Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761988777 ISBN 13: 9780761988779

Publisher: Corwin, 2005

Synopsis

Deepen your understanding of racial factors in academic performance and discover new strategies for closing the achievement gap!

Examining the achievement gap through the prism of race, the authors explain the need for candid, courageous conversations about race in order to understand why performance inequity persists. Through these "courageous conversations," educators will learn how to create a learning community that promotes true academic parity. Practical features of this book include:

• Implementation exercises
• Prompts, language, and tools that support profound discussion
• Activities and checklists for administrators
• Action steps for creating an equity team

About this title

About the Author:

Glenn Eric Singleton hails from Baltimore, Maryland. A product of public elementary and independent secondary school, Singleton earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his master’s degree from the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Singleton began his career as an Ivy League admissions director. In 1992, he founded Pacific Educational Group, Inc. (PEG) to support families in their transitions within and between K–12 and higher education. His company rapidly grew into a vehicle for addressing systemic educational inequity by providing a framework, guidance, and support to K–12 systems and institutions of higher education focused on meeting the needs of under-served students of color. He is now its president and chief executive officer.

Singleton and his associates at PEG design and deliver individualized, comprehensive professional development for educators in the form of training, coaching, and consulting. Working at all levels, from beginning teachers to superintendents at local, state, and national levels, PEG helps educators focus on heightening their awareness of institutional racism and implementing effective strategies for eliminating racial achievement disparities in schools. In 1995, Singleton developed Beyond Diversity, a widely recognized seminar aimed at helping administrators, teachers, students, parents, and community stakeholders identify and examine the intersection of race and schooling. The Beyond Diversity seminar is the foundation for the PEG Systemic Racial Equity Framework and its theory of transformation, which focuses on leadership development, teacher action-research, and family/community empowerment. Today, participants around the world use Singleton’s Courageous Conversations Agreements, Conditions and Compass, introduced to them in Beyond Diversity, as they strive to usher in culturally proficient curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Over its 20-year history, PEG’s scope of work has expanded to include online professional learning, independent school partnerships, and international efforts in Canada and Australia that focus on educational equity for indigenous populations. PEG hosts an annual Summit for Courageous Conversation, in which scholars, educators, community members, and other stakeholders convene to identify strategies and best practices for creating high-level, equitable learning environments for all students.

Singleton currently resides in San Francisco, California. He is the founder of the Foundation for a College Education (FCE) and currently serves on the FCE Advisory Board.

Curtis Linton is a co-owner of The School Improvement Network where he is co-executive producer of The Video Journal of Education and TeachStream. He has spent the last 10 years documenting on video and in print the improvement efforts and best practices of the most suc­cessful schools and school systems across North America. Each year, he visits more than 100 classrooms and schools, capturing what they do to succeed with all students at the classroom, school, and system levels. Linton has written or produced dozens of award-winning video-based staff development programs. His areas of expertise include closing the achievement gap and improving minority student achievement, using data, leadership, effective staff development, brain research, differ­entiation, action research, and coaching. With the goal of delivering results-based professional development efficiently to large numbers of educators, he works with school systems to design comprehensive school improvement plans that integrate workshops, video, electronic media, and other resources. As a part of this, Linton conducts workshops on effective classroom practices. Linton also works extensively in the community, including serving on the Davis School District Equity Committee. Linton received his master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Southern California.

Review:

"The beauty of this volume is that it is designed to help lay people―teachers, administrators, parents, community leaders, and even university professors―begin to engage in the emotionally and psychically difficult conversations about race. Glenn Singleton and Curtis Linton have offered us an important book that provides us with empirical data and well-constructed exercises to help us think through the ways that race affects our lives and our professional practices. My sincere desire is that after you have had an opportunity to read this volume you will, indeed, engage in some courageous conversations about race." Author: Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison Published On: 2005-03-07

"Challenges educators to talk in honest and open ways about race, and provides various tools to stimulate and inform the conversation. Singleton and Linton remind us that the achievement gap will not be eliminated until we learn to talk about race in ways that build bridges of understanding that lead to effective action." Author: Dennis Sparks, Executive Director Published On: 2005-08-09

"Given the sensitive issues of race in our nation, schools and school leaders need tools that can illuminate the concerns, guide the discussions, and generate momentum for growth and change.  This book provides the tools and resources needed to move from open dialogue to meaningful action that can make excellence and equity in schools a reality." Author: Monte C. Moses, Superintendent Published On: 2005-08-12

"Talking about race and its effect on academic achievement remains one of the most elusive conversations today. In their new book, Singleton and Linton help educators understand and engage in the discourse around race that affects the success of any curriculum, instructional methodology, or program implementation. The book′s exercises and prompts assists school and district leadership teams in articulating those innate behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes that impair our ability to be effective in closing the racial achievement gap. I am encouraged to know that educators will be empowered and supported as we develop our personal capacity to address one of the most crucial elements of our society: the education of our children." Author: Yvette M. Irving, Principal Published On: 2005-09-06

"This is an important book that challenges one to think critically about the effects of race and student achievement. It is an invitation to sustain a strong desire for fairness and equity for all children." Author: SMSG Newsletter Published On: 2005-12-29

"In an era when America seems content to sweep candid talk of race under the rug, Courageous Conversations About Race recognizes that denial isn’t a prescription for interracial tolerance and social progress. The authors provide thoughtful educators with innovative instructional tools to successfully navigate the most robustly diverse nation on earth." Author: Hugh B. Price, Former President and CEO Published On: 2006-01-05

"Singleton and Linton challenge educators to move beyond recognizing the existence of a racial achievement gap and to develop strategies to eliminate it." Author: Curriculum Connections, Fall 2006

About this edition

• Publisher: Corwin
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0761988777
• ISBN 13: 9780761988779
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Singleton Glenn E., Linton Curtis W.