This November, in the midst of a landmark election, we take a step back to remind ourselves of the ultimate priority in our schools: ensuring that every child receives an equitable education. As Equity editor Dan Alpert says, “Corwin believes that education is the primary engine for social mobility and a basic human right.” Please take some time to look through these latest books from educators at the forefront of equity reform across the country.
With the publication of High-Expectations Teaching, Jon Saphier reveals once and for all evidence that the bell curve of ability is plain wrong—that ability is something that can be grown significantly if we can first help students to believe in themselves.
In drill-down detail, Saphier provides an instructional playbook for increasing student confidence and agency in the daily flow of classroom life:
- Powerful strategies for attribution retraining, organized around 50 Ways to Get Students to Believe in Themselves
- Concrete examples, scripts, and classroom structures and routines for empowering student agency and choice
- Dozens of accompanying videos showing high-expectations strategies in action
All children in all schools, regardless of income or social class, will benefit from the strategies in this book. But for children of poverty and children of color, our proficiency with these skills is essential . . . in many ways life saving. Jon Saphier challenges us all—educators, students, and parents—to get started today.
According to federal data, African American students are more than three times as likely as their white peers to be suspended or expelled. As a school leader, what do you do when your heart is in the right place, but your data show otherwise?
In Solving Disproportionality and Achieving Equity, Edward Fergus takes us on a journey into disproportionality by engaging our hearts and minds on the presence of biases that create barriers to the success of students of color. If your school is faced with a disproportionate rate of suspensions, gifted program enrollment, or special education referrals for students of color, this book shows how you can uncover the root causes and rally your staff to face the challenge head on.
You will:
- Understand through compelling vignettes and case studies how bias affects policies and practices even in good schools
- Know what questions to ask and what data to analyze to get to the root cause
- Create your own road map for becoming an equity-driven school, with staff activities, data collection forms, checklists, and progress monitoring tools
If you are interested in developing a deep understanding of the policy, practice, and beliefs necessary for schools to address disproportionality and achieve equity, this book delivers all that and more.
Despite the best efforts of equity leaders, our schools suffer from persistent inequities. Guiding Teams to Excellence with Equity is a must-read for anyone who values equity and excellence and supports the professional learning of adults in our schools. Author John Krownapple helps readers develop as culturally proficient facilitators, and equips them with the skills, tools, and techniques to navigate the obstacles that arise during systemic equity transformations.
- Includes a powerful, running vignette that illustrates common challenges, principles, and solutions
- Focuses on mental models for managing group energy
- Is grounded in a systems model for personal and organizational transformation
- Provides a range of tools for planning culturally proficient learning experiences
This is the book leaders need to learn how to facilitate a group’s journey from awareness to commitment to action in support of inclusion and equity.
This is not yesterday’s ELL classroom. Thanks to the Common Core and other rigorous new standards, it’s more challenging than ever to meet the needs of our English learners. But yesterday’s classrooms didn’t have the so many powerful digital tools at your immediate disposal. Written by three tech-savvy ELL experts and grounded in the latest research on English language and literacy development and technology integration, this timely book will serve as your go-to road map for navigating this exciting new frontier.
Inside, you’ll find:
- An overview of current digital age learning experiences and trends
- Step-by-step guides to implementing technology-infused lessons that are specifically aligned with English learners’ needs, including a sample lesson seed in each chapter
- Authentic vignettes of current uses of technology in the classroom
- Professional Learning Network questions for group discussion
Take a look for yourself. ELL Frontiers will give you the tools not only to improve academic outcomes and enhance language development, but also to cultivate digital citizenship.
By now it’s a given: if we’re to help our ELLs and SELs access the rigorous demands of today’s content standards, we must explicitly teach the “code” that drives school success: academic language. Look no further for assistance than this much-anticipated series from Ivannia Soto, in which she invites field authorities to share every teacher’s need-to-know strategies on the four essential components of academic language:
- Jeff Zwiers on conversational discourse in context
- David and Yvonne Freeman on grammar and syntax in context
- Margarita Calderon on vocabulary in context
- Noma LeMoine on culture in context.
Select the book that best matches your immediate needs; each one is designed to stand alone. Better yet, read all four volumes as your start-to-finish instructional plan for closing the achievement gap once and for all.
