Inspiration to me why i am a education policy management student negative year. Inspired by her every day i hope i dont have to do the wake up just to be like her. But that is just me she is wonderful and also, end im so lucky. My favorite educator and best mom to the stage. [applause] not every day are you able to be introduced by your daughter. Very cool. If anybody wants to get up. I believe very deeply they are raising teachers so give it up for them. [applause] so i have here to talk about the book you will all by because you dont make money writing books that you will buy it because the royalties go back to the kids and that is important to me for go live first book still the of royalties are going back to the art academy kids and so will this as well as here. It is important to buy it. And from independent bookstores as well. A one to know how many are you teaching right now as teachers . How many have never taught . How many have never led school scorer organizations . So i wrote this book to start a larger conversation to what will help students succeed. I am 83 at what it takes to really create access and equity in this country. We continue as a responsibility of the most will burble amongst us. Those with the least amount of access i wrote this book that is just not true. The hardest questions are not on the test so here is the story that was a lot of my motivation. One of my students at the arts academy graduated at the top of her class and was accepted to her dream Callers College with a scholarship a first and scholarship how many you firstgeneration kids . Disappointing there not more at harvard and there should be but for complicated reasons she never stepped foot on her college campus. She lost her scholarship this summer after high school because she missed a deadline to send in a deposit to hold her space. For reasons was of lack of experience and absence of capital and i am sure some of shame this one mistake had a dramatic effect on the course of schanita life that is the impetus for this new book. When i step down from the daytoday leadership of the academy and wanted to take a more critical look at what i had accomplished and examine some longheld assumptions. In those who had graduated to the people started that a spoken to dozens more. Schanita story was not the exception. And to all of you and those that go on to college to say yet like that. To golan to that conservatory but all of you will go on to college is the right promise to make it is still feel that way but the emphasis was wrong i did not do enough to promote Career Opportunities along with college and as i listen to my former students to be a clear refrain if we begin to interrogate them and this is the invitation of the book that i believe we can build better bridges the book is organized around these five by what you to know that many money is not an obstacle. Number two. Race doesnt matter. Just work harder. If you believe your dreams will come true. In the of statistics. End with nearly twothirds graduating they are extraordinary figures for any school all and those that did not go to college . And now wanted to a understand the journey. It is too easy that all students start in the same place and everyone has access to the same degree of knowledge as a recent New York Times article says coming at out just as they turn this into the publisher for young people with collegeeducated parents it could be stressful but there is a road map. And then to pay for the prep course. If tsa is lackluster they can hire the riding coach. If they cannot decide which is the best fit and then they will push them on. A few of these are in support for low income for firstgeneration students and that is what this is about. To assume those deep inequities can be overcome by individual effort and to just work harder we will be fine because there are sold many wonderful stories and i tell those stories. Many of you may have heard of dalian in the country we love. She was part of being interviewed for this book. But we make the assumption in that those that just lack determination are the reasons that people will not get ahead. And this pedagogy has been popularized in the school. In to critically examine that i will read a little excerpt from the book and read that behavioral expectations. I hope youll runout to buy the book to say grit is not what we need to be talking about right now. 253rd raiders as we know were about to begin the unit and with many braids and ribbons in her hair and asked is this where we get to see the snake walked out of the skin . Yes. We will see that and then to make sketches. Everyone nodded eagerly and a nervous excitement came through the class. Clearly this was a lesson they were eagerly anticipating. When we were ready sitting up and then to hold those clipboards. And to students in the back row were overtaken with the giggles and seem to have a hard time putting in the paper or pay attention. Clearly they were in a world of their own. And then run not paying attention. Suddenly the teacher said it is clear to me that the class is not ready to engage in learning. Lets go back to our desk until we have 100 percent engagement. You are not respecting the learning process you have completely forgotten about. Did you lose your back muscles . Tim many are slouching. I will hand out the merits. So no i will tell you know what slanting is . Set up, look, ask questions, and nod, a track of the speaker. Part of that gripped the those is that all kids know how to do that of the rand. The little girl with the braves was spurred were not showing respect. Her friend nodded. They quietly got to their seat with an air of the respondents and i really dont want a demerit when the class was dismissed for lunch the teacher demanded everybody lined up silently as they proceeded to do that cafeteria they pass the second grade class who were walking in hogs and abubble formation very common these days these eight roles held their arms crisscrossed like in a straitjacket their cheeks were puffed out as if they caught a bubble and they proceeded silently to the cafeteria where they would drop their arms. Five different classrooms in the cafeteria and all of them they ate in complete silence while the teachers wanted to the room. Now i will just drop because i do not tell you what schools these are from but this is not an Exceptional School i dont want you to think it is i visited many many schools like this. I inquired if this was a british river for bad behavior in and for that assignment lunch was a regular occurrence. We want students to have time in the day when they are quiet and peaceful but it felt anything but peaceful but more like a prison with the teachers on guard. I was stunned this was a regular practice. It is being a carefree kid not of a student in this school. As in many schools their young and white and female so what message does this send to kids who are not of the dominant culture . The school felt suppressive while making eye contact is not wrong the slant system is not contextualize to a variety of learning environments if used in the school is it an emphasis of behavior over active learning in other words you are considered a good lerner if you can demonstrate slant with this is a minimal condition for learning