A respected journalist turned-teacher reveals what's really happening in America's schools

In 1999, Chicago Sun-Times veteran Leslie Baldacci left her prestigious, twenty-five year career to teach at a public school in one of Chicago's roughest South Side neighborhoods.

As she later commented, "I thought I knew rough. I thought I had answers. I didn't know jack."

But Baldacci never looked back, and the result is Inside Mrs. B's Classroom, a compelling, first-hand narrative from the trenches of the inner-city school system that addresses one of...