This book, authored by K-4 elementary educators working at a publicly funded non-profit charter school, illustrates the power of culturally responsive teaching and learning.

Dismantled is an accessible, critical look at the devolution of local power in the Detroit public school system. The author examines the rise of charter schools and other private enterprises, the eclipse of control from local actors to new players and influences, and the invaluable lessons the experience holds for urban school systems nationwide.

Black education was subversive from its inception. African Americans pursued education through clandestine means, often in defiance of law and custom, even under threat of violence. They developed what Jarvis Givens calls a tradition of "fugitive pedagogy"--a theory and practice of Black education epitomized by Carter G. Woodson--groundbreaking historian, founder of Black History Month, and legendary educator under Jim Crow. Givens shows that Woodson succeeded because of the world of Black teachers to which he belonged. Fugitive Pedagogy chronicles his ambitious efforts to fight what he called the "mis-education of the Negro" by helping teachers and students to see themselves and their mission as set apart from an anti-Black world. Teachers, students, families, and communities worked together, using Woodson's materials and methods as they fought for power in schools. Forged in slavery and honed under Jim Crow, the vision of the Black experience Woodson articulated so passionately and effectively remains essential for teachers and students today.

Though educators have tried to remedy the severe crisis in urban schools, dismal results persist. Learning to Liberate presents true and compelling community-based approaches to school reform. Uncovering four distinct pedagogies - of communication, community, compassion, and commitment - Vajra Watson pulls together their key strategies to create a theoretically grounded framework that is both useful and effective.

This text addresses two critical local gaps in the experience of many children now growing up in the United States: contact with the natural world and contact with community. It offers a way to extend young people's attention beyond the classroom to the world as it actually is, and to engage them in the process of devising solutions to the social and environmental problems they will confront as adults. This approach can increase students' engagement with learning and enhance their academic achievement.

This volume brings together design thinking, critical social theory, and learning sciences to describe promising learning innovations that foster rights, dignity, and social justice for youth. Each of the chapters provides a case study of a project and discusses underlying theories and behind-the-scenes accounts of implementation and lessons learned.

Veteran educator and brain expert Eric Jensen takes an unflinching look at how poverty hurts children, families, and communities across the United States and demonstrates how schools can improve the academic achievement and life readiness of economically disadvantaged students. Effective strategies from those who have succeeded and ways to replicate those best practices at your own school.