s such as (a) What experiences do you havewith different cultures and what is your assessment of your ability to work with indi-viduals who are from those cultures? (b)

The SIP plan should include explicit goals and strategies that will lead toincreased awareness and understanding of cultures and perspectives of those in thecommunity.

An effective school improvement plan (SIP) process allows schools to de-velop a strategic and continuous plan that focuses on quality education and highlevels of achievement and outcomes for CLD students with LD.

The input ofmany—teachers, parents, and administrators—should be elicited before decisionsare made

people have both personal identities and group identities

A way of being that enables people to successfully engage in new envi-ronments

A way of being that enables both individuals and organizations to re-spond effectively to people who differ from them

In addition, the social organization within a school determineshow individuals react to things that happen in the school and/or district and the com-munity it serves. The organizational norms, the school climate, and the unwrittenrules of your organization are all reflections of the school’s framework

There exists ample evidence that the hidden curriculum typi-cally represents Eurocentric, middle-class values Thornberg, 2009; Vang, 2006) whichare far from universal

chool administrators must be prepared to work with CLD students who(a) differ racially and ethnically; (b) speak different languages; (c) have different be-liefs; and (d) have different ways of expressing their cultural distinctiveness (Bak-ken, O’Brian, & Shelden, 2006)

With the exception of Chandra, all were able toidentify the source of the problem, which gave them a logical way to assist theirstudents in making progress toward an academic or behavioral goal.

As an example, Naomi(middle school suburban, learning support-teacher) commented: ìThe thing thatstands out is that we were in the field so much and the fact from freshman year, wewere out there for two hours [a week] and really got to see what was going on. Wethen brought it back to the classroom and discussed issues.î

uccessful field and student teaching experiences that are con-nected to coursework build teachers’ confidence and self-efficacy and thusencourage a higher level of competence in their first year of teachin

d, if the novice teacher experiences little success early orwhile student teaching, judgments of low efficacy may determine how long theteacher will persist in developing a strong teaching repertoire

. Knowledge andprior skill attainment are poor predictors of future performance because the beliefspeople hold about their performance have more power than acquired learnin

novice teachers are often given difficult class assignments, schedulesthat allow little time for reflection, and ineffective mentors, who may be unwillingor unable to provide support to novice teacher

The more successful experience a teacher candi-date has working with diverse groups of students, the higher the confidence levelof the teacher, which in turn, positively influences self-efficac

(5) sense of humor

administrative and parental suppo

Growing evidence also suggests that teachers who lackadequate preparation to become teachers are more likely to leave the profession

eachers analyze student work, study data, visit eachother’s classrooms, and reflect together on theirobservations of what is working and what is n

ducators committed to equity and to providing all childrenwith the opportunity to engage in deeper learning oftenthink creatively about how to design and implementresponsive educational strategies to meet student ne

ne of the distinguishing factors of a student-centereddeeper learning approach is a seismic shift in the purposeof assessment—away from accountability measuresdesigned to rank and sort students and toward performanceassessments that diagnose student learning need

, that childrenreach milestones such as learning to read at varying rates,or that the opportunity to play during the school day iscritical to socializatio

tudents come to the classroom with prior knowledgethat must be addressed if teaching is to be effectiv

ducators have long understood that environmentalfactors—related to family background, peer groups,neighborhood conditions, and more—influence the health,nutrition, safety, and overall psychological and emotionalwell-being of young people, which in turn affect theirdevelopment and learning

whereas students in lower tracks andhigher-poverty schools are given the kind of rule-followingtasks that mirror much of factory and other working classwor

o help students meet the new standards, schools will need to provideregular opportunities to practice high-level skills such as solvingcomplex problems, conducting research, communicating in multipleforms, and using new technologies to find, analyze, and evaluateinformation.

dvance to the next level, course, or grade based on demonstrations of their skills and content knowledg

arents and families will continue to seek schoolsas safe and moral places for their children to learn,where teachers know them w

A serious revolutionin teaching and learningis needed

ourse, education has long been touted as a wayto support workforce development and a morestable so

It is about gettingready for the complex global economy

Growing numbers of policy and business leaders are joining progressiveteachers and administrators in the realization that schooling in America mustdo much, much more than mass-produce a workforce conversant in basicskills

It’s time for America’s young people—all, not just a privileged few—to engage in deeperlearning. But transforming how students learn and lead requires parallel changes inthe systems that govern teacher learning and leadershi