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Growing Into Equity
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Growing Into Equity
Professional Learning and Personalization in High-Achieving Schools

Foreword by Stephanie Hirsh and Joellen Killion

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July 2013 | 216 pages | Corwin

High-achieving students and teachers—winning strategies from Title I schools!

What makes a Title I school high-achieving, and what can we all learn from that experience?  Professional learning and leadership that supports personalized instruction makes the difference, as captured in the ground-breaking research of authors Sonia Caus Gleason and Nancy Gerzon.

This illuminating book shows how four outstanding schools are making individualized learning a reality for every teacher and student. The common thread is the commitment to equity—every student achieving. Readers will find

  • Guidance on identifying obstacles to equity within your school
  • Background that builds a case for personalized learning
  • Four case studies that show the lived values, professional learning practices, leadership, and systems that have helped schools transform learning
  • How-to’s and templates for creating a team-based professional development program that expands individualized instruction in every classroom

Discover new approaches for individual, team, and whole school professional learning that support personalized learning, drawn from schools that are leaders in overcoming challenges and creating opportunities.

“Equity is not an afterthought to high achievement. Gleason and Gerzon's new book on outstanding equity-driven practice in four very different schools shows that if you want to raise the bar you have to start by narrowing the gap.”
—Andy Hargreaves, Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education
Boston College


 
Foreword
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
1. The Case for Professional Learning to Support Equity and Personalization
 
Part I. Learning in Action: Four School Communities
 
2. Know Them by Name, Know Them by Need: Stults Road Elementary School (PreK-6), Dallas, Texas
 
3. Students First: Social Justice Humanitas Academy (Grades 9-12), Los Angeles, California
 
4. The Variables Are Time and Support: Montgomery Center School (PreK-8), Montgomery Center, Vermont
 
5. Heat and Light: Tusculum View Elementary School (PreK-5), Greeneville, Tennessee
 
Part II. Professional Learning to Advance Equity: Findings and Practices
 
6. Equity and Supporting Core Values
 
7. Personalized Adult and Student Learning
 
8. Leadership and Systems
 
9. Call to Action
 
Description of Online Resources
 
Methodology
 
Appendices
 
Bibliography
 
Index

Supplements

Companion Site
The purpose of this website is to provide you with additional information, links, templates, and tools that accompany Growing Into Equity. The authors have provided many tools here to support your success!

"In a series of compelling and vivid case studies, authors Sonia Caus Gleason and Nancy Gerzon uncover a vision for education in which all students matter and each student succeeds. For anyone concerned with social justice in our nation's schools, this is a must-read book."

Margaret Heritage, Assistant Director
National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, UCLA
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Key features
For funding: The reauthorization of ESEA presses for a new definition of professional learning, one that supports learning that takes place predominantly in schools, that happens in teams, and that is embedded in the daily schedule and work of schools. Professional learning can get closer to the ground. There is a focus on rigorous national standards, which can raise achievement if we can make the standards relevant and exciting for students. There is also a powerful movement to move away from the recent, narrow focus on assessment that emphasizes high stakes testing. Two national, multi-state assessment consortia will seek to create assessment systems that embrace measures better equipped to inform instruction on a regular basis. There is also movement to develop state supervision and evaluation systems, that, at their best, could help build educator capacity to attend to student needs. Growing interest in developing proficiency-based learning requires understanding students and tracking their progress better, so they can proceed at an individual pace. This range of efforts, alongside interest in individualizing learning, creates a context for shaping professional learning that better focuses attention on individual students.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Front Matter

Chapter One

Chapter Two


For instructors

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ISBN: 9781452287645

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ISBN: 9781452287652
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This title is also available on SAGE Knowledge, the ultimate social sciences online library. If your library doesn’t have access, ask your librarian to start a trial.