A Leader's Guide to Using Data to Change Hearts and Minds
When the numbers don't lie, this is your guide to doing what's right According to federal data, African American students are more than three times as likely as their white peers to be suspended or expelled. As a school leader, what do you do when your heart is in the right place, but your data show otherwise? In Solving Disproportionality and Achieving Equity, Edward Fergus takes us on a journey into disproportionality by engaging our hearts and minds on the presence of biases that create barriers to the success of students of color. If your school is faced with a disproportionate rate of suspensions, gifted program enrollment, or special education referrals for students of color, this book shows how you can uncover the root causes and rally your staff to face the challenge head on. You will: Understand through compelling vignettes and case studies how bias affects policies and practices even in good schools Know what questions to ask and what data to analyze to get to the root cause Create your own road map for becoming an equity-driven school, with staff activities, data collection forms, checklists, and progress monitoring tools If you are interested in developing a deep understanding of the policy, practice, and beliefs necessary for schools to address disproportionality and achieve equity, this book delivers all that and more. "Through careful analysis of data obtained from real cases, Edward Fergus shows how disproportionality is manifest and how it can be thoughtfully addressed. For educators and policy makers seeking solutions to these complex issues, this book will be an invaluable resource." -Pedro Noguera, Distinguished Professor of Education UCLA, Graduate Schools of Education and Information Studies
English learners (ELs) and other students with learning, emotional, or behavioral disabilities present unique challenges to educators responsible for referring, assessing, and placing them. This book provides educators with numerous research-based strategies and examples of how to write effective IEPs for these K-12 learners. John J. Hoover and James Patton, leading professionals in the areas of special education and linguistic diversity, share their research and how they have supported ELs who have, or are suspected of having, learning and intellectual disabilities.
New hope for our most vulnerable English learners "One of the guiding principles of effective English language teaching is for educators to know their students. And that in a nutshell captures the value of this book. . . . The compassion that Custodio and O'Loughlin feel for our SIFE students, the commitment they have to educating them well, and the comprehension they have of the assets these learners bring to the classroom are evident in the writing, tools, and vignettes they share." -Deborah J. Short Under the best of circumstances, the academic demands of today's classrooms can be daunting to our English learners. But for the tens of thousands of newly arrived students with interrupted formal education, even the social challenges can be outright overwhelming. Rely on this all-in-one guide from Brenda Custodio and Judith O'Loughlin for expert insight on how to build the skills these students need for success in school and beyond. Inside you'll find Essential background on factors leading to interrupted education Specific focus on refugee children and Latino immigrants Guidance on building internal resilience for long-term social and emotional health Recommendations for creating supportive environments at the classroom, school, and district level About one thing, Brenda and Judith are absolutely convinced: our SIFE students can learn and make progress, often at a remarkable speed. But it's up to us, their educators, to provide the time, attention, and a specific focus. Consider this book your first step forward.
As the number of students learning English in elementary schools across the country continues to grow, so does the body of research on their literacy development. This respected course text and teacher resource synthesizes cutting-edge scholarship on how to teach English learners (ELs) at all levels of English proficiency. Accessible chapters on ......
As the number of students learning English in elementary schools across the country continues to grow, so does the body of research on their literacy development. This respected course text and teacher resource synthesizes cutting-edge scholarship on how to teach English learners (ELs) at all levels of English proficiency. Accessible chapters on ......
By now it's a given: if we're to help our ELLs and SELs access the rigorous demands of today's content standards, we must cultivate the "code" that drives school success: academic language. Look no further for assistance than this much-anticipated series from Ivannia Soto, in which she invites field authorities Jeff Zwiers, David and Yvonne Freeman, Margarita Calderon, and Noma LeMoine to share every teacher's need-to-know strategies on the four essential components of academic language. The subject of this volume is culture. Here, Noma LeMoine makes clear once and for all how culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy validates, facilitates, liberates, and empowers ethnically diverse students. With this volume as your roadmap, you'll learn how to: Implement instructional strategies designed to meet the linguistic and cultural needs of ELLs and SELs Use language variation as an asset in the classroom Recognize and honor prior knowledge, home languages, and cultures The culture and language every student brings to the classroom have vast implications for how to best structure the learning environment. This guidebook will help you get started as early as tomorrow. Better yet, read all four volumes in the series as an all-in-one instructional plan for closing the achievement gap.
This accessible book is one volume of a four-book series enabling understanding of Academic Language development among English Language Learners and speakers of non-standard English
By now it's a given: if we're to help our ELLs and SELs access the rigorous demands of today's content standards, we must cultivate the "code" that drives school success: academic language. Look no further for assistance than this much-anticipated series from Ivannia Soto, in which she invites field authorities Jeff Zwiers, David and Yvonne Freeman, Margarita Calderon, and Noma LeMoine to share every teacher's need-to-know strategies on the four essential components of academic language. The subject of this volume is conversational discourse. Here, Jeff Zwiers reveals the power of academic conversation in helping students develop language, clarify concepts, comprehend complex texts, and fortify thinking and relational skills. With this book as your roadmap, you'll learn how to: Foster the skills and language students must develop for productive interactions Implement strategies for scaffolding paired conversations Assess student's oral language development as you go It's imperative that our ELLs and SELs practice academic language in rich conversations with others in school, especially when our classrooms may be their only opportunities to receive modeling, scaffolding, and feedback focused on effective discourse. This book, in concert with the other three volumes in the series, can provide both a foundation and a framework for accelerating the learning of diverse students across grade levels and disciplines.
