11 | February | 2020

Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden

Published: February 2020 – Atria Books

Review galley courtesy of Atria and NetGalley

Description:

Each new school year brings familiar challenges to Brae Hill Valley, a struggling high school in one the biggest cities in Texas. But the teachers also face plenty of personal challenges and this year, they may finally spill over into the classroom.

English teacher Lena Wright, a spoken-word poet, can never seem to truly connect with her students. Hernan D. Hernandez is confident in front of his biology classes, but tongue-tied around the woman he most wants to impress. Down the hall, math teacher Maybelline Galang focuses on the numbers as she struggles to parent her daughter, while Coach Ray hustles his troubled football team toward another winning season. Recording it all is idealistic second-year history teacher Kaytee Mahoney, whose anonymous blog gains new readers by the day as it drifts ever further from her in-class reality. And this year, a new superintendent is determined to leave his own mark on the school—even if that means shutting the whole place down. (publisher)

My take: Adequate Yearly Progress is about a high school in a large Texas city that has been underperforming in terms of results. Teachers, brand new and long time, navigate the high expectations of a new superintendent, education consultants, and teenagers. It’s the story of how the faculty deals on a daily basis with school life, personal life, and reality. Adequate Yearly Progress is filled to the brim with humor, broad stereotypes, and nuggets of truth and I think current teachers, especially high school teachers, will relate to the travails of the Brae Hill Valley HS teachers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roxanna Elden is the author of Adequate Yearly Progress: A Novel, which was previously self-published, and See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers. She combines eleven years of experience as a public school teacher with a decade of speaking to audiences around the country about education issues. She has been featured on NPR as well as in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more. You can learn more about her work at RoxannaElden.com.

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