This is a book about the ambitious reform strategy known as mayoral control ini- ated to transform the dysfunctional system of urban education in the United States. I use the term dysfunctional to refer to the inability of urban school districts over the past 50 years to reduce the learning gap between poor students and their middle class peers, despite a host of reform efforts including desegregation, compensatory programs, and decentralization. Since the mid-1990s, the idea of mayoral control has generated considerable interest. Several large cities have introduced it such as Boston,...

The importance of weather, climate, and water information is rising because of the need to minimize growing economic losses, serve more elaborate societal needs, and help countries adapt to climate change. Weather and Climate Resilience highlights recent World Bank experience and offers guidance on good practices that will help modernization efforts. Sustainable development hinges on the ability to copy with natural hazards and avoid the ensuing disasters that often befall a poorly prepared society. National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) play a vital role as a country's...

The title 'Music matters' is really a shortened version of: 'Music does matter a great deal though not necessarily to everyone'. Some simply wish to have it as background for easy listening whereas for others it is the very stuff of life. The term Music is broad and covers many musical genres. No attempt will be made to examine folk music, the Viennese masterworks, funk, jazz, pop and the rest. Instead the work of the church musician is looked at in some detail. The twenty chapters are a mixed bag. Variety is of the essence. Coming upon unrelated topics unexpectedly is sometimes called...

Arguably the Normandy landings were the most complex single operation in the history of modern warfare, maybe of any conflict. Spread over five beaches assigned to both the US and British/Canadian Forces, the need for detailed planning was paramount. There was obviously planning for the assembly of troops and the armada of ships, boats and tugs to transport the men and equipment to their destination. Yet this particular activity was fairly late in the planning stages. For example the Duplex Drive tanks used from D-Day onwards were the subject of a US patent which was filed on 13 March 1942 by...

Individually and collectively, the Fellows of the Royal Society were involved in many wartime activities. For example, prior to the outbreak of World War Two Her Majesty's Government decided to establish a Central Register of persons with 'professional, scientific, technical or higher administrative qualifications', for use in time of War, and entrusted this work to the Ministry of Labor. The Secretaries of the Royal Society discussed the project with officials from that Ministry, and at the beginning of 1939, started to compile the part of the Central Register which dealt with scientific...

This book is a cutting-edge exploration of the UK commercial banking industry, as reflected primarily in the experience of the four main clearing banks: Barclays, Lloyds, Midland and NatWest. What will the industry look like in the future? What strategies, cultures and organisational forms will distinguish the survivors from the non-survivors? Will the dominant form be the highly diversified, global, financial supermarket, the so-called universal bank, the more focused niche player, both, or some other type? To answer these questions, David Rogers draws upon very high level access to the...