Macmillan Publishing will be releasing on November 23, 2010, a new book by former Crowder College President, Dr. Kent Farnsworth. It is entitled Grassroots School Reform: A Community Guide to Developing Globally Competitive Students.

The book suggests that state and federal policy will not be able to provide the kind of reform that is needed to keep American education competitive in the 21st century, but that school districts can choose to be exceptional, if communities insist upon it and pressure state legislatures to extend to every district the freedoms they have granted to charter schools. Several prominent Southwest Missouri personalities are mentioned in its pages.

In both paperback and hard cover, the book already is stirring discussion in K-12 circles. Dr. Steven Baugh, Director of the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling, wrote of the book: "This book should be read by all school board members and district superintendents.... School Principles should read it. Legislators...should read it...and parents themselves should read it."

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