Uprooting Instructional Inequity


Book Description

Noted leadership coach Jill Harrison Berg offers a comprehensive guide to help school and teacher leaders amplify the power of collaborative inquiry as a means for identifying, interrogating, and addressing instructional inequity. At the center of the book is Berg's i3PD Planning Map, an invaluable tool for enhancing inquiry-based professional development experiences so that they become engines for schoolwide transformation. The map guides teachers to recognize and reform ways their instructional practice may be contributing to inequity, bolsters facilitators' abilities to help their colleagues become more effective agents of their own learning, and cultivates a culture of organizational learning in schools. Berg lays out the process in four parts: 1. Establishing a solid foundation for your improvement cycle with a deep understanding of the three components of your instructional core: content, participants, and facilitators. 2. Attending to the three Rs—relevance, rigor, and relationships—representing the connections among the core components. 3. Designing your improvement cycle and planning it out as a series of session agendas. 4. Planning for impact by thinking through what you will accept as evidence of success and how you will use that information to take your school to the next level. If you're ready to see your school start to work smarter toward instructional equity, and if you're eager to be a part of that change, Uprooting Instructional Inequity provides the design principles and sample tools you need to get the transformation started.




Uprooting Instructional Inequity


Book Description

Noted leadership coach Jill Harrison Berg offers a comprehensive guide to help school and teacher leaders amplify the power of collaborative inquiry as a means for identifying, interrogating, and addressing instructional inequity. At the center of the book is Berg's i3PD Planning Map, an invaluable tool for enhancing inquiry-based professional development experiences so that they become engines for schoolwide transformation. The map guides teachers to recognize and reform ways their instructional practice may be contributing to inequity, bolsters facilitators' abilities to help their colleagues become more effective agents of their own learning, and cultivates a culture of organizational learning in schools. Berg lays out the process in four parts: 1. Establishing a solid foundation for your improvement cycle with a deep understanding of the three components of your instructional core: content, participants, and facilitators. 2. Attending to the three Rs—relevance, rigor, and relationships—representing the connections among the core components. 3. Designing your improvement cycle and planning it out as a series of session agendas. 4. Planning for impact by thinking through what you will accept as evidence of success and how you will use that information to take your school to the next level. If you're ready to see your school start to work smarter toward instructional equity, and if you're eager to be a part of that change, Uprooting Instructional Inequity provides the design principles and sample tools you need to get the transformation started.




Inequalities, Youth, Democracy and the Pandemic


Book Description

This book brings together studies from various locations to examine the growing social problems that have been brought to the fore by the COVID-19 outbreak. Employing both qualitative, theoretical and quantitative methods, it presents the impact of the pandemic in different settings, shedding light on political and cultural realities around the world. With attention to inequalities rooted in race and ethnicity, economic conditions, gender, disability, and age, it considers different forms of marginalization and examines the ongoing disjunctions that increasingly characterize contemporary democracies from a multilevel perspective. The book addresses original analyses and approaches from a global perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic, its governance, and its effects in different geographies. These analyses are organized around three main axes: 1) how COVID-19 pandemic worsened social, racial/ethnic, and economic inequalities, including variables such as migration status, gender, and disability; 2) how the pandemic impacted youth and how younger generations cope with public health alarms, and containment measures; 3) how the pandemic posed a challenge to democracy, reshaped the political agenda, and the debate in the public sphere. Contributions from around the world show how local and national issues may overlap on a global scale, laying the foundation for connected sociologies. Based on qualitative as well as quantitative empirical analysis on various categories of individuals and groups, this edited volume reflects on the sociological aspects of current planetary crises which will continue to be at the core of our societies. A wide-ranging, international volume that focuses on both unexpected social changes and new forms of agency in response to a period of crisis, Inequalities, Youth, Democracy and the Pandemic will appeal to scholars with interests in the sociology of health, social problems and inequalities.




Understanding Your Instructional Power


Book Description

Explore the web of factors that influence your power as a teacher—and how you can better use that power to foster student agency and empowerment. What kind of power do teachers have? What influences their instructional decision making—and how does that affect students, particularly Black students and other students of color? How can educators move away from practices that oppress and devalue students to practices that support and empower them? These are just a few of the questions that author Tanji Reed Marshall answers in Understanding Your Instructional Power. Countering the notion that teachers are powerless in the classroom, she introduces the Power Principle to help teachers unpack how they understand and use the power associated with their authority and responsibility as an educator. Drawing from her own experience as a classroom teacher and coach, Reed Marshall explains how the Power Principle reveals itself through various elements, including language use (by both students and teachers), "hidden curriculum," and classroom culture. She identifies four levels of curricular autonomy that teachers have (Unfettered, Calibrated, Restricted, and Minimal) and four dimensions of instructional power that characterize their classroom environment (Empowering, Agentive, Protective, and Disenfranchising). Reflection exercises throughout the book guide readers through a deep analysis of their personal and professional histories and ideologies, including how these influence students' learning experiences. Reed Marshall shares her own journey of setbacks and progress as she offers support and encouragement to K–12 teachers seeking to use their power in productive ways so that all students can bring their full selves to class and receive the education they deserve.




