Positive youth development is a strengths-based, positive psychology approach to fostering adolescents' educational engagement and achievement. It focuses not just on students' academic development but also on their vocational, social, and emotional development. The positive youth development philosophy is at the heart of Cynthia Hazel's unique model of secondary school change, which uses a multi-tiered system of support to challenge the status quo of widespread achievement gaps. In this thought-provoking book, Cynthia Hazel presents her positive youth development-multi-tiered system of support model, including its theoretical foundations, practical instructions for implementing the model, and case examples illustrating application. Recognising that students' own voices are critical to their empowerment and strong outcomes, the model calls for students to participate alongside parents, teachers, and administrators in designing and guiding the school's support structures. The resulting paradigm shift - truly empowered learning - offers hope for all secondary schools, especially those in which many students currently do not achieve postsecondary success.

"Positive youth development is a strengths-based, positive psychology approach to fostering adolescents' educational engagement and achievement. It focuses not just on students' academic development but also on their vocational, social, and emotional development. The positive youth development philosophy is at the heart of Cynthia Hazel's unique model of secondary school change, which uses a multi-tiered system of support to challenge the status quo of widespread achievement gaps. In this thought-provoking book, Dr. Hazel presents her positive youth development-multi-tiered system of support model, including its theoretical foundations, practical instructions for implementing the model, and case examples illustrating application. Recognizing that students' own voices are critical to their empowerment and strong outcomes, the model calls for students to participate alongside parents, teachers, and administrators in designing and guiding the school's support structures. The resulting paradigm shift--truly empowered learning--offers hope for all secondary schools, especially those in which many students currently do not achieve postsecondary success"--Publicity materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

A community-empowered school is one in which administrators, teachers, staff, students, parents, and members of the community at large feel that they have a stake in the success of that school. Despite common reservations about the involvement of parents and volunteers in the classroom, this book makes clear the long-term advantages of onsite parent centers offering ESL classes, computer literacy/job-training classes, and classes in how to help students learn at home. The sources of financial and other help need not be limited to local businesses. District personnel, legislators, nonprofit agencies, and corporations can discover that they will benefit as a school succeeds. Chapter 1 examines what attracts community involvement, providing specific plans for volunteer programs and resource development. Chapter 2 identifies the stakeholders and what they can offer a school. Chapter 3 describes policies and procedures for program monitoring. Chapter 4 offers specific material for a workshop to train teachers in the use of tutors and mentors in the classroom, including overheads, worksheets, and memos. Chapter 5 outlines strategies using volunteers that increase literacy for students and their families. Chapter 6 addresses sources of funding. Chapter 7 explains the cost-effective nature of community support, and Chapter 8 shows how all the stockholders can affect public policy to increase the number of community-empowered schools. (Contains 43 references.) (RKJ)

Children in today's world are inundated with information about who to be, what to do and how to live. But what if there was a way to teach children how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them? The Leader in Meis that programme. It's based on a hugely successful initiative carried out at the A.B. Combs Elementary School in North Carolina. To hear the parents of A. B Combs talk about the school is to be amazed. In 1999, the school debuted a programme that taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleto a pilot group of students. The parents reported an incredible change in their children, who blossomed under the programme. By the end of the following year the average end-of-grade scores had leapt from 84 to 94. This book will launch the message onto a much larger platform. Stephen R. Covey takes the 7 Habits, that have already changed the lives of millions of people, and shows how children can use them as they develop. Those habits -- be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw -- are critical skills to learn at a young age and bring incredible results, proving that it's never too early to teach someone how to live well.

In Empower, A.J. Juliani and John Spencer provide teachers, coaches, and administrators with a roadmap that will inspire innovation, authentic learning experiences, and practical ways to empower students to pursue their passions while in school. Empower will provide ways to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities for our learners.

Successful teachers are able to motivate and inspire the children they teach and this is a skill that can only be supported by understanding good practice. This book gives you smart, pragmatic guidance backed by evidence-based research on how to engage and inspire in your teaching. It looks at both how you can influence and shape the learning that goes on in your classroom and how you can apply key lessons to your own professional development as a teacher. Key coverage includes: · The psychology of motivation and its implications for the classroom · Behaviour for learning · Essential advice on of safeguarding, mental health and wellbeing · Active learning and engaging your pupils in the learning process · How to develop as a professional and empowered teacher

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.