Adequate Yearly Progress

December 1, 2019

DEBUT Educator Elden's first novel (See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers) follows teachers and administrators through a year at Brae Hill Valley, a struggling high school in a large Texas city, as they navigate the latest "improvements" to the system. The district hires a flashy educational reformer as its superintendent, resulting in more paperwork and superficial requirements on top of state-mandated testing. Lena, the poet English teacher, and Hernan, the science teacher, are well liked by their students; they joke through faculty meetings. Maybelline, a single mother who teaches math, is a rule-follower outraged that no one else is taking the new requirements seriously. Kaytee is an idealistic first-year teacher who blogs about her crusade to right as many systemic wrongs as possible. The author's choice of names and chapter and section titles signal her intention to satirize the education system, but her characters are fully fleshed humans who struggle in their personal lives and to reach their disadvantaged students. VERDICT This novel provides an entertaining and humane story of what it's like to teach high school. Already a hit with teachers when it was self-published in 2018, it will appeal to anyone who enjoys humorous workplace narratives.--Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2019
A veteran teacher-turned-novelist provides a satirical view of life and (not so fast) times at an underperforming high school in Texas. Elden populates the paradoxically named Brae Hill Valley High School (located neither on a brae or hill nor in a valley) with a variety of stock characters, including the hapless principal, the idealistic teacher from "TeachCorps," officious administrators, the hard-as-nails football coach, and a plethora of students ranging from the football-crazed to the routinely apathetic. When the mediocre equilibrium at Brae Hill Valley is upset by the appointment of a self-promoting, disruptive education guru as superintendent of schools, the new school year devolves into a farcical exercise in increasing test scores and chasing after "new" standards, including a "Believer Score." With references to the educational acronyms and platitudes spouted by industry consultants, Elden draws a manic sketch of a school under attack by the forces summoned to save it. Elden's limited development of several characters, particularly students, results in some stereotyping in lieu of nuanced portraits, and her long service as a classroom teacher is clear from the more flattering portraits of the teaching staff vis-à-vis the student body. Occasional episodes, including one touching on issues of race, hint at layers beneath the surface which might have been mined for a weightier, less-slapstick approach. It's hard to know whom to root for in this sitcom but easy to see how the system is broken.

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November 1, 2019
Elden delivers with her debut, featuring multiple perspectives addressing the struggles that the teachers of failing city school Brae Hill Valley High face both inside and outside of the classroom. Lena Wright is a poet and English teacher who is struggling to connect with her students, and struggling to find a nice guy. Hernan is a confident biology teacher but is tongue-tied around women, specifically Lena. Math teacher Maybelline loves numbers and order, but raising her daughter alone proves to be a challenge. Coach Ray focuses on winning games, but is losing in the game of life. Recounting the story from her anonymous blog is Kaytee, an idealistic second year history teacher. Along with the daily issues teachers face, a new administration at Brae Hill Valley High threatens the school's very existence. Readers who enjoyed the teacher's-eye-view in John Pearson's Learn Me Good, will find Adequate Yearly Progress thoroughly enjoyable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)