Adequate Yearly Progress: A Novel

by Roxanna Elden Narrated by Roxana Ortega

Overview

A debut novel told with humor, intelligence, and heart, a “funny but insightful look at teachers in the workplace...reminiscent of the TV show The Office but set in an urban high school” (The Washington Post), perfect for fans of Tom Perrotta and Laurie Gelman.

Roxanna Elden's “laugh-out-loud funny satire” (Forbes) is a brilliantly entertaining and moving look at our education system.

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.

Editorial Reviews

Las Cruces Sun-News

[A] humorous novel about modern public education... a welcome contribution to a field that lacks recognizable, complex portrayals of today’s teacher... as entertainment and a tribute to dedicated educators, the novel is entirely adequate.

Natalia Sylvester

"A brilliant portrayal of our public education institutions. . . . Roxanna Elden's spot-on observations, penetrating humor, and deeply felt characters make for an immersive story that is as fun to read as it is enlightening."

Jacinda Townsend

"Compelling characters and irresistable plot threads. . . . To read Adequate Yearly Progress is to bathe in a world of humanity that won't be soon forgotten."

Steve Almond

"Smart and funny. . . .a gem."

Forbes

"Laugh-out-loud-funny satire."

Anna Pitoniak

"In Adequate Yearly Progress, Roxanna Elden has written a smart, charming novel about the flaws and promises of our education system. I fell in love with Lena, Hernan, Maybelle, and their fellow teachers — none of whom are perfect, and each of whom are doing their best (with admittedly mixed results). A laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely heartwarming novel."

Education Week - Larry Ferlazzo

"Roxanna Elden is one of the most practical, engaging and entertaining writers on education issues around."

The Washington Post

"A funny but insightful look at teachers in the workplace . . . reminiscent of the TV show “The Office” but set in an urban high school."

From the Publisher

“Roxanna Elden is not only a smart and funny storyteller, but she’s the kind of writer who takes us inside her characters, and makes us feel the struggles that animate the teaching mission. . .This is a comic novel, but Elden, like all great writers, uses humor to make us see the humanity of her people. A gem.”

— Steve Almond, author of Bad Stories

“Adequate Yearly Progress is a brilliant portrayal of our public education institutions and the systemic issues that affect students and teachers alike. Roxanna Elden's spot-on observations, penetrating humor, and deeply-felt characters make for an immersive story that is as fun to read as it is enlightening."

-Natalia Sylvester, author of Everyone Knows You Go Home

“Compelling characters and irresistible plot threads. . . To read Adequate Yearly Progress is to bathe in a world of humanity that won’t soon be forgotten.”

-Jacinda Townsend, author of Saint Monkey

“Roxanna Elden is one of the most practical, engaging and entertaining writers on education issues around.”

—Larry Ferlazzo, Education Week

Library Journal

12/01/2019

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

Kirkus Reviews

2019-11-11
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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173829450
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	02/11/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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