Picky Parent Guide: Choose Your Child's School with Confidence, the Elementary Years (K-6)

Picky Parent Guide: Choose Your Child’s School with Confidence, the Elementary Years (K-6), is the definitive action manual and reference guide for parents of school-age children. It is the first complete, high quality book that combines: 1. A thorough discussion of child and family needs in schools. 2. Research based guidance on school quality, regardless of school type. 3. A complete toolkit to organize the choice process for parents. Picky Parent Guide contains 22 Confident Choice Tools, checklists, and tables that organize and simplify the whole process. Readers can create customized lists of questions to ask principals, teachers and other parents when visiting schools based on their own unique child and family needs. The authors, nationally recognized school choice experts and parents of school-age children, Bryan C. Hassel, Ph.D. and Emily Ayscue Hassel have advised leaders from the school house to the White House. Here they help you get what your child deserves from school.

BRYAN C. HASSEL is Co-Director of Public Impact. A Rhodes Scholar, he is a nationally recognized expert on school choice and school reform who speaks frequently on these topics. He has advised leaders across the political spectrum, from city halls to the White House, on educational issues. He has organized and led national conferences. He has authored and edited dozens of books, articles, toolkits and other publications for schools, policymakers, and parents. President George W. Bush appointed him as one of 19 members of the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education. Bryan received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which he attended as a Morehead Scholar. He earned his doctorate from Harvard University, where he concentrated his studies on education policy, and his masters from Oxford University.

EMILY AYSCUE HASSEL is Co-Director of Public Impact. Emily previously worked as a consultant and manager for an international human resources consulting firm, helping for-profit, non-profit and educational organizations to maximize the effectiveness of their employees. In addition to assisting parents with their school choices, she has authored publications on school leadership, professional development and selecting school designs. President Clinton’s Secretary of Education chose to distribute her professional development toolkit, Learning From the Best, to all 15,000 U.S. school districts. Emily received her undergraduate degree in psychology and graduate degrees in law and business administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

BRYAN AND EMILY each attended both public and private schools. Between them, they personally experienced assigned public, magnet, neighborhood, traditional, open, single-sex, private day, and coeducational boarding schools, as well as at-home tutoring. They are also parents of two school-age children, one girl and one boy. Their children have attended both public and private schools. They have personal experience with the challenging process of selecting schools for their children in this era of burgeoning parental choice.