In his groundbreaking work, Martin Haberman identified key dispositions of "star" teachers that help them work successfully with students in poverty. More than two decades later, Maureen D. Gillette and Djanna A. Hill build on Haberman’s seminal work, considering contemporary issues such as social justice, technology, and the political environment, and moving beyond the classroom to focus on teachers as leaders and advocates for all students. Given the high-stakes nature of ensuring that students in high-poverty urban and rural areas receive an excellent education, this new edition provides concrete suggestions for what readers can do to implement culturally relevant pedagogy and to forge a path to becoming a star teacher. Co-published with Kappa Delta Pi, Star Teachers of Children in Poverty offers teachers research-based strategies for action so that they can practice socially just and culturally relevant teaching toward the success of every student. New to the second edition: Updated statistics on school demographics, poverty, and teacher turnover in urban and rural areas. Added discussion that demonstrates the interrelated nature of poverty, health, safety, trauma, and power, and the cumulative effects of these factors on learning. Examination of the role of federal and state government in education and the necessity for teachers to be leaders beyond the classroom. Vignettes for experiential learning and analysis, and end-of-chapter questions and resources for further exploration.

How do some teachers manage to expertly engage students in deep learning, harmonize mandated standards with individual student needs, and create trusting relationships in the classroom? What typically sets these "star teachers" apart from other teachers? In What Makes a Star Teacher: 7 Dispositions That Support Student Learning, Valerie Hill-Jackson, Nicholas D. Hartlep, and Delia Stafford provide a framework that can help ensure that you are your students' greatest asset—and a star teacher in your classroom. The book is grounded in studies conducted and ideas developed over a half-century by educational theorist Martin Haberman, whose models are used in hundreds of school districts across the United States. It's designed to help you assess, develop, and reflect upon seven key dispositions of Haberman's star teachers: 1. Persistence 2. Positive values about student learning 3. The ability to adapt general theories into pedagogical practices 4. An encouraging approach to students classified as at risk 5. A professional versus a personal orientation to learners 6. The ability to navigate school bureaucracy 7. A willingness to admit one's shortcomings Full of insightful authentic examples, practical and ready-to-use strategies, and numerous suggested resources, What Makes a Star Teacher offers what every teacher—and every student—needs to thrive in any classroom.

Even before the 2005 «Disaster in the Delta» - as the devastation and loss wrought by the category-three hurricane known as Katrina came to be known - statistics emerged about the aggressive educational neglect of Louisiana's African American schoolchildren. The harrowing data about the inadequacies being as racialized as the distribution of aid in the storm's aftermath are chilling indeed. Yet, they have not dissuaded the more than thirty contributors to this volume from viewing Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity and a challenge to transform schools and society for the good of the entire United States. Divided into three sections («Education and School Contexts, » «Preparing Professionals for the Possible, » and «The Social Dynamics of Education Reform»), the seventeen chapters of The Children Hurricane Katrina Left Behind discuss what is essential for rebuilding urban schools in New Orleans as well as the nation, engaging the nuanced nexus of social events and educational policy (e.g., No Child Left Behind) as it relates to the preparation of professional educators and the future of America's schools. As Linda Darling-Hammond notes in her Foreword, each chapter speaks «powerfully and poignantly to [centuries of educational neglect and failed social policies] and to what we can and must do about it.»

We all know teachers who, in the face of insurmountable district and school level challenges, inspire underserved students to succeed. These teachers are more than good ? they are ‘stars’. Haberman maintains that school districts still gamble when selecting teachers as an overwhelming number are not stars and are unprepared or underprepared to work effectively with marginalized students. Haberman explains that teacher selection is more important than teacher training. The ability to identify educators with the necessary social justice or relational characteristics may lead to an increase in academic achievement among learners as well as lower teacher attrition. Consequently, all those who are interested in building America’s teaching force with stars –including human resource managers for K?12 school districts, administrators, teachers, teacher advocates, teacher education faculty and graduate students ? will benefit from this book. Better Teachers, Better Schools is a must read for two main reasons. First, the achievement gap between 16 million children in poverty and their mainstream counterparts is continuing to become even wider. Many urban students are constantly subjected to educational barriers, which limits their future opportunities. These learners deserve teachers that know more than content, but who can build relationships in order to leverage learning with greater outcomes. Second, Haberman was one of the most prolific producers of teachers to date. He reminds us that quality school systems, built on the back of quality teachers, benefit our society. Better Teachers, Better Schools offers a refreshing take on what it means to be a star teacher by sharing some of Haberman’s most requested writings as well as new narratives and research that corroborate his star theory. The contributions in this volume give us a window into Haberman’s seven relational dispositions of star teachers; or teachers’ ideology put into behavior. Also, each chapter contains learning outcomes and reflection questions for discussion.