The Instructional Leader's Guide to Closing Achievement Gaps


Book Description

"This practical guide outlines five keys to effectively close achievement gaps in their districts and schools and provides tools for increasing student achievement"--




Teaching with Poverty and Equity in Mind


Book Description

Learn how you can succeed with the students who need you most in ways you never thought possible. In this thought-provoking book, renowned educator and learning expert Eric Jensen takes his most personal, profound look yet at how poverty and inequity hurt students and their chances for success in life—and how teachers across all grade levels and subject areas can infuse equity into every aspect of their practice. Drawing from a broad survey of research, personal and professional experience, and inspiring real-life success stories, Teaching with Poverty and Equity in Mind explains how teachers can * Build relationships with students and create a classwide "in-group" where all learners feel a sense of safety and belonging. * Incorporate relevance and cultural responsiveness into curriculum and instruction, increasing student buy-in and replacing compliance with collaboration and leadership. * Use the uplifting power of stories to optimize energy and engagement and foster growth mindsets. * Provide clear, actionable feedback that empowers students to evaluate and direct their own learning. * Shift from disciplining students to coaching them with empathy, de-escalating disruptions and fostering more productive behaviors. * Build stronger brains and cultivate capacity through powerful accelerated learning tools. * Take steps to become a reflective and equitable educator, examining and debunking harmful biases and establishing personal and professional habits for a lifetime of growth. This insightful, comprehensive guide also includes reflection prompts and downloadable tools and templates to help you move forward with implementation. If we truly believe all students deserve a high-quality education, we need to commit to equity. It starts with each one of us. It starts with you.




Achievement Teams


Book Description

What if you had a collaborative process of looking at student data that could pinpoint student gaps in learning and suggest effective strategies to close those gaps? What if you knew not only what you should start doing to enhance student learning, but also what you should stop doing because it hasn't given you the hoped-for results? Enter Achievement Teams. This is not another program that's here today and gone tomorrow; it's a timeless approach that any school or district can replicate that focuses on the most significant variable in student achievement: teaching. In Achievement Teams, Steve Ventura and Michelle Ventura offer a framework based on John Hattie's Visible Learning research that makes teacher collaboration more efficient, rigorous, satisfying, and effective. Think of it as a systematic treasure hunt for best practices using real data on your students. The authors walk you through the Achievement Teams four-step meeting protocol: * In Step 1, teams focus on the evidence from a pre-assessment to provide specific feedback to students and teachers about concepts and skills that students did and did not learn. * In Step 2, teams use that evidence to establish SMART goals for both teachers and students. * In Step 3, teams summarize the collected data and make inferences around students' mastery levels. * In Step 4, teachers select high-impact strategies directly targeted to student needs. A post-assessment reveals what did and didn't work. The authors provide a plethora of resources along the way, including reflection activities to extend your thinking and a variety of helpful downloadable templates designed to facilitate the work. If you're a teacher or leader who is interested in maximizing student achievement, this book is for you.




Questioning for Formative Feedback


Book Description

When used effectively, quality questions and student dialogue result in self-regulated learners and formative feedback that reveals progress toward learning goals. Learning knows no boundaries. The potential for learning exists whenever and wherever we interact with our environment. So how can we infuse school learning with the authenticity and excitement associated with real-life experiences? In Questioning for Formative Feedback, Jackie Acree Walsh explores the relationship between questioning and feedback in K–12 classrooms and how dialogue serves as the bridge connecting the two. Quality questioning, productive dialogue, and authentic use of feedback are a powerful trifecta for addressing the needs of a new generation of learners. In fact, the skillful use of these three processes can fuel and accelerate the academic, social, and emotional learning of all students. In this book, Walsh provides a manual of practice for educators who want to engage students as partners in these processes. To that end, she offers the following features to help create a classroom in which everyone learns through intentional practice: * Blueprints for coherent models of key processes and products. * Tools and strategies to help you achieve identified outcomes. * Protocols with step-by-step directions to complete an activity. * Classroom artifacts of authentic classroom use, including links to 21 original videos produced exclusively for this book! Working together, questioning, dialogue, and feedback can transform learning for all. This book supports you in embracing and bringing that vision to fruition.




The PD Book


Book Description

Develop transformational professional development programs that build and sustain your school community In The PD Book, bestselling author Elena Aguilar and co-author Lori Cohen offer seven habits—and a wealth of practical tools—that help you transform professional development. In this book, you'll learn how to inspire adult learners, the importance of having clear purpose, and how to navigate power dynamics in a group. You'll also learn a new way to plan PD that allows you to attend to details and be a responsive facilitator. The dozens of tips and tricks, anecdotes and research, and tools and resources will enable you to create the optimal conditions for learning. You'll also: Craft effective outcomes for your adult students and design an agenda that aligns with adult learning principles Use storytelling as a tool for effective workshops and trainings Plan backwards from evaluations and outcomes to create powerful and lasting educational experiences Ideal for educational leaders and administrators, professional development facilitators, coaches, and positional leaders in both K-12 and higher education, The PD Book is an incisive resource offering concrete strategies for educators at all levels.




It’s Time for Strategic Scheduling


Book Description

An accessible guide to creating schedules that amplify school and district priorities, support best practices in teaching and learning, heighten student engagement, and enhance equity. A school’s schedule can be as important to education outcomes as its budget or strategic plan. The secret to making the schedule a tool for school improvement is to approach schedule design not as a technical task, centered on making everything fit like Tetris blocks, but as a strategic one. In this book, informed by research and their work with hundreds of schools, scheduling experts Nathan Levenson and David James explore how strategic scheduling can turn a "good enough" schedule into one that supercharges learning and engagement without additional costs or more FTEs. If you are ready to * Figure out which schedule type is best for your students and staff; * Disrupt harmful tracking and ensure every student has access to highly skilled teachers and rigorous curriculum; * Deliver optimum hours of core instruction while expanding electives and providing opportunities for student voice and choice; * Precisely match staffing to course enrollment to free up personnel and funds for other purposes * Find time for critical intervention and enrichment blocks; and * Communicate scheduling decisions more effectively to parents, families, and district leaders ... then it’s time for strategic scheduling. Offering targeted advice for best-practice scheduling at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, this book will help school and district leaders—and the teachers and students they serve—make the most of every school day and every school year.