This influential book describes the knowledge and skills teachers and school administrators need to recognize and combat bias and inequity that undermine educational engagement for students experiencing poverty. Featuring important revisions based on newly available research and lessons from the authors professional development work, this Second Edition includes: a new chapter outlining the dangers of grit and deficit perspectives as responses to educational disparities; three updated chapters of research-informed, on-the-ground strategies for teaching and leading with equity literacy; and expanded lists of resources and readings to support transformative equity work in high-poverty and mixed-class schools. Written with an engaging, conversational style that makes complex concepts accessible, this book will help readers learn how to recognize and respond to even the subtlest inequities in their classrooms, schools, and districts.

Income disparity for students in both K-12 and higher education settings has become increasingly apparent since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wake of these changes, impoverished students face a variety of challenges both internal and external. Educators must deepen their awareness of the obstacles students face beyond the classroom to support learning. Traditional literacy education must evolve to become culturally, linguistically, and socially relevant to bridge the gap between poverty and academic literacy opportunities. Poverty Impacts on Literacy Education develops a conceptual framework and pedagogical support for literacy education practices related to students in poverty. The research provides protocols supporting student success through explored connections between income disparity and literacy instruction. Covering topics such as food insecurity, integrated instruction, and the poverty narrative, this is an essential resource for administration in both K-12 and higher education settings, professors and teachers in literacy, curriculum directors, researchers, instructional facilitators, pre-service teachers, school counselors, teacher preparation programs, and students.

In Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It, veteran educator and brain expert Eric Jensen takes an unflinching look at how poverty hurts children, families, and communities across the United States and demonstrates how schools can improve the academic achievement and life readiness of economically disadvantaged students. Jensen argues that although chronic exposure to poverty can result in detrimental changes to the brain, the brain's very ability to adapt from experience means that poor children can also experience emotional, social, and academic success. A brain that is susceptible to adverse environmental effects is equally susceptible to the positive effects of rich, balanced learning environments and caring relationships that build students' resilience, self-esteem, and character. Drawing from research, experience, and real school success stories, Teaching with Poverty in Mind reveals * What poverty is and how it affects students in school; * What drives change both at the macro level (within schools and districts) and at the micro level (inside a student's brain); * Effective strategies from those who have succeeded and ways to replicate those best practices at your own school; and * How to engage the resources necessary to make change happen. Too often, we talk about change while maintaining a culture of excuses. We can do better. Although no magic bullet can offset the grave challenges faced daily by disadvantaged children, this timely resource shines a spotlight on what matters most, providing an inspiring and practical guide for enriching the minds and lives of all your students.

