The Seattle Public Library, CityClub, and Elliott Bay Book Company present a conversation with education-reform advocate Michelle Rhee, author of Radical: Fighting to Put Students First. Rhee draws on her life story- her years of teaching in inner-city Baltimore; her turbulent tenure as chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools; and her role as an education activist and founder and CEO of StudentsFirst-to deliver a plan for better American schools that ensures that laws, leaders, and policies make students-not adults-our top priority. And, Rhee says, that reform is urgent: The United States is known as a world leader in innovation, brilliant thinkers, and trendsetting companies, but that status is at risk. American children are well outside the top-10 international student rankings in reading, science, and math, and those rankings-not to mention our nation's leadership position-will continue to plummet unless we take dramatic action. free