Achieving Competence, Success and Excellence in Teaching

This thought-provoking book explains how different levels or qualities of teaching can be identified and achieved. It outlines the criteria for competent, successful.
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The second pair are two companion selection toolkits—step-by-step guides for districts and other organizations seeking to hire individuals to serve as turnaround principals or teachers. The toolkits include detailed levels of increasingly effective competence, selection questions, guidance on how to conduct interviews that reveal information about competencies, and scoring rubrics. These guides focus on the behavioral event interview. For more help with other steps in the hiring process, and for help hiring teacher-leaders and other advanced-role teachers, see the recruitment and selection tools on OpportunityCulture.

Selection Toolkit Updated These four resources were developed with funding and support from The Chicago Public Education Fund and, in the case of Leaders for School Turnarounds: Additional support for substantial updates of these resources in was provided by the funders of our Opportunity Culture initiative. One element stands out: This report was written with support from The Joyce Foundation.

See our resources about using competencies to select , evaluate and pay teachers and teacher-leaders in advanced roles on OpportunityCulture. We encourage the free use, reproduction, and distribution of our materials, but we require attribution for all use. See here or contact us for more information. Read Back Issues of our E-Newsletter. Employment Opportunities — Join the growing Public Impact team!

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Pursuing excellence through equity is a genuine alternative. In the pages ahead we demonstrate how this can be done by nothing less than a paradigm shift from our current one-size-fits-all factory model, the inevitable outcome of which is failure and hopelessness for increasing numbers of children, to a system that celebrates individual differences and serves the needs of every student.

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The transition from a paradigm in crisis to a new one from which a new tradition of normal science can emerge is far from a cumulative process … Rather it is a reconstruction of the field from new fundamentals, a reconstruction that changes some of the field's most elementary theoretical generalizations … When the transition is complete, the profession will have changed its view of the field, its methods, and its goals. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , 84— This book is about how to create schools and learning communities where all students are able to thrive.

Instead of being defined by their behavior e. This means that educators must take time to get to know all students so that they can spend time cultivating talents and build on their potential. By building on strengths and addressing the factors that underlie learning difficulties and behavior problems, educators are in a better position to instill confidence and, ultimately, promote independence. Instead of schools that practice a form of triage—giving the best resources to those regarded as having the most potential, and the least to those perceived as too troubled or inferior to be worthy of a quality education, we need schools that are committed to the success of every child; where the learning needs of all children can be served.

Equity is premised upon a recognition that because all children are different there must be a deep commitment to meet the needs of every child in order to ensure that each student receives what he or she needs to grow and develop and ultimately to succeed. As we have stated, creating a school community in which excellence through equity is the ultimate objective would be transformational, not only for the disadvantaged but for all students. The good news is that this is an attainable goal. We know this because this goal is steadfastly being pursued in a small number of classrooms, schools, and districts right now.

It is also a central feature of educational policy in some nations. This book includes many illustrations of how the commitment to excellence through equity is being achieved with different types of children. The contributors provide insights into the strategies that have been used and the challenges they have faced. We are convinced that by exercising persistence and courageous leadership the subject of the final section of this chapter , these successes can be replicated in other settings across the United States. However, we realize that for the pursuit of excellence and equity to occur on a larger scale we need much more than a new set of reform strategies.

We need a new paradigm to guide us; one that can help us to escape the assumption that there must be winners and losers and that can free us from zero-sum thinking that presently limits us. A new paradigm is much more than a new policy, strategy, or set of practices and techniques. A new paradigm is premised on a different epistemological outlook that makes it possible for us to see our work through a different lens.


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According to Thomas Kuhn, author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , shifts in paradigms occur when scientists encounter anomalies that can no longer be explained by the paradigm that previously provided the framework for scientific inquiry. A paradigm, in Kuhn's view, is an entire worldview that defines the basic features of the landscape of knowledge that scientists can identify around them. Although Kuhn thought of paradigms exclusively in reference to science, we can apply the concept, with some degree of modification, to education.

