Doc: The Story of Dennis Littky
and His Fight for a Better School

By Susan Kammeraad-Campbell

Non-fiction

420 pages (6" x 9")
ISBN: 978-1-4166-0228-6

This riveting account of Dennis Littky and how his ideas turned around a troubled rural high school—the first school named to the acclaimed Coalition of Essential Schools—gives you a behind-the-scenes perspective on how principal leadership can accomplish positive change.

Read how Littky's philosophy of personalized learning—one student at a time—quickly achieved dramatic improvements, including a decrease in dropout rates from 20 percent to 1.5 percent and record numbers of college-bound graduates. And learn how school improvement ideas that now seem commonplace today—such as high expectations, individualized curriculum, positive learning communities, and a focus on student competencies—had to be carefully nurtured among students, established through collaborative teamwork, and fought for in the community.

Doc: The Story of Dennis Littky and His Fight for a Better School was made into a 1992 TV movie "A Town Torn Apart" starring Michael Tucker.

“In 1981, in the "quiet, back-road town of Winchester," N.H., Sheldon Dennis Littky, aka Doc, became the unlikely principal of deeply troubled Thayer High School. But his unorthodox lifestyle and teaching methods provoked a battle that divided the town and split the school board, a story picked up by the national media. A gifted, eccentric educator, Littky had earlier established his reputation for innovation in a Long Island school district. In Winchester, however, he was known as the reclusive "mountain man," an enigma to the townspeople. Journalist Kammeraad-Campbell details the battle that ended in vindication for Littky and his plan for Thayer High, providing a model with application for other school systems.”

Publishers Weekly(Aug 2010)

“Bravo! At last the story of a school administrator who cares. The reader of this well-written, objective commentary will find renewed hope that perhaps our educational system can respond to the needs of the students with initiative, determination, and caring, despite little money, lack of equipment, and opposition to "new methods." The author intertwines Littky's life with the town of Winchester, New Hampshire, where Littky's unorthodoxy as principal of Thayer High led to a heated debate and his demotion. Ultimately, with the help of students and their parents, he was reinstated. This is not just Littky's story, but also that of a town whose populace believes in education and gives vigorous support to those beliefs. Primarily, however, this is the story of education, the way it should be.”

ANNELLE R. HUGGINS, Memphis State Univ. Libs., Library Journal review