Four Pillars to Guide Visionary Educators

""Fullan meets the inner-city." This is a guide for school leaders serving communities of high poverty to help them ensure that their students are able to overcome the challenges of their environment and their economic status. These students face obstacles such as limited access to resources such as books, technology, educational services, and supportive services and consistent access to adequate food and healthcare. This circumstances can lead to higher rates of absenteeism and transiency. Children from these communities often come from families with limited educational backgrounds, which limits their ability to support their children academically. English Language Learners and students with special needs, who are more prevalent in high-poverty communities, also require a greater degree of attention and services from the school community. This book proposes a systemic coordination of strategic thinking, planning, and implementation of action plans that are borne out of real-life analysis of the students and their families' needs. In this book you will find practical strategies focused on the four pillars that will support a coherent and systematic approach to educational excellence - for all students. These four pillars, designed with students from low-SES families in mind, support the essential elements of 1 purpose, 2 family engagement, 3 equity, and 4 teaching, learning, and social-emotional balance. The book is full of practical strategies, vignettes from real students and administrators, and activities to help leaders apply the lessons in the book to their own contexts"--