Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools
(January 2012 Book)

If one school can overcome the powerful and pervasive effects of poverty on student learning, shouldn’t any school be able to do the same? The fact that some schools successfully educate students who live in poverty compels us to learn about what these schools do.

In this month’s Talks with an Author, William Parrett and Kathleen Budge—educators at Boise State University—address some of the unique issues high-poverty schools face and how they can build leadership capacity, foster a supportive school environment, and focus intensely on learning.

• Listen to the talk, conducted by Jamie Greene, ASCD associate editor.
• Buy Turning High-Poverty Schools into High-Performing Schools.

A World-Class Education: Learning from International Models of Excellence and Innovation
(February 2012 Member Book)

The United States’ mediocre performance on international assessments has been cause for alarm. Other countries are developing world-class education systems that are both excellent and equitable—and they’ve done this relatively quickly. The question is, how?

In this month's Talks With an Author, the senior education advisor at Asia Society looks at world-class education in five top-performing countries—Singapore, Canada, Finland, Shanghai, and Australia—and at the lessons these systems hold for the United States.

• Listen to the talk, conducted by Amy Azzam, ASCD senior associate editor.
• Buy A World-Class Education: Learning from International Models of Excellence and Innovation.