Research demonstrates that children of poverty need more than just academic instruction to succeed. Discover a school-improvement blueprint for teaching resilience and turning low-performing schools into cultures of hope. The authors draw from their own experiences working with high-poverty, high-achieving schools to illustrate how to support students with an approach that considers social as well as emotional factors in education.

Understand how poverty affects education and how creating a positive school culture can help:

Understand the relevance of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and positive psychology in K-12 education.
Discover tested strategies behind the success of high-poverty, high-achieving schools in closing the achievement gap.
Learn how to create intrinsic motivation for students impacted by adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and support them in overcoming learned helplessness.
Access surveys that gauge the temperature of your school’s culture.
Integrate the world of jobs and professional careers into academic curriculum.
Support students with tools to envision and plan for the future.
Define processes for building consensus and increasing collaboration among teachers and school leadership.

Contents:

Introduction

Part One: An Apartheid of Ignorance
Chapter 1. Poverty Is No Excuse
Chapter 2. The Tragedy of High School Dropouts
Chapter 3. A Culture of Hope

Part Two: The Four Seeds of Hope
Chapter 4. A Sense of Optimism
Chapter 5. A Sense of Belonging
Chapter 6. A Sense of Pride, Self-Esteem, and Self-Confidence
Chapter 7. A Sense of Purpose

Part Three: Implementing a Culture of Hope
Chapter 8. The Power of We
Chapter 9. A Culture of Hope at the High School Level
Chapter 10. Hope Fulfilled

Appendix A: Methodologies of the Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report Studies
Appendix B: Surveys of Students and Staff
Glossary
References and Resources
Index