Creating and managing an effective classroom management and discipline system in today’s urban classroom can be an arduous task for even the most competent teacher, let alone those who are new to the classroom. Urban teachers are faced with unique challenges, (poor working conditions, limited administrative support, and under resourced environments), that impact implementation and supervision of an effective classroom management plan, and often influences the teacher to transfer to another school or district or leave the profession all together. The basis of “I’ll See You in Court” Supporting Social Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Critical Thinking Through Classroom Management and Discipline in Urban Schools, is to provide aspiring and veteran teachers with a classroom model that highlights an instructional and relational approach for managing the urban classroom. Authentic learning opportunities are centered, and provide the means to integrate social justice, cultural responsiveness, problem solving, and communication skills. This classroom management text is using a legal framework in order to catch the reader’s attention, and to get the reader and in turn, classroom students, to understand that just as “societal management” has rules and consequences, it also includes the promise of due process which hopefully leads to equitable and fair outcomes. “I’ll See You In Court” is a fun way for teachers and students to make sense of classroom management in a practical and analogous application.

The future of American STEM education is here...in every state, there are thousands students that would benefit from science education, if only they had the resources, support systems and psychological ownership. There are brilliant young minds that could be called on to solve a myriad of world problems, earning money and respect in the process. But these students don’t see science as a viable option for a life. Or they do but there are no textbooks in the classroom, or the teacher is the fifth one this semester...and he is on the verge of leaving too. If STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers are the future driving force of the American economy; and if only an anointed few American students choose STEM as a career path, where will that leave us as a nation as we strive to compete on the global stage? Will America maintain its position as leader of the free world? Can a country that shuns the word “elite” ever maintain its elite status? Everything we value depends on this; our national security, reputation, and quality of life all depend on our ability to meet the needs of future generations of American workers as they compete for jobs. Jobs that will require problem solving skills, innovation, creativity, scientific literacy, and mathematical knowledge. Jobs that will require Americans who are tops in their fields with expertise, intellectual curiosity, ambition and vision. This book seeks to address these problems, as well as providing an historical backdrop for the discussion of STEM in American schools, race and gender issues, the effects of the standards movement on STEM, and what good teaching looks like in urban public schools. The future is here. Will we rise to the occasion?

These essays follow a veteran teacher educator and school reform activist as he tries to understand an enterprise he calls "mysterious and immeasurable." By focusing on the authentic experiences of teaching and learning that he has lived over the past 15 years, Bill Ayers reconsiders, argues, reflects, and searches for ways to break through the routine and the ordinary to see teaching as the important and extraordinary work it is. Covering a range of issues—standards, equity, testing, professionalism—this book shows us teaching as an achingly personal calling, and ultimately as a social and a political act. With these essays, Bill Ayers invites teachers into a wonderful conversation about the meaning of teaching as craft, as art, as vocation. He reminds us that an active kind of hope is at the core of teaching,seeing things both as they are and as they could be.

While many books decry the crisis in the schooling of African American children, they are often disconnected from the lived experiences and work of classroom teachers and principals. In this book, the authors look back to move forward, providing specific practices that K–12 literacy educators can use to transform their schools. The text addresses four major debates: the fight for access to literacy; supports and roadblocks to success; best practices, theories, and perspectives on teaching African American students; and the role of African American families in the literacy lives of their children. Throughout, the authors highlight the valuable lessons learned from the past and include real stories from their own diverse family histories and experiences as teachers, parents, and community members.

Teacher Education and Practice, a peer-refereed journal, is dedicated to the encouragement and the dissemination of research and scholarship related to professional education. The journal is concerned, in the broadest sense, with teacher preparation, practice and policy issues related to the teaching profession, as well as being concerned with learning in the school setting. The journal also serves as a forum for the exchange of diverse ideas and points of view within these purposes. As a forum, the journal offers a public space in which to critically examine current discourse and practice as well as engage in generative dialogue. Alternative forms of inquiry and representation are invited, and authors from a variety of backgrounds and diverse perspectives are encouraged to contribute. Teacher Education & Practice is published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Located in a rapidly-growing county in the southeastern United States, Peachtree Alternative School is a dumping ground for chronically disruptive students that regular teachers can no longer handle. The school has some of the toughest kids that society has to offer: kids who have dealt drugs, attempted rape, brought weapons to school, and made terrorist threats. Neglect, understaffing, and overcrowding create a volatile situation; Teachers survive threats, assaults, brawls, and rampages with their therapeutic philosophies barely intact. The Forgotten Room is a teacher survival story. It examines the darker side of American education through chronicling the course of Peachtree Alternative School's tenth and final year. It offers a glimmer of hope in the safe zones created by hardworking teachers, but it is also a cautionary tale about the consequences of bureaucrats neglecting troubled teens. Hollowell's multidisciplinary book provides a rare look at public alternative schooling in America. This gritty and compelling ethnography is part of a growing movement in academia to make ethnographic studies more accessible. It exposes punitive school policy, demonstrates the prison-industrial complex, and reveals school board corruption. In addition, it pinpoints quality teaching of chronically disruptive youth. As ethnographic nonfiction, The Forgotten Room breaks down the walls between social science and literature.