In American education, the paradigm that has guided our thinking about teaching and learning has been rooted in the belief that intelligence is an innate property that can be measured and assessed Lehman, It is also intimately tied to the concept of meritocracy, the notion that society should be organized on the basis of merit e. The meritocratic ideal gave rise to the development of intelligence tests that were used in the early 20th century to identify the capabilities of individuals and rationalize promotions and ranks within the military, admissions to colleges and universities, and in some cases, job placements Fischer, In many respects, the concept of meritocracy was an advance over the beliefs and practices of the 19th century that rationalized slavery, the subordination of women, and other forms of discrimination.

This is because it was well-aligned to the emerging notion of the American dream; the idea that in this country, intelligence, hard work, and natural talent would be rewarded and have greater value than inherited privilege. Of course, the concept of meritocracy is undermined by the fact that those with inherited wealth and privilege still retain considerable advantage over others.

Affluent parents are less dependent on schools. They typically have access to a wide variety of resources that make it possible for their children to keep ahead. Nonetheless, the emergence of the ideal of meritocracy was an important step forward because it introduced the notion that achievement should serve as the basis for organizing social hierarchies rather than race, class, religion, or other inherited forms of privilege.

Yet, despite the advances achieved under the meritocracy paradigm, it has clearly outlived its usefulness. In most schools throughout the United States, a child's race, socioeconomic status, and zip code continues to predict not only how well he or she will do in school but also the quality of school he or she will attend. While it is certainly good to reward talent and effort, it is also important to recognize that some children are denied the opportunity to have their talents developed because their families lack the time and resources to invest in them, and the schools they attend are often unable to develop their latent abilities.

Too many students possess talents and potential that are unrecognized in school, especially when their parents lack the ability to advocate for their educational needs. The current approach to educating children has left us with millions who leave school disinterested in learning and unprepared for work, college, or the challenges of life in the 21st century. If we truly seek to ensure that all children have the opportunity to develop their potential, we will need a new approach to teaching and learning, one that matches what we now know about the nature of intelligence.

We need a new paradigm in order to move beyond the fear and trepidation that keeps us clinging to the idea that there must be winners and losers and that allows us to accept the failure of so many children in so many schools. High drop-out rates and pervasive failure, particularly in schools serving poor children, are by-products of the meritocracy paradigm that allowed us to believe that individual talent and grit are all that's needed to overcome society's obstacles. In order to free ourselves from the traditions and practices that keep us locked in predictable patterns of success and failure, we must embrace a new paradigm, one that makes it possible to pursue excellence through equity for all.

If we want to create schools where all students have the opportunity to be challenged and stimulated, and where their talents can be cultivated, we need a different paradigm to guide our schools. When the law was enacted in , for the first time in U. It was a bold idea except the only evidence schools were required to look for was how well students performed on standardized tests.

While testing, and assessment generally, is an important tool that can be used to monitor learning and even more beneficial when used to diagnose learning needs , NCLB has actually reinforced the notion that students can or should be judged based on how well they perform on tests. In many schools it has also led to a narrowing of the curriculum. Art, music, and even physical education are not tested subjects, so in many schools they are treated as extras that can be cut when resources are scarce or to create more time for subjects that will be tested.

Sadly, rather than moving us forward, NCLB has reinforced the tendency to make premature and often inaccurate judgments about the abilities of children and has left the so-called achievement gap, which it was designed to ameliorate, largely untouched. The new paradigm we are offering for achieving excellence through equity is grounded in knowledge derived from three important areas of research: While awareness about the importance of these three sources of knowledge to education has been around for many years, what we think is new is a recognition of how the three interact and can be used to meet the needs of individual students and guide the development of educational policy and practice.

As we briefly spell out the specific aspects of what we think of as the three pillars of the paradigm, throughout the book we pay particular attention to their interaction and application. For the longest time, educational theory and practice has been guided by research in child development. The early architects of formal education e. A central theme in the literature that has guided this work is the recognition that while child development followed typical patterns that correspond to age, there are also significant variations in how and when children acquire skills during different stages.

