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Teach! Change! Empower!

Solutions for Closing the Achievement Gaps

By: Carl A. Grant

Narrow the achievement gap by affirming diversity and engaging in a process of personal change!

Carl A. Grant provides a powerful, step-by-step process for making the changes necessary to close the achievement gaps in your school. This innovative resource offers a wealth of activities and action plans to help teachers reflect on their own beliefs about diversity and power and turn those reflections into actions. Educators can put into practice ideas that challenge the status quo, including:

Culturally relevant curriculum and environments for students
A caring, social-political consciousness within a culture of learning
Cooperative professional development for teachers, administrators, and staff
Democratic student involvement

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412976497
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2009
Page Count: 152
Publication date: August 25, 2009

Price: $31.95

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Description

"Teach! Change! Empower! takes the concepts of diversity and change—which are often complex, abstract, confusing, and not salient to many teachers who struggle with the meaning of these concepts in actual classroom practices—and uses them as a framework for something that is very real to teachers: the achievement gap."
—Barbara Heuberger Rose, Associate Professor
Miami University

"Readers are challenged to think about themselves and their role in addressing achievement gaps in a non-blaming manner. Carl Grant does an outstanding job of incorporating the work of a number of researchers."
—Maria Whittemore, Minority Achievement Coordinator
Frederick County Public Schools, MD

Narrow the achievement gap by affirming diversity and engaging in a process of personal change!

The achievement gap illustrates restricted life chances and choices for many students, and only by addressing these inequities can we enable all learners to reach their fullest potential. Teach! Change! Empower! provides a powerful, step-by-step process for making the changes necessary to close the achievement gaps in your school!

This innovative resource offers a wealth of strategies and action plans to help teachers reflect on their own beliefs about diversity and power and turn those reflections into actions. Educators can put into practice ideas that challenge the status quo, including:

Culturally relevant curriculum and environments for students
Caring with a social-political consciousness within a culture of learning
Cooperative professional development for teachers, administrators, and staff
Democratic student involvement

Initiate change in your classroom that fosters lifelong learning in yourself, your students, and your school!

Key features

Presents a powerful change process designed to affirm student diversity and address achievement gaps
Encourages teacher self-knowledge with the inclusion of a Teacher Multicultural Attitude Survey as well as opportunities for reflection in every chapter
Guides teachers in gaining pedagogical skills that will serve them in addressing achievement gaps Provides numerous examples ("best practices") of teachers and schools that provide culturally relevant instruction
Template for Action includes a week-by-week plan for personal and institutional transformation

Author(s)

Carl A. Grant

Carl A. Grant is Hoefs-Bascom Professor of teacher education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. His work for more than thirty years has been with teachers and administrators who commit to improve students’ achievement, enrich their knowledge and skill set in multicultural social justice, culturally responsive curriculum development, and teaching. He has written several books and many articles for teachers that address student achievement, curriculum development, teaching strategies, and parent-teacher engagement.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Getting the Most out of the Book

Part 1. The Harder Work of Teaching

1. The Achievement Gap

What is the Achievement Gap and Why Must It Be Eliminated?

The Multiplicity and Intersectionality of Gaps

Effects of the Academic Achievement Gap

Action Plan 1: Revisiting the Struggle for Closing the Achievement Gap with Fresh Eyes

2. Diversity and Power

Diversity

Affirming Diversity

All Teachers Need to Learn about Diversity

Power in the Context of Change

Where is Power in Your School?

Action Plan 2: Affirming Diversity in Your Classroom & Power Structures in Society

3. Caring With Socio-Political Consciousness

Becoming Socially Critical

Fostering a Caring Community Among Students

Action Plan 3: Caring with Socio-Political Consciousness

4. Acknowledging the Change/Transition: Step One

Mobility and Change: A New and Different Time

Multiple Teacher Roles & Change

Changing the Markers of Achievement

Action Plan 4: Goals for Change

5. Reacting to Change/Transition: Step Two

Strong Feeling and Mixed Emotions

Searching to Connect With Student Knowledge and Experiences

Nervous Reactions to Racism and Other “Ism”s

Reactions are Influenced by Context and Settings

New Teachers Need Help

Action Plan 5: Reacting to the Change - Confronting Our Biases and Conditioning

6. Investigating the Change/Transition: Self Investigation - Step Three

Teacher Multicultural Attitude Survey (TMAS)

Knowledge of Self: Self-Understanding and Self-Acceptance

Multicultural Personality for Affirming Diversity

Teacher Personal Dispositions Toward Diversity

Knowledge About the School Community

Attitudes and Dispositions of Teachers Who Work to Close the Achievement Gaps

Reflection 6.4

Action Plan 6: Self-Investigation

7. Investigating the Change/Transition: Program Investigation

The Achievement Reform Movement

Action Plan 7: Program Investigation

8. Implementing Change: Step Four

Knowledge Base for Closing the Achievement Gaps

Knowledge of Curricular Content: A Strong Subject Matter Base

Knowledge About Teaching: Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Pedagogical Skills for Closing the Achievement Gaps

Teacher Pedagogical Skills Survey

Reflective Skills

Action Plan 8: Teacher Knowledge About Content and Pedagogy

Part 3. Change/Solutions in Practice

9. Cultural Competence

Culturally Relevant Curriculum

Reflection 9.3

Action Plan 9: Cultural Competence and Culturally Relevant Teaching

10. Change/Solution in Practice: Four Examples

Conclusion

References

Index

Reviews

"Teach! Change! Empower! takes the concepts of diversity and change—which are often complex, abstract, confusing, and not salient to many teachers who struggle with the meaning of the concepts in actual classroom practices—and uses them as a framework for something that is very real to teachers: the achievement gap. This connection both increases salience to the teacher and gives him or her a greater motivation for examining and understanding the impact of diversity and change."

Barbara Heuberger Rose, Associate Professor
Miami University

"This book is easy to read and holds the reader's attention. The tools for self assessment and interactive discussion are outstanding. Readers are challenged to think about themselves and their role in addressing achievement gaps in a non-blaming manner. Carl Grant does an outstanding job of incorporating the work of a number of researchers in a way that readers easily see the connections between the researcher's work and the achievement gap."

Maria Whittemore, Minority Achievement Coordinator
Frederick County Public Schools, MD

"The foundation of this work is helping individuals understand themselves racially and how racism works institutionally, and how we can build on this knowledge to create culturally responsive pedagogy. The hundreds of teachers and principals we work with will find this book extremely helpful."

Peter T. Wilson, President
Education Equity Consultants, LLC

Other Titles in: Urban Education | Teaching Strategies for Diverse Students | Cultural Competence

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