Growing Into Equity
Professional Learning and Personalization in High-Achieving Schools
- Sonia Caus Gleason - Success at the Core, Founding Developer
- Nancy Gerzon - WestEd, Learning Innovations
Foreword by Stephanie Hirsh and Joellen Killion
High-achieving students and teachers—winning strategies from Title I schools!
What makes a Title I school high-achieving, and what can we all learn from that experience? Professional learning and leadership that supports personalized instruction makes the difference, as captured in the ground-breaking research of authors Sonia Caus Gleason and Nancy Gerzon.
This illuminating book shows how four outstanding schools are making individualized learning a reality for every teacher and student. The common thread is the commitment to equity—every student achieving. Readers will find
- Guidance on identifying obstacles to equity within your school
- Background that builds a case for personalized learning
- Four case studies that show the lived values, professional learning practices, leadership, and systems that have helped schools transform learning
- How-to’s and templates for creating a team-based professional development program that expands individualized instruction in every classroom
Discover new approaches for individual, team, and whole school professional learning that support personalized learning, drawn from schools that are leaders in overcoming challenges and creating opportunities.
“Equity is not an afterthought to high achievement. Gleason and Gerzon's new book on outstanding equity-driven practice in four very different schools shows that if you want to raise the bar you have to start by narrowing the gap.”
—Andy Hargreaves, Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education
Boston College
Free resources
Seizing Equity’s Teachable Moments
This blog post from Sonia Caus Gleason, author of Growing Into Equity, discusses how to advance equity through professional learning.
"Who says that schools can’t personalize learning, improve achievement, and provide an equitable and high-quality education for all students? As monumental as these goals may seem, they are possible. By highlighting four schools that do these things well, Sonia Caus Gleason and Nancy Gerzon provide a valuable lesson about personalized and equitable schooling and, in the process, remind us what public education should be about."
"Gleason and Gerzon focus their lens on four 'regular' schools that are paying attention to the whole child and getting results. In these school communities, professional learning for educators produces personalized learning for students. Growing Into Equity offers readers wonderful insights into the structures and strategies, time and talents it takes to make that happen."
"Equity is not an afterthought to high achievement. Gleason and Gerzon's new book on outstanding equity-driven practice in four very different schools, shows that if you want to raise the bar, you have to start by narrowing the gap. From Tennessee to Vermont, from Dallas to LA, this attractively written, morally uplifting and deeply practical book shows how extraordinary schools address and achieve social justice by making learning personal and engaging for every student, and by ensuring that professional learning is stimulating and practical for every teacher."
"Growing into Equity is a timely and important new book which provides compelling evidence of how teachers, principals, school district leaders, and policy makers can create and embrace equity in school districts, schools, and classrooms to ensure that all students are learning and achieving."
"Excellence and equity in public school classrooms don't happen by accident. In this book Sonia Gleason and Nancy Gerzon use detailed examples to show how sensitive, thoughtful and courageous leaders build school communities that favor every learner, including not only every child, but also every adult."
"Growing into Equity is both instructive and inspiring. Gleason and Gerzon emphasize the importance of professional learning, collaboration, shared leadership and a strong sense of collective accountability that envisions every student achieving his/her potential through personalized instruction. Should be required reading for anyone interested in transforming schools."
"In Growing into Equity: Personalized Learning for Teachers and Their Students, Gleason and Gerzon provide rich examples of school-based practices that optimize professional learning and provide students with personalized learning opportunities. The detailed, insightful case studies illustrate what a visible commitment to equity looks like in high-performing schools."
"Growing into Equity dispels the notion of the principal or teacher as hero. It takes a team of people to raise achievement. It takes clarity of mission and vision. We are never 'there' but always getting better-- asking better questions so we CAN get better..."
"The authors delve into four schools located in California, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont revealing how personalized learning promotes equity. Their discoveries provide an encouraging roadmap for K-12 educators in urban, suburban, or rural settings who wish to promote 'favoritism' for each student. The core belief that 'every child has a complex and compelling story as a person and as a learner' drives the need to personalize learning and the how-to is well documented in this break through work that provides hope The American Dream may still be realized through public education."
"Growing into Equity provides an essential understanding of how critically important it is for schools to both create and sustain conscious willfulness and intentional practices among all stakeholders. Growing into Equity reminds us of the complexity of creating equitable learning opportunities in schools and at the same time provides diverse illustrations of personalized learning to move educators and students to that point."