Individual differences, differences in social context, and differences in culture have all been recognized as having bearing on the development process. For example, while it is common for most children to learn to walk sometime between 8 and 15 months, or to learn to use the potty independently sometime between age 2 and 4, the range for what is considered normal in acquiring these skills is quite broad. In recent years, educational practice has been less aligned with knowledge and research derived from child development.

As policy makers have become more focused on holding schools accountable for producing evidence of student achievement as measured by performance on standardized tests, recognition of how variations in child development relate to reaching milestones such as learning to read has increasingly been ignored. Since the adoption of NCLB and its accompanying mandate for schools to produce evidence that students were achieving "average yearly progress" in math and literacy Brooks-Gunn, et al. As we will show in the pages ahead, schools and academic programs that are committed to the principle of pursuing excellence through equity strive to address the developmental needs of each student.

In fact, many attempt to personalize learning for their students in order to ensure that their needs are met. While personalized learning plans may seem beyond the skills and resources of most schools, a number of new innovations in the field of education are making it possible.

However, even when schools and academic programs that are committed to excellence and equity do not have access to such resources, some are still devising creative strategies to meet student needs. For example, rather than assuming that all students should read with proficiency by the third grade, some of the educators we feature in these chapters have developed practices grounded in an understanding of child development that make it possible for English language learners and children who learn differently e.

This is not a matter of lowering expectations or accepting that some children won't learn to read; it is simply an approach rooted in the recognition that not all children learn to read at the same pace. Similarly, while it might be a good thing to encourage high school students to take rigorous math courses such as Algebra and Geometry, some schools have figured out that if a student's literacy skills are not strong enough to comprehend complex word problems, it might not make sense to require such courses unless additional literacy support can be provided.

As we will show, when such an approach was implemented at Brockton High School, it not only benefited the large number of English language learners at the school; it also helped the large number of students that entered high school with limited literacy skills. In each of the examples that will be shared in the pages ahead, the educators, schools, and programs demonstrate a profound recognition that understanding and responding to the developmental needs of each student is the only way to ensure that they will receive the education they need.

In recent years, neuroscientists have gone from regarding the brain as a static organ that undergoes few changes after early childhood, to understanding that the neural pathways and synapses that wire the brain go through ongoing changes in response to behavior, the environment, and neural processes. The term neuroplasticity has been used to describe the ability of the brain to continue developing through neuronal activation in response to stimulation and experience.

Research on the brain has significant implications for how we think about how children learn. For years, schools have relied on testing to sort students into groups or tracks, presumably for the purpose of efficiently meeting their learning needs. These practices have persisted despite evidence from research on tracking that has shown that such practices almost always result in separating students by race and SES.

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When this occurs, invariably low-income and minority students are consistently more likely to be placed in slow and remedial groups, while the most affluent and privileged children are generally placed in the advanced groups Oakes, Given what we know about the elasticity of the brain, these practices are not only outdated and uninformed by the latest research; they also deny numerous children the right and opportunity to have their learning needs met.

According to Fischer and Bidell , "The brain is remarkably plastic, even in middle or old age, it's still adapting very actively to its environment" p. Furthermore, when teachers understand that learning is facilitated by the formation of new or stronger neural connections, they are able to prioritize activities that help students tap into already-existing pathways by integrating academic subjects or devising class projects that are relevant to their students' lives.

As we will show in the pages ahead, a number of schools and districts are drawing upon research from neuroscience to provide students with the instructional supports needed to advance academically. Their success, and the research that supports it, provides further evidence that we can do much more to cultivate talent and ability in children. For many years, educators have understood that environmental influences, including family, peer groups, and neighborhood environmental factors, have an influence upon child development and student learning Rothstein, In more recent times, awareness about how the environment impacts children has been extended to include recognition that even less direct environmental influences such as media, video games, music, and other forms of popular culture also have tremendous influence on the development of children Syme, Psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner theorized that there were five layers to the environmental context that impact an individual's growth and development: Bronfenbrenner's theory focused on the impact that environment played on the growth and development of the individual.

