One of the most immediate challenges in K–12 schools lies in implementing powerful pedagogy which emotionally, intellectually, and behaviorally engages students. The challenge is compounded in urban schools where higher proportions of underprepared minority students are in classrooms with teachers who find it difficult to not only create bonds but also in packaging pedagogy in relevant, interesting, and meaningful ways. Though many teachers can temporarily tap students’ interests or episodically engage students in a portion of a lesson, the ability to create and sustain an engaging educational practice remains largely elusive. This book supplies the missing threads through establishing a framework for student engagement, which has been cited as the number one factor impacting achievement. It is an easy read, written a highly conversational tone with a strong research basis. You will explore a 7 step process for emotionally, intellectually, and behaviorally engaging students with a wealth of specific strategies, techniques, and tools which create an engaging educational experience. Utilizing cornerstones of professional learning communities, suggestions are offered for utilizing action research, collaborative inquiry, journal study, and shared practice to integrate ideas into practice.

This timely volume reveals in great detail how educators closed the “performance gap” for low-income students by linking expectations and results. Drawing heavily on the words and experiences of students, teachers, and parents, this book describes how students who traditionally had not succeeded academically in school began to do so. Effort and Excellence in Urban Classrooms demonstrates just how this was done by including: In-depth descriptions of classrooms and schools where students began succeeding when educators assumed the responsibility for their successData-based discussion of teachers’ views on parental involvement in schools and parents’ views of teachers’ and schools’ actions on behalf of studentsIdentification of the kinds of support that schools and districts must provide if educators are to be successfulAn unrelenting emphasis on how educators enabled students to be motivated and to produce high-quality work “At last, a book that helps us see and feel what a ‘no excuses’ approach to teaching is like in urban classrooms! This close look at teachers and students in high-poverty settings gives new meaning to ‘all children can learn.’ A must read for those who are serious about closing the achievement gap.” —Michael S. Knapp, Center for the Study of Teaching & Policy, University of Washington

A seven-step plan for really engaging our urban students Every day, thousands of students sit in our city classrooms, emotionally, intellectually, and behaviorally disengaged. Teachers have their success stories; still, the ability to create and sustain an engaging practice remains elusive. This important book offers new hope. Drawing on his more than twenty years of experience working with high-poverty, urban, minority students, Jelani Jabari delivers Seven cohesive steps for planning, delivering, and reflecting on captivating learning experiences Techniques for gathering critical information about your students to forge deeper connections Strategies to transform students' perceived "deficits" into instructional assets An emphasis on teaching methods and classroom culture, not simply standards and accountability The INSPIRE process will take you beyond discrete, isolated techniques to develop a comprehensive approach to building students' personal and academic success. You'll quickly discover that there's no better guide to implementing real and lasting change in our toughest classrooms.

A guide offering seven comprehensive steps to create instruction and a classroom culture that engages students intellectually, emotionally, and behaviourally

The forward-thinking techniques you need to manage today’s diverse classrooms A well-managed classroom is a successful one. But as cultural diversity increases in schools, old classroom management strategies are growing ineffective—or even counterproductive. In a comprehensive, practical guide, Laura E. Pinto details why today’s classrooms are best managed by valuing culturally responsive engagement and what teachers must do for their classrooms to flourish in this new reality. Drawing from extensive research, Pinto outlines action steps for teachers to critically reflect on their management style, then implement changes to supercharge the learning experience for students of all cultural backgrounds. The book includes: Keys to developing the cultural fluency necessary to prepare students from all backgrounds for success Exercises for teachers to reflect deeply on how they manage their classrooms and to identify areas for improvement 45 easy strategies—including many that support the Common Core—for boosting engagement and cultural responsiveness in the classroom Readable and compelling, From Discipline to Culturally Responsive Engagement is essential for any educator ready to adapt to the changing face of classrooms. "The book creates a type of neural pathway between classroom management and the nature of relationship-building that is grounded by culturally responsive practice. Incorporating the relationship and significance of the common core only adds to the development of teacher capacity and efficacy development." —Deborah Childs-Bowen, Chief Learning Officer Alliance for Leadership in Education, Atlanta, GA

An inside look at America's most controversial charter schools, and the moral and political questions around public education and school choice. The promise of public education is excellence for all. But that promise has seldom been kept for low-income children of color in America. In How the Other Half Learns, teacher and education journalist Robert Pondiscio focuses on Success Academy, the network of controversial charter schools in New York City founded by Eva Moskowitz, who has created something unprecedented in American education: a way for large numbers of engaged and ambitious low-income families of color to get an education for their children that equals and even exceeds what wealthy families take for granted. Her results are astonishing, her methods unorthodox. Decades of well-intended efforts to improve our schools and close the "achievement gap" have set equity and excellence at war with each other: If you are wealthy, with the means to pay private school tuition or move to an affluent community, you can get your child into an excellent school. But if you are poor and black or brown, you have to settle for "equity" and a lecture--about fairness. About the need to be patient. And about how school choice for you only damages public schools for everyone else. Thousands of parents have chosen Success Academy, and thousands more sit on waiting lists to get in. But Moskowitz herself admits Success Academy "is not for everyone," and this raises uncomfortable questions we'd rather not ask, let alone answer: What if the price of giving a first-rate education to children least likely to receive it means acknowledging that you can't do it for everyone? What if some problems are just too hard for schools alone to solve?