Affirmative Development ─ Cultivating Academic Ability

Affirmative Development makes the case theoretically for deliberate intervention to develop academic ability for students not naturally disposed to develop such ability by the conditions under which they live. The book includes discussions of intellective competence and intellective character as products of the development of academic ability and reviews of the research evidence for the feasibility and morality of such action.

Edmund W. Gordon is the Richard March Hoe Professor of Psychology and Education, Emeritus and Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Yale University; and the Senior Scholar in Residence at The College Board. He has authored or edited over 15 books and monographs, including Compensatory Education: Preschool through College, which continues to be regarded as the classic work in its field. Edmund W. Gordon is one of the conceptual leaders of several of the major developments in public education, viz. Head Start, compensatory education, career education, school desegregation, alternatives in educational assessment, and supplementary education. Beatrice L. Bridglall is currently Research Scientist & Editor in the National Center for Children & Families at Teacher's College, Columbia University and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Behavior Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Bridglall is conducting several programs of research, including one directed at investigating the correlates of minority high academic achievement. An emerging area of interest is early childhood education, particularly the role of parental practices/investment in mediating academic achievement. Dr. Bridglall has recently published a co-edited book, Supplementary Education: The hidden curriculum of high academic achievement (Rowman & Littlefield 2005).