Bronfenbrenner's work is important because it draws attention to the various layers of environment, from the interpersonal to even broader societal trends such as de-industrialization and immigration, and how they impact the individual. While the relationship between the environment and student learning may seem obvious, in recent years, education policy has increasingly ignored the influence of environmental factors on children. Rather than devising or even recommending strategies that might make it possible for schools to respond to and mitigate harmful environment factors, policies at the federal and state level have adopted a context-blind approach and largely failed to acknowledge the ways in which the environment affects schools and children.

As an alternative, we suggest that schools must take time to deliberately understand the environmental factors that influence the children they serve.

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Plant closures, toxic waste sites, gangs, housing foreclosures, the absence of healthy food, and other conditions can have significant influence on children and learning. While schools may not be able to counter the harmful effects that arise from such conditions, they are more likely to be able to create strategies to counter and even mitigate these conditions if they understand how they may be influencing their students.

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For example, some of the schools that will be described in the following chapters developed partnerships with health clinics and afterschool programs to address needs that they could not respond to on their own. While such strategies do not eliminate environmental obstacles, these examples show that when such strategies are pursued, which we describe as a more integrated and holistic approach, the ability of schools to meet the needs of their students is increased.

When these three pillars of the excellence through equity paradigm are used together in a coherent system for responding to and addressing the needs of children, the ability of schools to meet the developmental and academic needs of students increases significantly. When this occurs, the pursuit of excellence through equity becomes possible and attainable, but of course, never easy. We are under no illusion that the forces responsible for growing inequality can be easily abated through the adoption of a few strategies. That is why we describe the approach we are calling for as a new paradigm because we think it represents a very different way of thinking about how schools can serve the learning needs of students.

Our hope is that readers will be inspired by these examples to think about how the paradigm can be applied in more classrooms, schools, cities, states, and beyond. While all elements of this paradigm are not necessarily reflected in the examples that will be presented in the pages ahead, we think the paradigm itself serves as a useful framework for thinking about how schools can effectively pursue excellence through equity. It is very important that our readers understand that we do not envision the pursuit of excellence through equity as a set of strategies that can be followed in a formulaic manner.

On the contrary, we believe it is important to acknowledge that because children are different with respect to their interests, temperament, and needs, the strategies employed to serve their needs must vary. Equity is not about treating all children the same. However, schools and educators that use the three pillars of this paradigm—child development, neuroscience, and recognition of environmental influences—to guide their action will undoubtedly rely upon strategies that are similar.

For example, some of the schools and districts we feature rely upon performance-based assessment to gauge student learning and personalized learning plans to monitor their progress and ensure that their needs are being met. Many of the educators also recognize that a key feature of equity is providing disadvantaged students with more learning time through high quality after school and summer learning experiences and increased exposure to the world outside the communities where their students reside to expand their horizons.

These and other strategies will be described in detail in the pages ahead. Second, the pursuit of excellence through equity invariably involves forging collaborative relationships among adult stakeholders —parents or guardians , teachers, and administrators. When these adults begin working together to support the success of every student, possibilities for breaking predictable patterns of achievement increase. Of course, getting adult stakeholders to work together is challenging and sometimes involves conflict. As we will show, establishing shared goals for every student requires willingness and an ability to deliberate thoughtfully about what is in the best interests of the child.

There must also be shared responsibility for ensuring that all students are equipped with the skills they will need for the future. Providing teachers with the social skills to have candid conversations with parents across race, class, and language differences, and supporting principals and superintendents so that they can handle the resistance mounted by affluent parents when they protest a decision to detrack a college prep course or expand access to advanced placement classes, is challenging to say the least. Yet, as we will show in the pages ahead, creating a sense of shared accountability for the long-term outcomes of students is a common characteristic of schools and programs that are committed to these values.

