How do school communities create environments that fully prepare both English learners and dual-language learners for colleges and careers? This valuable book profiles six high-performing high schools that had a singular focus on improving the educational outcomes of English learners. The authors use these case studies to identify a comprehensive set of design elements and shared values that were key factors in yielding extraordinary results. These include a school-wide language development framework that integrates content, analytical practices, and language learning; a broad and dynamic view of assessment practices; intensive social-emotional support for students and their families; and mission-driven staff and leadership that maximize learning opportunities across classrooms. The practices employed in these schools are not only essential for English learners’ success but, as the performance data shows, they also benefit all students. “This is my kind of change book: clear and deep; causes one to think; and inspires the reader to what may be possible on a wide scale.” —From the foreword by Michael Fullan, professor emeritus, University of Toronto “The schools featured in this set of beautifully drawn case studies reveal how they managed to beat the odds for their students—and there is much to learn by looking closely at what made them so effective.” —Lilly Wong Fillmore, professor, University of California, Berkeley “This book is a rich resource for all educators driven to ensure that all multilingual learners are ready for college and career.” —Angélica Infante-Green, deputy commissioner, New York State Education Department

New Directions in Teaching English: Reimagining Teaching, Teacher Education and Research attempts to create a comprehensive vision of critical and culturally relevant English teaching at the dawn of the 21st century. This book is multi-voiced. It includes perspectives from classroom teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in language and literacy, positioned to respond to recent changes in national conversations about literacy, learning, and assessment. These variously situated authors also recognize the rapidly changing demographics in schools, the changing nature of literacy in the digital age, and the increasing demands for literacy in the workplace. This book is critical. At all times education is a political act, and schools are embedded within a sociocultural reality that benefits some at the expense of others. Therefore the approach advocated through many of the chapters is one of critical literacy, where English students gain reading and writing skills and proficiency with digital technologies that allow them to become more able, discerning, and empowered consumers and producers of texts.

Mary Oliver is one of America's best-loved poets, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Her luminous poetry celebrates nature and beauty, love and the spirit, silence and wonder, extending the visionary American tradition of Whitman, Emerson, Frost and Emily Dickinson. Her extraordinary poetry is nourished by her intimate knowledge and minute daily observation of the New England coast, its woods and ponds, its birds and animals, plants and trees.