Culture, Community, and Educational Success
Culture, Community, and Educational Success

Author: Crystal Polite Glover

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-11-09

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1498557732

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many Black, Latinx, multiracial and ethnically diverse, first-generation college students turned PhDs—tie their academic success, achievements, and ability to navigate the difficult terrain of higher education back to the critical experiences and lessons learned in their home lives and through their cultural backgrounds. For them, culture matters. This book offers an opportunity for an anti-deficit and positive examination of (Black, Latinx, and multiracial) culture and its role in creating educational efficacy among academics of color. Through personal narrative, educational and learning theory, creative writing/poetry, this hybrid text examines the cultural path to the doctorate. Transformative practice should be guided by an understanding of how an appreciation of a faculty member’s cultural, life, and social experiences can be used to establish a healthy environment that will better appreciate, engage, and retain faculty of color. Along these lines, this text also considers how cultural, life and social experiences translate into pedagogy, mentorship and value as faculty of color.

Producing Success
Producing Success

Author: Peter Demerath

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 0226142426

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Middle- and upper-middle-class students continue to outpace those from less privileged backgrounds. Most attempts to redress this inequality focus on the issue of access to financial resources, but as Producing Success makes clear, the problem goes beyond mere economics. In this eye-opening study, Peter Demerath examines a typical suburban American high school to explain how some students get ahead. Demerath undertook four years of research at a Midwestern high school to examine the mercilessly competitive culture that drives students to advance. Producing Success reveals the many ways the community’s ideology of achievement plays out: students hone their work ethics and employ various strategies to succeed, from negotiating with teachers to cheating; parents relentlessly push their children while manipulating school policies to help them get ahead; and administrators aid high performers in myriad ways, even naming over forty students “valedictorians.” Yet, as Demerath shows, this unswerving commitment to individual advancement takes its toll, leading to student stress and fatigue, incivility and vandalism, and the alienation of the less successful. Insightful and candid, Producing Success is an often troubling account of the educationally and morally questionable results of the American culture of success.

Defining Student Success
Defining Student Success

Author: Lisa M. Nunn

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2014-04-15

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 0813563631

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The key to success, our culture tells us, is a combination of talent and hard work. Why then, do high schools that supposedly subscribe to this view send students to college at such dramatically different rates? Why do students from one school succeed while students from another struggle? To the usual answer—an imbalance in resources—this book adds a far more subtle and complicated explanation. Defining Student Success shows how different schools foster dissimilar and sometimes conflicting ideas about what it takes to succeed—ideas that do more to preserve the status quo than to promote upward mobility. Lisa Nunn’s study of three public high schools reveals how students’ beliefs about their own success are shaped by their particular school environment and reinforced by curriculum and teaching practices. While American culture broadly defines success as a product of hard work or talent (at school, intelligence is the talent that matters most), Nunn shows that each school refines and adapts this American cultural wisdom in its own distinct way—reflecting the sensibilities and concerns of the people who inhabit each school. While one school fosters the belief that effort is all it takes to succeed, another fosters the belief that hard work will only get you so far because you have to be smart enough to master course concepts. Ultimately, Nunn argues that these school-level adaptations of cultural ideas about success become invisible advantages and disadvantages for students’ college-going futures. Some schools’ definitions of success match seamlessly with elite college admissions’ definition of the ideal college applicant, while others more closely align with the expectations of middle or low-tier institutions of higher education. With its insights into the transmission of ideas of success from society to school to student, this provocative work should prompt a reevaluation of the culture of secondary education. Only with a thorough understanding of this process will we ever find more consistent means of inculcating success, by any measure.

The Empowered University
The Empowered University

Author: Freeman A. Hrabowski III

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 2019-11-12

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1421432919

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A practical and hopeful examination of how colleges and universities can create the best possible experience for students and faculty. There are few higher education leaders today that command more national respect and admiration than Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the outspoken president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Named one of America's Best Leaders by US News & World Report and one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World, Hrabowski has led a community transformation of UMBC from a young, regional institution to one of the nation's most innovative research universities. In The Empowered University, Hrabowski and coauthors Philip J. Rous and Peter H. Henderson probe the way senior leaders, administrators, staff, faculty, and students facilitate academic success by cultivating an empowering institutional culture and broad leadership for innovation. They examine how shared leadership enables an empowered campus to tackle tough issues by taking a hard look in the mirror, noting strengths and weaknesses while assessing opportunities and challenges. The authors dig deeply into these tough issues in higher education ranging from course redesign to group-based and experiential learning, entrepreneurship and civic engagement, academic inclusion, and faculty diversity. The authors champion a holistic approach to student success, focusing on teaching and learning while offering an array of financial, social, and academic supports for students of all backgrounds. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize the important role of analytics in decision-making. They also explore how community members and senior leaders can work together to create an inclusive campus through a more welcoming and supportive racial climate, improved Title IX processes, and career support for faculty of all backgrounds. Ultimately, The Empowered University is as much a case study of the authors' work as it is an examination of institutional change, inclusive excellence, and campus-community partnerships. Arguing that higher education can play a unique role in addressing the fundamental divisions in our society and economy by supporting individuals in reaching their full potential, the authors have developed a provocative guide for higher education leaders who want to promote healthy and productive campus communities.

