Teachers and education professors suggest various nonfiction and fiction books for summer reading enjoyment, from Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone," C.A. Bowers's "Let Them Eat Data," and Larry McMurtry's "Roads: Driving America's Great Highways" to Kent Hauf's "Plainsong, J.M. Coetzee's "Disgrace," and Michael Cunningham's "The Hours." (MLH)

Reviews evidence that refutes unfavorable portraits of American mathematics teachers in two books, "The Teaching Gap" (James Stigler and James Hiebert) and "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics" (Liping Ma). Young students' difficulty with the "equals" concept can be addressed by teaching algebraic concepts throughout the elementary years.…

A Canadian Institute of Child Health's report suggests that children are becoming increasing unsympathetic to others, are becoming more aggressive as they age, and are being bullied more often. More 8- to 11-year-olds seem hyperactive and/or anxious and exhibit problematic behavior. Health care is underfunded. (MLH)

Recommends leisurely reading for teachers: biographies on St. Augustine and Charles Lindbergh; novels by Edwidge Danticat, Kate Chopin, and Velma Allis; Edward Tufte's three volumes on the visual presentation of information; Jean Vanier's "Becoming Human;" the Harry Potter series, and Michael Tolkin's novel "The Player." (MLH)

"Kappan" editors recommend Michael Ignatieff's biography of Isaiah Berlin and insightful novels by Barbara Kingsolver, Pat Conroy, Wally Lamb, Edwidge Danticat, and Doris Lessing. Neil Postman's "The End of Education" (1995) advocates exploiting diversity to define standards. Ernest House's "Schools for Sale" (1998) explains why free-market…

For educators' summer reading enjoyment, "Kappan" editors recommend three books on nature (Robert Richardson's biography "Emerson: The Mind on Fire, William Cronin's edited book "Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature," and Gary Snyder's poetry volume "Mountain and Rivers Without End"). Also recommended are three culturally diverse…

Richard Rothstein's booklet "What Do We Know About Declining (Or Rising) Student Achievement?" claims that anecdotes about past educational practices are unreliable and difficult to relate to today's schools. Curricula and tests change; so do student populations. There are no solid historical measures, including three well-known standardized…

Recommends many books for summer reading enjoyment, concentrating on historical and contemporary fiction. Different cultures clash in William T. Vollman's "Fathers and Crows" and John Demos's adventuresome "Unredeemed Captive." Other suggestions: "Snow Falling on Cedar Mountain" (David Gutterman) and "Foxfire" (Joyce Carol Oates). For professional…