Building a Culture of Hope ─ Enriching Schools With Optimism and Opportunity

Barr, an educator, speaker, author, and retired analyst with the Boise State U. Center for School Improvement, and Gibson, a teacher and instructional coach for high-poverty schools, draw on their research and work in high-poverty schools to show K-12 teachers and administrators an instructional approach, the Culture of Hope, that emphasizes social and emotional growth to help high-poverty students succeed in the classroom and find opportunities to live better lives. They describe the problem of poverty and how it affects students, the issue of high school dropouts, and the key elements of Culture of Hope schools; the seeds of hope for transforming schools (a sense of optimism, belonging, pride, self-esteem, self-confidence, and purpose); and implementation of the approach, with a template to follow and discussion of changes that contribute to success, continued enrollment, and graduation, and academic and social benchmarks for students. Journal entries throughout relate the experiences of teachers, administrators, students, and parents. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)