We realize that one of the most complicated issues at the center of this work is defining what success means for every student. When administrators do not pledge to get all students into college or promise that all students will graduate proficient in core subjects like literacy and math, it may seem like a step backward and open those individuals to attacks. However, we have already seen that grand promises like those associated with NCLB have not resulted in success for every student. In fact, because NCLB largely ignored the conditions under which children are educated and focused narrowly on test score results, it did relatively little to improve educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged students, the very students its advocates claimed it would help Darling-Hammond, As we will show, calling for schools to set high but realistic goals for every student need not result in a drift back to the time when we assumed children from poor and working-class backgrounds were not college material and should instead be prepared for a trade.

If we remain vigilant and focused on outcomes, if we examine achievement patterns to make sure that they don't become predictable with respect to the race and class of students, and if we genuinely hold all stakeholders—educators, policy makers, parents, community leaders, and students—responsible for their role in promoting academic success, it should be possible to create schools where a child's background does not predict how well he or she will do academically and that serve all children in significantly better ways than the ones we have now.

When there is mutual accountability and a shared commitment to the common goal of meeting the needs of all students among all stakeholders, schools can begin to realize the goal of excellence through equity. As our authors show in the pages ahead, some schools are doing this now by aiming for mastery in learning rather than settling for passing or even proficiency in critical subjects. They are doing it by ensuring that the support systems are in place for teachers so that they are clear about what effective teaching is and so that they can deliver high quality learning experiences to their students.

When these principles are reflected in our work, the most important question that educators ask of themselves is this: Have we created learning environments that make it possible to serve the needs of every student? By focusing on the conditions within schools, the climate and the culture of the learning environment, it is easier to shift learning outcomes for students.

Because they are not preoccupied with blaming students, parents, or the neighborhoods they live in for poor academic outcomes, the schools, programs, and educators we feature are able to ensure that the futures of the students they serve are not determined by demographics. These are the challenges that educators in various parts of the country and throughout the world are actively pursuing when they commit to the goal of excellence through equity.

Finally, the reader will undoubtedly be struck by the fact that the starting point for working toward the goal of excellence through equity is creating a community where the needs of each student are thoroughly known, and each member understands his or her role. By knowing our children—how they learn, what motivates them, what challenges they face, and so on—we are better able to create an environment in which all students can get what they need to succeed.

We will also show that students can be part of this process, and spaces can be provided so that they can tell us what they need to be successful. No one, including children, should be expected to passively accept what others provide for them, even when presumably it is done in their interests.

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We want learning environments where students are invested in seeking out knowledge and information, where they are willing participants and collaborators in their education. The central argument of this book is that if we can use this paradigm for excellence through equity to guide larger numbers of schools and districts, we can create a system that will do much more than simply espouse slogans about the ability of all children to learn. We have such schools and slogans already. Our deep and pervasive disparities in learning outcomes, disparities that mirror larger patterns of inequality in our society, are the clearest evidence that a new approach is needed.

We offer the examples in this book because they show that pursuing excellence through equity can be achieved through the adoption of practices and procedures that are significantly different from those we rely upon now. In the final section of this chapter, we describe the five principles of Courageous Leadership, which serve as the organizational framework of this book. The subsequent chapters demonstrate how excellence through equity is being achieved through the courageous action of educators who have taken decisive steps to make this ideal a reality.

Each chapter presents concrete examples of educators, schools, districts, communities, provinces, states, and even nations that have successfully pursued this agenda. We also point out the common obstacles that can hinder success and ways to move forward and circumvent these barriers. We conceived of this book as a resource that could provide a framework and practical guide so that educators, parents, and advocates who are committed to going beyond moral suasion can root their calls for excellence through equity in evidence.

In order for the concept of excellence through equity to be widely embraced, we need not only the vision for our new paradigm described in the preceding section but also specific strategies that will make it possible for the affluent to overcome their fears of loss when questions of equity are raised. We want to show them how their children can benefit from being part of an equitable school community. Likewise, the vision must be robust enough to support the aspirations and needs of children who come to school needing more; socially, economically, psychologically, and academically.

