Start Where You Are, But Don't Stay There, Second Edition: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today's Classrooms (Race and Education)

2021 PROSE Award Finalist, Education Practice and Theory Category

In the thoroughly revised second edition of Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There, H. Richard Milner IV addresses the knowledge and insights required on the part of teachers and school leaders to serve students of color. Milner focuses on a crucial issue in teacher training and professional education: the need to prepare teachers for the racially diverse student populations in their classrooms.

The book, anchored in real world experiences, centers on case studies that exemplify the challenges, pitfalls, and opportunities facing teachers in diverse classrooms. The case studies—of teachers in urban and suburban settings—are presented amid current discussions about race and teaching. In addition, the second edition includes a new chapter dedicated to opportunity gaps in education and an expanded discussion of how Opportunity Centered Teaching can address these gaps.

Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There strives to help educators in the fight for social justice, equity, inclusion, and transformation for all students. It is a book urgently needed in today’s increasingly diverse classrooms.

H. Richard Milner IV is Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education and Professor of Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He holds courtesy professorships in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt. His research, teaching, and policy interests concern urban education, teacher education, African American literature, and the social context of education. Professor Milner’s research and scholarly contributions have been recognized by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) with an Early Career Award and an Innovations in Research on Diversity in Teacher Education Award. In 2018, he was selected as the youngest ever to give the prestigious AERA Brown vs. Board of Education lecture to a record number of attendees in Washington, DC. He is also a Fellow of AERA and has received the Carl A. Grant Multicultural Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education as well as the John Dewey Society Outstanding Achievement Award for efforts to relate research to practice. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Urban Education and has published seven books, including Rac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms (Harvard Education Press, 2015), “These Kids Are Out of Control”: Why We Must Reimagine “Classroom Management” for Equity (Corwin Press, 2018), and the Handbook of Urban Education (Routledge Press, 2014). Professor Milner consults with schools, districts, and universities. He can be reached at h.richardmilner@gmail.com.