Because everyone from policymakers to classroom teachers has a role in achieving greater equity for children from poverty, this book provides a sweeping chronicle of the historical turning points—judicial, legislative, and regulatory—on the road to greater equity, as background to the situation today. It provides succinct policy recommendations for states and districts, as well as practical curricular and instructional strategies for districts, schools, and teachers. This comprehensive approach—from the statehouse to the classroom—for providing children who come to school from impoverished environments with the education in which they thrive, not merely one that is comparable to others, truly enlists everyone in the quest for opportunity and performance. The next step toward equity may be taken by a governor, but it may also be taken by a teacher. One need not wait for the other. Press Relaease Redding, S. (Ed.). (2021). Opportunity and performance: Equity for children from poverty. Information Age. Copyright: Academic Development Institute • historical and legislative background for understanding current situation • analysis of poverty’s impact on learning from multiple perspectives • likely effects of COVID pandemic on learning and what to do about it • proximal (classroom) and distal (system) levers for change • actionable steps for teachers, schools, districts, states • what can be done to disrupt poverty’s impact on learning, "right here, right now” • disproportionately positive effects (DPEs) of high-impact strategies • goalposts for measurement of progress by schools, districts, states • glossary of terms and discussion prompts Last year, 2021, saw a host of books and articles addressing aspects of “equity,” some mounting the bandwagon of advocacy and some arguing what the term itself actually means. But where were the clear-eyed analyses and practical solutions for educators? After more than a year of focused attention to equity by five education scholars, their book, Opportunity & Performance, entered this stream of publications. The team is associated with the Academic Development Institute and their collaboration was supported by the National Comprehensive Center. This book is unique and distinct from others in several ways. First, the authors agreed early on to put boundaries around a topic that could otherwise run loose with ambiguity. As they were all educators, the book would focus on equity in education. As equity could be viewed from the perspective of a variety of groups that seek it—racial and ethnic groups, children with disabilities, and English learners prominent among them—the team of authors chose to devote the book to the one historically underserved group that most pervasively suffers in terms of academic achievement and that includes the other groups. That group is children from poverty. The five authors are not only researchers, their careers bristle with experience in schools and agencies that work with schools. From different disciplinary fields within education, they have all created and implemented strategies to improve learning and to measure that improvement. The authors were determined to logically and persuasively link their conclusions from the research on poverty, on learning, and on the nexus of the two. They wanted the book to be useful. They sought a respectful tone that would encourage common ground and constructive action to open doors of opportunity and achieve greater learning for students from impoverished environments. The book’s authors and external advisors brought to the work a diversity of professional background and expertise on historically underserved students, children from poverty, effective instruction, systems change, and methods for evaluating progress. Equity of opportunity: Each student—despite family income, race, ethnicity, gender, language, or disability—has the opportunity to attend schools, access courses and programs, and be taught by teachers that meet standards of quality on a par with schools attended by their peers. Equity of performance: The schools, courses, programs, and teachers that serve students from historically underserved groups reorient their curriculum, instruction, and support services to ameliorate disadvantages these students may disproportionately bear, optimizing learning results for these students. The Book's Authors Linda Cavazos, Ph.D., is a researcher and technical assistance provider with more than 25 years of experience in education supporting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners and directing projects in the areas of equity, diversity, inclusion, literacy, and cultural and linguistic competence, responsiveness, and sustainability. Allison Layland, Ph.D., is the Chief Education Strategist for the Academic Development Institute (ADI) with projects in several regional centers. She has con¬sulted with 11 state education agencies on effective implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and has more than 20 years of teaching and leadership experience in general and special education at the school, district, and state levels. Sam Redding, Ed.D., is Chief Learning Scientist and a consultant to three regional centers. Dr. Redding also served as the Associate Director of the Center on School Turnaround (WestEd) and as Senior Learning Specialist for the Center on Innovations in Learning (Temple University), and Director of the Center on Innovation & Improvement. As a Senior Research Associate at the Laboratory for Student Success, he headed the Lab’s research and implementation of comprehensive school reform. Janet S. Twyman, Ph.D., BCBA, LBA, Dr. Twyman is a consultant for the Academic Development Institute. Throughout her career as a preschool and elementary teacher, school principal and administrator, university professor, instructional designer, distance learning architect, and educational consultant, Dr. Twyman has been a proponent of effective learning tech¬nologies that produce individual and system change. She has presented to and worked with education systems, organizations, and institutions in over 50 states and countries, including speaking about technologies for diverse learners and settings at the United Nations. Bi Vuong, MPA, is the Managing Director, Education Practice with Project Evident. Before joining Project Evident, Bi was the Director of Proving Ground at the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. She also launched the National Center for Rural Education Research Network. Prior to Proving Ground, she served as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer for the School District of Philadelphia. Bi serves as a consultant for the Academic Development Institute with project assignments for several regional centers. The Book’s External Advisors Patricia Edwards, Ph.D. is professor of language and literacy at Michigan State University, a member of the Reading Hall of Fame, with research and publications on multicultural literacy, parent involvement, and related topics, especially among poor and minority children. Sheneka Williams, Ph.D. is professor and chairperson of the Department of Educational Administration at Michigan State University with a outstanding body of research on educational opportunity for African American students. T. V. (Joe) Layng, Ph.D. is a behavioral scientist with a distinguished career in research and practice, advancing learning through effective instruction for diverse students; Dr. Layng’s work focuses on the integration of technology with instructional design and systemic behavior interventions. Contact: Dr. Sam Redding at [email protected]

The achievement gap is one of the most talked about issues in U.S. education. It shows up in grades, standardized test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college completion. This book argues that the focus on the gap is misplaced. Today, we need to look at the societal factors that have accumulated over time and have resulted in poverty level pay for teachers, lack of resources in out poorest schools and an abundance of children entering our schools unprepared. Dr. Wages has written a detailed, well documented book that can serve as an informative resource to create an awareness of the multidimensional and complex issues of poverty.