We need a win-win strategy for all involved if our society is to make real progress. We offer this book, and the ideas, strategies, and experiences presented within it, as the starting place for this new vision, one that is bold enough to erase the fear of losing privilege among the "haves" and uplifting enough to counter the resignation and helplessness that too often characterizes the "have nots. Leaders across disciplines and throughout time have seen courage as the essential human virtue.

Consider this small sampling:. Courage is the mother of all virtues because without it, you cannot consistently perform the others. Leadership has for centuries been closely associated with courage. King Richard I, who reigned from to , was dubbed "Richard the Lionhearted" for his prowess in battle. Likewise, Western interpretations have associated courage with war, battle, and physical feats of life-saving or life-taking heroes. Yet the word comes from the French root coeur , or heart, and the concept traditionally corresponds to acts of the heart.

Native American societies systematically developed courage in young braves by encouraging sacrifice for the greater good. Developing young leaders' ability to face inner fears associated with loss strengthened their ability to sacrifice for the safety and well-being of the weakest in their village, invariably elders and children.

Likewise, we see the need to return to the roots of courage in our quest to defend and advance the well-being of the weakest in our community. As Natives of this land understood, courage , or acting from the heart, can be developed and is the most powerful virtue we can all tap. In this quest for equity for the weakest members of our society, and ergo for all of us, we use courage both as our source of strength and as the framework for this book.

While the research and practice point clearly to the need for a new and better approach than the one we are currently using to educate our children, making such a shift will require commitment and courage. Advocates of policies like NCLB defend the policy based on the fear that schools can't be trusted unless they are held accountable for student outcomes i. As an alternative, we describe systems that are based on mutual accountability among all stakeholders and show that positive changes in academic outcomes can be achieved when there is accountability in the state legislature and governor's office for adequate funding, in the classroom and the schoolhouse when educators are provided with adequate resources and guidance, and in communities and homes when trust and engagement are promoted.

Advancing a new paradigm, especially one addressing one of the most charged issues of our time, requires courageous leadership at all levels. Our chapter contributors demonstrate a path forward, and we use the core principles of Courageous Leadership outlined in Failure Is Not an Option Blankstein, , , to frame this work. The principles are not discrete, and indeed acting on one advances the others, and collectively they build leadership capacity to advance equitable outcomes for every student.

Competencies of High Performers

Although we have grouped the chapters under specific principles, the majority of chapters encapsulate more than one of these principles. A common narrative that emerges in many of the chapters is that a catalytic event or striking new data underscore glaring disparities in student performance along racial or SES lines. A courageous leader or leadership team "faces these facts" and their own related fears by tapping into their core values in order to derive strength to commit to specific, high-leverage goals and actions to change the situation.

Once a strategy is set, those in leadership work to achieve buy-in from teachers, parents, and students so that together they can relentlessly pursue them while developing organizational cohesion through supportive relationships. The Courageous Leadership cycle is a common refrain throughout the book and is exemplified in our first chapter. We present the case of Brockton High School, the largest school in America's highest performing state Massachusetts , and show how they moved from being among the worst schools to one of the best.

Using equity as a driver for change and overall success is another common theme that is further articulated by the former commissioner of that same state in Chapter In Chapter 2, author Michael Fullan states, "It is crucial to declare that the moral imperative of all students learning is a core goal of the system.

Chapters 3 through 15 are framed by these principles of Courageous Leadership. They include the following:. A new initiative may be undertaken initially through external mandate e. Yet to sustain the initiative, there will invariably need to be clarity around how it ties in with the moral purpose of its leadership and a majority of the stakeholders. People need to know why what they are doing is worth the effort and how it connects to their personal and collective mission and values, or the endeavor will soon be stalled.

We show that morality is often reflected in the work and used as a means to inspire others. Virtually every author in this book describes a deep and personal connection to assuring equity for all students. Carol Corbett Burris, in Chapter 3, sounds the theme of lifting all students to excellence through an equity agenda in her chapter describing how detracking occurred in a large suburban high school and then throughout the system.

