High-Leverage Practices for All Students

This chapter is designed to inform and educate the reader about high-leverage practices used in the general education classroom and with students with identified special educational needs. The chapter starts by explaining how high-leverage practices originated and continues with a discussion about the similarities and differences between the general and special education high-leverage practices. The chapter then finishes with a discussion about how both types of practices can be applied to any educational situation.

Marginalized Communities, Curriculum, Children (MC3)

This chapter provides an extensive view of the literature pertinent to issues of educational deprivation in marginalized communities, curriculum, and children. It raises awareness of systemic racial inequities that result in condemning children of color to a life of poverty. It also offers an understanding of how to develop culturally-inclusive arts-integrated curricula to redirect the trajectory of public education in these marginalized communities. Focusing on equity, culture, access, social-emotional learning, and special education, the priority is to increase teacher awareness about their students' cultural identities, develop each student's intellectual and creative talent, and cultivate empathetic cross-cultural, multiracial, multiethnic learning environments.

Revisiting Equity, Equality, and Reform in Contemporary Public Education

Equity, equality, and reform were intended to level the playing field, so to speak, for children who have been marginalized since the idea of public education was introduced. The beginning stages of a structured, formal education system was not inclusive; in fact, the one-size-fits-all mindset of public education set a standard by which children of color, children with disabilities, and poor children received nothing more than a substandard education, if they received an education at all. This new idea of a free public education was reserved for the majority, unattainable for children who were perceived to fall outside the notion of a traditional student model. This chapter revisits equity, equality, and reform in public education.

Building Culturally-Competent School Practices in Rural and Small Cities

This chapter provides in-depth discussion of concepts and principles related to the development of cultural competence in school districts located in rural areas and smaller cities that have and are becoming racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse. The authors offer practical steps that help support the development of cultural competence among pre-service teachers, educators, and administrators. This framework can be implemented to create district-level professional development courses that can be used to renew teacher licenses. Additionally, suggestions of how to best address the discipline among culturally diverse students, and how to build authentic relationships with students, parents and the community are also discussed.

Characteristics of Effective Military Charter Schools

This chapter examines two public military-themed charter schools that meet researcher-developed minimum thresholds for academic and socioemotional success. Through document review, extensive on-site observations, and comprehensive interviews, the researchers examine the two schools in comparison to a conceptual framework developed almost 20 years ago by one of the researchers. The conceptual framework is predicated on four pillars present to varying degrees in military schools and colleges across the United States – academics, leadership, citizenship, and athletics. Careful analysis of both schools through the lens of all four pillars of the conceptual framework validates the framework as a successful means of evaluating the efficacy of a military-themed charter school.

Revolutionizing Education

From the core of its inception, the American school system has been plagued with multiple facets of systemic oppression, ranging from the inequitable distribution of funds and resources, lack of authentic and relatable curricula programs, lack of quality teachers well versed in culturally relevant pedagogy to the development and implementation of disciplinary measures that quite frankly mimic the nation's incarceration system. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the multi-faceted definitions of equity and equality in depth, along with a comparison as to how the terms converge with another. The chapter then shifts to current inequities in education including an exploration of funding formulas, core standards, the increased use of negative associations, teacher qualifications, as well as school culture and disciplinary climate. The chapter concludes with various recommendations to remedy these issues in an innovative manner that will ultimately benefit students.

‘So, Are You Hindi?'

Immigrant children and adolescents living in the United States encounter significant stressors during the acculturation process, particularly in schools. South Asian immigrants tend to identify strongly with religious and geographic region background. This study investigates intersections between religion and education in U.S. South Asians' post-migration experiences in the American Midwest. Findings suggest South Asian children in U.S. schools are confronted daily by the duality between their parents' birth culture and mainstream values and traditions of the host culture. Participants and their families experience prejudice, discrimination, and racism as they engage in daily social, work, and school activities. Reported incidents of prejudice range from judgments about English-speaking ability to doubts about the South Asian education system to prepare workers for U.S. jobs. Findings show religious affiliation, foreign accent, skin color, ethnic dress, and non-Euro-American physical features create barriers for South Asians trying to fit into everyday American society.

An Analytical Study of the Provision of Mental Health Services for Students With Disabilities in Public School Settings

Students with disabilities often do not receive supportive services if they have coexisting mental health disorders. Students classified with emotional or behavioral disorders for an individualized education plan may be supported by a functional behavior assessment and, in some cases, a behavior intervention plan, but mental health is not included as a related service. Without appropriate mental health services, students face poorer outcomes. Results from a survey of special education teachers and behavior support specialists along with a secondary analysis of existing data revealed that respondents did not receive any mental health training that would allow them to support students with mental health needs. Moreover, funding, legal issues, and policies were emerging themes that likely contributed to the lack of appropriate mental health support in public school systems.

Education as the Practice of Freedom

As a result of the complex, multilayered, and problematic environment in which they work, two scholars (Black Jamaican and Aboriginal), collaborating across the continents of North America and Australia, complicate the data from standardized testing in their communities to argue for the integration of the historical empowerment of Black, Aboriginal, and Indigenous peoples as a necessity to achieve social justice and equity in global classrooms. The chapter presents the engagement of students in this collaborative inquiry in acknowledgment of the critical role students must play in the transformation of global education. The study reveals just how critical it is to global research to have the benefit of scholars collaborating across borders. The study provides findings and offer recommendations in direct response to the question: How can educators engage students as collaborators within a third space that elevates their voices as successful students?

Gender, Education, and Careerism

The statuses of women as intellectuals and political agents have been devalued due to the ancient prejudice that, because women are able to bear children, they are unsuited for the rigors of professional and/or public life. Arguments made for the subordination of women included natural or divine law, moral necessity, and economic realism; in addition, biologically essentialist reasons suggested that women were physically unable to handle the strain of the man's world of work, both due to their overall constitution and to their presumed “delicate” reproductive functions. It is this last concern, the physiological argument, that the authors study in this chapter, as it is one that people still make today—albeit more subtly; they argue, therefore, that there is a deeply ingrained belief in Western society that there is some sort of natural “conflict” between ovaries and brains, that is, between male and female nature, that makes women less qualified than men for certain jobs or to serve certain roles in society.