examples of how white and black children are treated differently by both school administrators and the police, bringing to light the "dirty little secret" of racial inequality. Her nuanced rendering of the "day-to-day do-si-do of teachers, students, parents, and community" in a school the local paper calls "the petri dish of educational theorists across the country" should awaken readers to the realities behind political posturing about "improving" public education. Maran's concluding recommendations for change are rooted in her well-documented understanding that "Where our children are concerned, we get only as good as we give. As a nation we have been giving our young people far less than our best, with utterly predictable results." (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

KLIATT

This is a must-read for anyone interested in high schools. In fact, Class Dismissed should be required reading for any education major aiming for high school. Berkeley (CA) High School is the country's most diverse—racially, economically, socially. Moran follows three students and gives faces to the statistics. They are a reflection of society—the tensions, needs, hopes, fears, successes, failures, and pressures. Autumn is a super-achieving bi-racial girl; Jordan is a well-to-do Jewish boy; and Keith is an African American athlete. We see their private lives, as well as their school personas. Senioritis is only one of the many issues explored here. Much more than a look at the students, this documentary examines the school, teachers, administration, and community. Moran ends with a one-year follow-up and a five-point plan for improvement. She says, "Everything we need to know we can learn from our high schools." You won't be disappointed in her careful, thoughtful analysis. Category: Education & Guidance. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, St. Martin's, Griffin, 313p. illus., Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Rita M. Fontinha; Lib. Media Spec., Norwood H.S., Norwood, MA

Library Journal

From parents to politicians, everyone wants to know how we can improve our schools. Maran (Notes from an Incomplete Revolution) looked for answers at Berkeley High School, CA, the nation's "most integrated school." She followed three students through what became a year of crisis resulting from a rash of arsons, criticism of the school's programs, and tension among the staff. The supporting cast of this riveting story includes teachers, students, parents, and community members, but the real star is the school itself--a 3200-student microcosm that embodies both the potential and the pitfalls of public education. Maran offers an educational improvement plan that begins with abolishing private schools, but the stories of Jordan, Autumn, and Keith show that individual attention is at least as important as institutional equality. At crucial times in each student's life, a teacher, friend, or someone in the community helped make the difference between success and failure. Everyone who cares about young people should read this revealing book. Highly recommended for all libraries.--Susan M. Colowick, North Olympic Lib. Syst., Port Angeles, WA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A look at California's Berkeley High School during the 1999-2000 school year with all its pressures, problems, and joys. The author focuses on three seniors-Autumn, Keith, and Jordan. Autumn is black, college-directed, but not sure where the money will come from. Keith, also black, has exceptional football skills, but is poorly motivated scholastically. Jordan, white and a typical golden boy, is almost certain of acceptance to a "good" Eastern college. Month by month, readers see the differences in the lives of these three typical yet unique young people. It is easy to relate to Autumn's relationships and struggles. Keith's attitude results in the strong possibility that he won't graduate from high school, and he's in jail on prom night. Jordan's seemingly assured future becomes disjointed when an incompetent college advisor submits Jordan's ruinously low first-semester grades to prospective colleges. Disheartened by their rejections, he falls into a deep depression and, in effect, drops out of school. During the revelations of the trio's varied progress, the author gives sharp insight into the general climate of Berkeley High. She includes quotations from teachers, students, parents, and community figures. Fourteen pages of black-and-white photographs add vivid reality. This well-written, yearlong study of a typical high school offers insight on how present actions may affect future lives.-Frances Reiher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

USA Today

The students' conversations, whether with their peers, parents or teachers, are revealing and realistic. It's obvious the teens let Maran enter their lives, not merely observe them...Students, teachers, parents, community leaders and citizens need to hear these voices.

Kirkus Reviews

A lively, dramatic, and provocative story of one writer's sojourn into one of our nation's most diverse public high schools. Maran (Notes From an Incomplete Revolution, 1997) spent one year tracing the lives of three seniors at Berkeley High School: a somewhat troubled white boy from a well-to-do family, a biracial superachiever, and a functionally illiterate African-American football star. What emerges is a fascinating account highlighting the inequalities that characterize our nation's public schools. Although Berkeley is considered a model of integration (with African-American, Latino, Asian, white, and interracial students), it actually houses several separate and unequal schools. The white students make up 30 percent of the school system, but they comprise more than 90 percent of all Advanced Placement classes. And while 85 percent of Berkeley High graduates go to college, only 14 percent of these college-bound seniors are African-American. (Many more African-Americans, in fact, eventually go to prison than to college.) Not surprisingly, these clearly delineated socioeconomic differences result in all kinds of tensions: in the course of Maran's year, the school was plagued by arson, corruption, ineptitude, and plummeting teacher morale. The author concludes her exposé with a number of suggestions to improve Berkeley and other public schools. While her suggestion to abolish private schools in order to improve the status of public ones is at once naïve and frightening, she also suggests creating smaller classes, a more demanding curriculum, increased parental involvement, and higher teacher salaries. A passionate and intelligent account.

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