Puzzles Publishing & PSG Thought Leadership
Publications, Research
& Resources
Puzzles Solutions Group advances education, leadership, organizational effectiveness, public policy, culture, and human development through original books, scholarly research, professional resources, and practical tools.
Featured Publication
Micah’s Call
What if middle school students had the power to change everything? Baker Middle School is on the edge of collapse — fights in the hallways, overworked teachers, and a student body that has lost trust in the system. Micah Daniels never saw himself as a leader, until he is chosen to pioneer a bold new experiment: the Prefectorial System. A powerful story of student leadership and change.
SEL & Behavior-Support Initiative
Bring Micah’s Call to Your School
Micah’s Call is more than a novel — it is a springboard for conversations about student leadership, responsibility, and school culture. Rooted in the Prefectorial System model of student-led behavior support, it gives middle-grade readers a vision of what their own leadership can look like.
Schools and districts can request classroom sets, discussion with the author, and program guidance for pairing the book with SEL and behavior-support goals.
Educator resources in development.
The Library
Publications by Dr. Nacovin J. Norman
Education & Leadership
The Lost Leadership: The Dangers of Alienating Black Men from Senior Leadership in Urban Public Schools
An in-depth analysis of the underrepresentation of Black men in senior leadership roles in urban public schools — and the systemic barriers, from implicit bias to lack of mentorship, that keep them out.
Cultural Identity and Mental Health in Education
Confronts the unique challenges minority students encounter and offers educators, counselors, and school leaders actionable strategies for culturally inclusive environments that strengthen both academic performance and emotional resilience.
Children’s & Social-Emotional Learning
Micah’s Call
A powerful story of student leadership and change, following Micah Daniels as he helps pioneer the Prefectorial System at a struggling middle school.
Culture & Historical Analysis
The Enemy Has No Conscience: The Diaspora Dossier
A piercing work of historical and cultural analysis examining how power operates against displaced peoples — through narrative control, economic exploitation, and the erasure of collective memory.
Faith & Inspiration
From the Streets to Galilee
Jamal, a young African American from the South Side of Chicago, is transported from the concrete jungle to the ancient lands of Galilee — a journey that forces him to confront his inner doubts and his outer struggles.
Fiction — The Final Exodus Series
Final Exodus — Part One: The Awakening
A prophecy forgotten. A history buried. The hidden descendants of the lost tribes of Israel awaken to their true identity, in a story weaving ancient prophecy, spiritual warfare, and struggles of faith.
Final Exodus — Part Two: The Reckoning
The global awakening ignites a war between those who seek to reclaim stolen history and those who will do anything to keep it buried — from the streets of America to the sacred lands of Jerusalem.
Final Exodus — Part Three
The conclusion of the Final Exodus trilogy is currently in development.
Coming soon.
Research & Scholarship
Academic Work
Doctoral Dissertation
Teachers’ Perceptions of a Teacher-to-Principal Upward Feedback System in K–12 Schools
Examining how structured upward feedback from teachers to principals can strengthen school leadership, trust, and organizational health in K–12 settings.
Graduate Research
Multiculturalism and the Media: Using Racially Motivated Films to Increase Attitudes About Race
Graduate research exploring how film and media can be used deliberately to shift attitudes about race.
For School Districts & Child Study Teams
Professional Resources
Practical, field-tested tools developed by Dr. Nacovin J. Norman for the professionals who make high-stakes decisions inside schools — built to bring structure, consistency, and defensibility to the work.
The Autism Tier Placement Guide & Rubric
Consistent, defensible autism program placement — SC Autism 1–4.
Deciding which level of specialized autism programming a student needs is one of the highest-stakes calls an IEP team makes — and too often it varies from one case manager to the next. The Autism Tier Placement Guide & Rubric brings a shared, structured framework to that decision.
Built for case managers, child study teams, and special-education leaders, the guide scores a student’s current functioning across seven domains — communication, behavioral and regulation needs, adult support, academic functioning, social interaction, adaptive independence, and self-care. The domains that most affect placement, staffing, and safety are weighted more heavily, producing a clear program-consideration score aligned to four levels of self-contained autism programming, with built-in safety review flags that surface students who warrant a closer look regardless of their score.
It is guidance, not a gatekeeper. The rubric supports the IEP team’s professional judgment and stays fully aligned with IDEA, FAPE, LRE, and NJAC 6A:14 — it never replaces individualized, team-based decision-making.
- Consistency across case managers, teams, and buildings
- Defensible, criteria-based placement conversations with families
- Weighted to reflect what actually drives programming and safety
- Automatic review flags for high-need and safety situations
- Legally grounded and centered on the IEP team’s decision
A guidance tool that supports — and does not replace — the IEP process, present levels of performance, evaluations, and individualized placement determination under IDEA and applicable state code.
Puzzles Publishing
An Imprint of Puzzles Solutions Group
Puzzles Publishing develops and publishes works that advance leadership, cultural understanding, faith, and student success — from professional titles for educators to fiction that carries those same ideas to wider audiences.
Authors and organizations interested in working with Puzzles Publishing are welcome to reach out.
Schools, Districts & Organizations
Institutional & Bulk Orders
Classroom sets, district orders, book-study bundles, and organizational purchases are handled directly. Tell us the title, quantity, and intended use, and we will follow up with availability and institutional pricing.
Author, Speaking & Media
Dr. Nacovin J. Norman, Ed.D.
Educator, school leader, and author. Dr. Norman writes and speaks on educational leadership, student leadership development, cultural identity, and organizational health — and is available for keynotes, professional development, author visits, and media appearances.
Put These Ideas to Work
From the page to your school, district, or organization — Puzzles Solutions Group turns ideas into practice.