Bookshelf

Alumni and faculty members who would like to have their books considered for this listing should contact Stacey Himmelberger, editor of Hamilton magazine. This list, which dates back to 2018, is updated periodically with books appearing alphabetically on the date of entry.

Critical Conditions: Addressing Education Emergencies Through Integrated Student Supports by Bruce Levine ’77, Elaine Weiss, and Kimberly Sterin.

September 6, 2024

Tags Alumni Book

(Harvard Education Press, 2024).

Drawing on extensive research and case studies, the authors outline successful strategies for whole child and whole community support that can help school systems meet broader student needs in times of disruption. They focus on Integrated Student Support (ISS), an approach to education policy and practice in which schools focus on attending to students’ basic physical, social, and emotional needs before learning occurs.

According to the publisher, the book “highlights how the planning, flexibility, and wraparound services central to ISS improve the capacity of education systems to confront a wide variety of emergency situations, from natural disasters to longstanding socioeconomic pressures such as unemployment, addiction, food scarcity, homelessness, and poverty. … Distilling the ISS model into actionable steps, from assessing community needs through maintaining a cohesive network of community assets, the work prepares educational institutions to help students, families, and communities weather the turbulence of challenging events.”

Levine is a clinical professor and director of the Education Policy Program in Drexel University’s School of Education, where he cofounded the online Community Schools Hub.