FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2008

Contact:
Jeff Perez, Office of Communications and Government Affairs
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 352-5566
E-mail: jperez@shawnee.edu

(Cutline by Phyllis Noah, communications coordinator)

(Submitted photo)

Shawnee State University instructor announces release of new book

            Dr. Michael Powell, assistant professor of English and Humanities at Shawnee State University, has recently announced the release of his new book, “Rhetoric, History, and Public Education: Why the No Child Left Behind Act Cannot Succeed on Its Name Alone.”

(Article by Phyllis Noah, communications coordinator)



German publisher releases new book by Shawnee State University’s Dr. Michael Powell


(‘Rhetoric, History, and Public Education: Why the No Child Left Behind Act Cannot Succeed on Its Name Alone’ is a new book out by SSU’s Dr. Michael Powell)

            An article is good, but a book is even better.
            In 2006, when Dr. Michael Powell, assistant professor of English and Humanities at Shawnee State University, defended his dissertation before the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of The Ohio University, the committee suggested there were several articles in his work that could be published and he might publish the entire dissertation in a year.
            About a year later while recovering from an illness, VDM Verlag Dr. Muller, an academic research publishing company in Germany, called him wanting to turn his dissertation into a book.
            His dissertation was originally on OhioLink titled, “Moving Ahead or Falling Behind?: A Rhetorical Analysis of The Historical and Socio-Political Implications of the No Child Left Behind Act.” One of the first things he had to do was shorten the name.
            He was curious to know how the publisher found his dissertation in the first place, so he “googled” himself and found that someone had taken his dissertation from OhioLink and put it on a Web site that he did not know about, which is where the publishing company found it.
            Powell made a few changes, chose a new title, chose the artwork for a cover and signed the contract. By the end of March, he received some copies of the book.
            Included in the first few chapters of the book is the history of the education system in the United States.
            In the book, he discusses the political shifts and changes leading up to the “No Child Left Behind” act, providing a rhetorical analysis of NCLB and how it compares in a rhetorical and historical context to other modern educational reform artifacts.
            “I talk about how the schools developed and how the government pretty much stayed out of it until the 20th century when the government started intervening,” Powell said. “Public policy is full of rhetorical messages, and the ways in which politicians use rhetoric shapes the mindset of a society.”
            The publishing company will be selling the book online as an e-book or at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other outlets. Powell is planning a book signing in the near future. To order the book or for more information, call Powell at (740) 354-3070 or e-mail mpowell@shawnee.edu.