New Releases by Alice Finch

Celebrate Halloween with 50 spooky build ideas! Use your LEGO® collection to conjure up a giant bat, a ghost ship, a witch’s house, and many more creepy creations. Plus, challenge your friends to spooky LEGO games. These Halloween-themed models and activities will keep you busy throughout the spooky season. Let the ghoulish fun begin! ©2020 The LEGO Group.

Take your creations to the next level with The LEGO Architecture Idea Book! These clever building tips will give you endless inspiration for making your own amazing mansions, castles, houses, spooky shacks, and more. Every chapter includes ideas for creating architectural elements like columns, doors, windows, and walls. But rather than providing step-by-step instructions, the book includes helpful photography from every angle that shows you how to achieve the look, adapt it to your build, and make it your own. Learn how to: - Build amazing walls that break the mold, with brick-and-mortar effects, weathered walls, and loose bricks - Recreate structural effects like timber framing, soaring towers and turrets, shingled roofs,clapboard siding, and more - Elevate your models with “stained glass”, intricate color patterns, and tumble-down wear-and-tear - Use pieces like croissants, snakes, and goblets to make unique architectural ornamentation Bursting with clever ideas, The LEGO Architecture Idea Book will show you how to turn your buildings into impressive, realistic structures.

Race to the Top is a new policy lever in the struggle for authority in educational governance among various levels of government, and it provides an opportunity to examine the state-level policymaking context. Tennessee passed comprehensive education reform legislation in an effort to win the competition. This effort was successful: the Volunteer State was one of two winning states in the first round. I conducted a two-part case study of the events surrounding the state''s application and the development of an educator evaluation policy as required by the legislation. Interviews with key actors in the policymaking process reveal that the legislation was not an isolated attempt to improve education, but part of a series of steps led by the governor. His proactive leadership and inclusive style were crucial factors in the legislation''s successful passage. The legislation established a 15 member committee of diverse backgrounds to develop policy recommendations for an annual educator evaluation system. Interviews with these committee members and an analysis of pertinent documents show the institutional challenges the committee faced and the ways in which the process was open to public input. This study presents an examination of rapid, fully supported policy change in one state, including a description of how non-traditional actors developed policy. It is a story of how democracy worked--cooperation, coercion, or backroom deals--in one Southern state as it tries to improve education for its youngest citizens. Implications for policy and practice are discussed as are steps for future research.