Catalyzed by dramatic data on school fights and academic failure, the Rockville Centre Schools' leadership connected to their core mission and values to bring about a dramatic and sustained turn-around in an inequitable school system. The Chapter 4 example presented by Linda Harper at the Oak Hill School demonstrates how her personal reflections on inequity became a catalyst for initiating collective action in the larger school community.

We also feature in Chapter 5 the work of Avram Barlowe and Ann Cook, who have responded to their core values in addressing the inequities foisted upon children in states and schools that use high-stakes testing to rank academic performance. Together with other educators, they have created a highly successful network of schools that use student-focused performance assessments throughout New York City.

Bringing cohesion to schools and systems that are otherwise fragmented is critical for galvanizing and unifying all stakeholders toward common visions and goals. The gains in bringing this about in systems where clarity is lacking can be significant and notable early on. In Chapter 6, Ann Blakeney Clark writes about how using one simple, yet strategically important concept—"talent development"—made it possible to deploy talent that was desperately needed in low-performing schools.

The results achieved through the courageous implementation of this strategy in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools contributed to the district receiving the Broad Prize for excellence in urban education last year. At the level of curriculum and assessment, Allison Zmuda, the author of Chapter 7, introduces an approach to personalized learning that helps students make meaning, prior connections, and relevance of their school work.

Dennis Littky, in Chapter 8, organizes the entire approach of Big Picture Schools around the idea of finding and building individualized curriculum based on student interests. Similarly, Estrella Olivares-Orellana, a bilingual science teacher, describes in Chapter 9 how drawing upon culture as a resource in teaching can help in making classroom lessons relevant to English language learners ELLs. In each of the cases presented, the authors provide a clear and compelling rationale for their efforts and how meaning for students who are often marginalized brought about unprecedented results for young people who previously were disconnected and had minimal hope of success in school or life.

Any new initiative is vulnerable to derailment, especially those that challenge the status quo. Courageous leadership is required to mitigate this common pitfall. The author of Chapter 10, former education commissioner Paul Reville, writes forcefully about six reasons for the "uncommon success" experienced by the state of Massachusetts. This includes "long-term commitment by various partners.

Introduction: Achieving Excellence Through Equity for Every Student

Reville provides eight recommendations for designing a "New Engine" in policy to take us to higher levels of success, pointing out that "we've gone as far as we can" get by simply " reforming " our current K—12 system. It is typically easier to maintain the status quo than it is to change; yet this is not always the right or best thing to do. Several authors used the facts of glaring student disparities as the catalyst for their efforts to promote change, while successfully helping others to overcome their fears.

Chapter 11, by Amy E. Sichel and Ann H. Bacon, chronicles the experiences of Superintendent Amy Sichel, who was running a school district that was widely regarded as successful, but when faced with the data that clearly showed low-income students and students of color were doing poorly, she and her team used that information to catalyze the school community to go from good to great.

Likewise, Darlene Berg, author of Chapter 12, became aware of the disparity between high- and low-SES students in math outcomes. Rather than accepting disparities as inevitable, she challenged elementary school teams not to be complacent about the predictable results, while simultaneously providing them with the support they needed to rise to that challenge. All of the courageous actions and advances described in the coming chapters occurred within the context of myriad relationships. Wise leaders understand the importance of fostering trust and buy-in to create common ground with key stakeholders, even with and among those of differing viewpoints.

Newsome, in Chapter 13, provides a case study in advancing an agenda aligned with his "core" in a manner that builds and sustains relations. In Chapter 14, Lucy N. Friedman and Saskia Traill write about how to create these sustainable relationships on an organizational level to support both the launch and the continuity of successful after-school programs.

Similarly, other authors remind us that building relationships rooted in respect, trust, and mutual responsibility is essential to advancing excellence through equity. He closes this book as we began, with a call to action for courageous leaders to advance the economic, educational, and overall quality of life for all of our citizenry by using the facts to reevaluate our current reality and advance our future prospects.

The lessons learned are summarized in eight recommendations for policy makers who are challenged to abandon failed policies and pursue those that uplift our children:.