Character Compass
Character Compass

Author: Scott Seider

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781612504865

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Summary: The author "offers portraits of three high-performing urban schools that have made character development central to their mission. [The book] highlights each school's unique approach to character development and shows how qualities like empathy, integrity, perseverance, and daring can nurture student success."--p. 4 of cover.

Redefining Student Success
Redefining Student Success

Author: Ken Kay

Publisher: Corwin Press

Published: 2021-07-23

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 1071831313

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Be the leader of a fresh, bold, enduring vision of education for your district or school. The future of learning has arrived, and it requires bold educational leadership and a dramatic redefinition of what it means to be a successful student today. Redefining Student Success invites you to lead this transformation with audacity. It engages leaders with the concepts and actions needed to reimagine schools, address inequities, and help today’s students develop the skills they need for personal, economic, and civic success. This vital guide supports transformative leadership with Concrete guidance on how to create a Portrait of a Graduate and Portrait of an Educator which will help ensure teachers have a unified vision for professional growth and student success. Reflection prompts that help you recognize your strengths, spark discussion among stakeholders, and identify next steps for inspired action. Compelling examples of students already engaged in creative, self-directed problem-solving around issues that matter to them and their communities, together with stories that illustrate how districts and schools have arrived at their own vision of what education must become. Companion guides to 21st century learning for parents and students available online. The time is now to reset educational outcomes, sync schools with the demands of 21st century society, and meet the needs of every learner, in every community.

Becoming a Student-Ready College
Becoming a Student-Ready College

Author: Tia Brown McNair

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2016-07-25

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1119119510

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Boost student success by reversing your perspective on college readiness The national conversation asking "Are students college-ready?" concentrates on numerous factors that are beyond higher education's control. Becoming a Student-Ready College flips the college readiness conversation to provide a new perspective on creating institutional value and facilitating student success. Instead of focusing on student preparedness for college (or lack thereof), this book asks the more pragmatic question of what are colleges and universities doing to prepare for the students who are entering their institutions? What must change in an institution's policies, practices, and culture in order to be student-ready? Clear and concise, this book is packed with insightful discussion and practical strategies for achieving your ambitious student success goals. These ideas for redesigning practices and policies provide more than food for thought—they offer a real-world framework for real institutional change. You'll learn: How educators can acknowledge their own biases and assumptions about underserved students in order to allow for change New ways to advance student learning and success How to develop and value student assets and social capital Strategies and approaches for creating a new student-focused culture of leadership at every level To truly become student-ready, educators must make difficult decisions, face the pressures of accountability, and address their preconceived notions about student success head-on. Becoming a Student-Ready College provides a reality check based on today's higher education environment.

Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools
Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools

Author: Tyrone C. Howard

Publisher: Teachers College Press

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 0807778079

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Issues tied to race and culture continue to be a part of the landscape of America’s schools and classrooms. Given the rapid demographic transformation in the nation’s states, cities, counties, and schools, it is essential that all school personnel acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and dispositions to talk, teach, and think across racial and cultural differences. The second edition of Howard’s bestseller has been updated to take a deeper look at how schools must be prepared to respond to disparate outcomes among students of color. Tyrone Howard draws on theoretical constructs tied to race and racism, culture and opportunity gaps to address pressing issues stemming from the chronic inequalities that remain prevalent in many schools across the country. This time-honored text will help educators at all levels respond with greater conviction and clarity on how to create more equitable, inclusive, and democratic schools as sites for teaching and learning. “If you thought the first edition of Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools was impactful, this second edition is even more of a force to be reckoned with in the fight for social justice. By pushing the boundaries of the ordinary and the normative, this book teaches as it transforms. Every educator, preservice and inservice, working with racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse young people should read this book.” —H. Richard Milner IV, Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education, Vanderbilt University “On the 10th anniversary of this groundbreaking book, Tyrone Howard not only reminds me of the salient role that race and culture play in education, but also moves beyond a Black–White binary that reflect the nuances and contours of diversity. This book should be in the hands of all teachers and teacher educators.” —Maisha T. Winn, Chancellor’s Leadership Professor, School of Education, University of California, Davis

Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain
Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain

Author: Zaretta Hammond

Publisher: Corwin Press

Published: 2014-11-13

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1483308022

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A bold, brain-based teaching approach to culturally responsive instruction To close the achievement gap, diverse classrooms need a proven framework for optimizing student engagement. Culturally responsive instruction has shown promise, but many teachers have struggled with its implementation—until now. In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain-compatible culturally responsive instruction. The book includes: Information on how one’s culture programs the brain to process data and affects learning relationships Ten “key moves” to build students’ learner operating systems and prepare them to become independent learners Prompts for action and valuable self-reflection