Even though Adequate Yearly Progress is a novel, it owes a big debt to work by journalists and memoirists—so much so that there’s a list of non-fiction books listed in the acknowledgments. You’ll find the complete list below. Some of these books are specifically education-related, some focus on other issues touched on in the novel. All the books listed below are well-written, informative, and worth a read if you’re interested in the topics they cover.
Works of nonfiction that informed parts of Adequate Yearly Progress
The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession, by Dana Goldstein
Hope Against Hope: Three Schools, One City, and the Struggle to Educate America’s Children, by Sarah Carr
We Own This Game: A Season in the Adult World of Youth Football, by Robert Andrew Powell
Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America, by Donna Foote
Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry, by Todd Farley
Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade, by Linda Perlstein
The Same Thing Over and Over: How School Reformers Get Stuck in Yesterday’s Ideas, by Rick Hess
Stray Dogs, Saints and Saviors: Fighting for the Soul of America’s Toughest High School, by Alexander Russo
Dis-Integration: The Splintering of Black America, by Eugene Robinson
Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream, by H.G. Bissinger
Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto, by Steve Almond
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt
Life In Prison: Eight Hours at a Time, by Robert Reilly
Teacher Man: A Memoir, by Frank McCourt
Reluctant Disciplinarian: Classroom Management Advice from a Softy Who Became (Eventually) a Successful Teacher, by Gary Rubinstein
Teaching in Circles: My Journeys in Teaching High School, by Nathan R. Miller
The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle, by Dan Brown