Chandler School

According to Myra McGovern, senior director of public information for the National Association of Independent Schools, more independent schools are becoming invested in how diverse environments should feel, rather than only concentrating on what they should look like. Likewise, more parents of color are discovering alternatives to public school that seem stable in the face of rapidly transforming neighborhoods and school systems.

Cultural competence is the ability to successfully communicate and empathize with people from diverse cultures and incomes,

To build rapport, talk directly to children outside of class, using their names. Also begin class by checking in -- asking kids how they’re doing -- even if the misbehavior of the previous class reached biblical proportions.

Monitor your discourse style. Indirect requests (“Would you like to let me finish reading the directions?”) can confuse some children who are used to receiving explicit directives from their working-class parents.

For instance, examples to teach mathematics principles can be developed around social justice issues, such as rates of unemployment and disparities in incomes. Critical reading skills can be honed by critiquing biased and incomplete news reports.

Only 14% of white students, for example, attend multiracial schools. How might such isolation affect white students' ability to develop healthy racial identities?

Ironically, in more racially diverse educational settings, assumptions of white superiority are often reinforced by "ability" grouping and tracking. Thus, simply being in more diverse school settings is not a guarantee that white children will develop non-racist attitudes and behaviors, unless their teachers intentionally work with them on these issues.

Emotion is where learning begins, or, as is often the case, where it ends. Put simply, “It is literally neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things that you don’t care about,” she said.

Great teachers understand that the best, most durable learning happens when content sparks interest, when it is relevant to a child’s life, and when the students form an emotional bond with either the subject at hand or the teacher in front of them. Meaningful learning happens when teachers are able to create an emotional connection to what might otherwise remain abstract concepts, ideas or skills.

When teachers take the time to learn about their students’ likes, dislikes and personal interests, whether it’s racial issues brewing at their school, their after-school job, or their dreams and goals, learning improves.

Existing inequities play out when adults engage with kids around tinkering or making. And, while makerspaces are a unique kind of learning space, many of the techniques thoughtful educators are using to improve their interactions with students could be used in other venues.

Sewing has been one of the most successful projects in the program Escudé helps run at the Boys and Girls Club in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley neighborhood. Kids shared their family histories of sewing and even invited grandparents to participate and share. The activity was framed as intellectual thought and valued as equal to any other tinkering task. The success of this activity came from giving students the space to share themselves and build relationships with one another and the facilitators, not because they were using the most recent technology or because they were building robots.

it’s a cultural assumption that kids would think taking apart toys would be fun.

Privilege is passed on like inheritance. Therefore, we must educate the children of people currently in power so they won’t replicate the systems of the past. Undoing the racism that muffles achievement requires teaching the scions of privilege who will likely end up running systems that fail students of color.

Cultural differences influence teaching efficacy, however. “Most results show that when black teachers teach black students, black students achieve more than when taught by white teachers,” writes Andy Porter in Rethinking the Achievement Gap.

Most high schools segregate by "type," whether it's age, class, ethnic background, or volume of face makeup.

The way high schools are designed—their size, their level of diversity, and the way they treat students—can either drive students to segregate based on things like household income and race, or force them to build relationships that are more about their high school life than their socioeconomic backgrounds.

While homework has a significant benefit at the high school level, the benefit drops off for middle school students and “there’s no benefit at the elementary school level,”

Homework can generate a negative impact on children’s attitudes toward school.

After a long day at school, something that includes the word “work” is not exactly what kids want to do before going to bed. This ends up too often in a sorrowful battle that can be extended to the later years when homework does have benefits.

The main findings: The more play a school gives its student body, the greater rewards kids see in their character development, academic achievement, safety, and overall health.

According to Vialet, structure is a child's best friend when it comes to play. While kids may have a built-in urge to run around and get dirty, playing with other kids is a social experience, which means it has to be learned.

A 2013 study of the Playworks model from Stanford University found it led to 43% less bullying, 20% higher feelings of student safety, 43% more physical activity, and 34% less time transitioning from recess back to the classroom. A number of other studies suggest recess can also lead to better grades in school, regardless of the form it takes.

Teachers are, by nature, protective of their practice and their space. In this way, even before I enter a teacher's room, I must establish the requisite rapport to garner the invitation. From there, the teacher picks the class, the day, and the time. Then she gives me a sense of what she's doing, has just finished, or will be doing soon. Finally, I show up and get to work.

Ultimately, I had no idea if anyone would invite me in. Moreover, I didn't know if the lessons would work once I was invited. What I learned, however, is that only the former matters. Like an educational grandparent, if I show up and the lesson bombs, I get to leave and let the teacher move on without me. But the fact that teachers are willing to give up control of their rooms -- to an administrator -- without so much as a hint about what will happen when I get there, well, that's how I know the flashes are working.

For all but one, I admit to having only a Google-search-based knowledge of the content, yet teachers keep inviting me in