and in most situations. For many students this behavior has nothing to do with learning it is hard to teach they are cutting up in class but the Science Teacher had described they were trained to stop in the absence of 100 compliance. Later the teachers admitted she felt badly about her decision to abort the lesson in favor of behavior. In this school we believe if students are not practicing aslant them learning is compromised. You have to take care of the small things before the big things or nothing will get fixed. But this adherence to slant and i have witnessed in so many new excuse schools makes me wonder about the message we send to our young people. The word repressive kept coming to mind a little room existed for divergent thinking. The one that is opposite of the no excuses in the urban Public School in new york city i witnessed a group of eighth graders and what struck me in it addition to their professional level of discourse to raise some solace in the classroom some sat on top of their desk and others were on chairs not everyone was in a circle one participated in the discussion even though he looked angry the entire time. And other student sat at the teachers desk when i asked in the teacher if the seating arrangement was distracting to him or other students he looked at me curiously. Why should it matter how they set . If they are participating and respecting one anothers opinion . That is my goal. Can i talk to one another from the text . Can they find evidence from their points of view . But what about the facts not everybody is living by the same rules . Look. He began impatiently what i like everyone to sit in the circle . Of course. Do i want to sacrifice valuable time to be constantly reminding students . And more importantly do i want to make sure the classroom is the place where there is room . I know what is going on i know why they moved out of the circle the press the rest of the class doesnt care and i am not satisfied with his answer. I wanted to know if he had seen the practice is in no excuses schools where rules were quickly adhered to in teacher spelled teaching could begin. Of course. Many students have come from schools like that theyre asked to leave because they were not disciplined enough and held up his fingers he is still smarting from the memory of his last will and by the way you will see those ubiquitous College Posters on my walls my job is to teach students to think and i know it may sound political but to get them to think for themselves i agree with fact but i am not comfortable with a lack of structure or consequences in his classroom i wondered if that no excuses grit pedagogy could be used could ec how well behaved his students were in those schools was and he impressed with their test scores . Clearly they have learned to listen to one another but he countered i know many of my colleagues believe by following that formulas land with no excuses kids will get out of the ghetto but ill think theyre asking the students were the community that they come from what success looks like for them. What were missing is learning about selfdetermination and advocacy for oppressed people everywhereverywher e. And though it is a lot to ask the teachers but we cannot keep seeing ourselves as a historical being. We is teachers and white teachers in particular need to understand that students of color are in this situation because of systemic racism we have to critically examine how we might be perpetuating back. Mr. Johnson went on to describe how his students were doing in highschool the one that challenge we the of most are those who do the best and highschool and college. They know how to think critically and independently. So i asked if the no excuses planned intervention is successful . I question the longrange effectiveness and my question the implications by questions of training teachers in the is my bids with the benefit of lockstep learning may have been overrated with rates such as curiosity the boy is to giggle the most maybe the most curious lerners later on. The 21st century Critical Thinking collaboration and communication and creativity that employers and others that have that repetitive the economy are not wellsuited by that no excuses approach. Another assumption i address is one that says colleges for everyone. We know that is not true or realistic but we have done little in our schools to truly prepare students for careers that will allow them to leave middleclass lives. We must change our language to college and career ready move away from icn here in secondary schools which is everyone will go to college. My new call is success and dignity for all with the promise of earning a living wage. Or more succinctly college and career for all here are the national statistics. Fiftytwo of highschool graduates enroll in college and that means nearly half of the students do not. So in what kind of preparation are we giving them . To answer that question aisle of local and international and heres what i conclude. We must do a better job with career and Technical Education with internships and Work Experience while young people are in high school. Consider the neck statistic. It took me a long time to get this in my head and those with the highest employment rates come from families with income above 120,000. That teenagers with the highest employment rates here i am arguing for Work Experience, i come from the families with incomes over 120,000. We are perpetuating again and again in kahn inequality. Those young people from low income sectors are in greatest need of Work Experience but the least likely to receive it. In switzerland one of the countries i looked at as a counter example Students Experience a more cohesive approach and at least 50 percent of 16 through 19 yearold are involved in Vocational Education and one of the off hallmarks of the swiss system is it is permeable they can go back and forth between career and Technical Education and more academic education there is a sense that apprenticeships is the highest status to learn for are taught this level of education in some schools in our country but not nearly enough in the book i talk about one school 40 miles from here the Technical High School located in a workingclass Community Just outside of boston. Here is what one student said for using college as a place to grow what is very expensive. I am glad i have been exposed to so many different areas to specialize. And others didnt tell me he was graduating from the Health Program and was certified as a nursing assistant but now new he did not like patient care he will now go to college to major in Clinical Lab Science and found he did not like director service work but the Science Behind the disease my guess that the written another book of my experience of Public Schools career and Technical Vocational High School told such promise and underfunded for over three decades i truly believe having a strong sense of what youre interested in pursuing in college or a career of technical programs needs to become the focus of highschool across this country. In the book i talk about the forprofit schools because they come in to say they filled the gap but the Horror Stories of my alums was enough to move me very quickly away from them although i did try in some cases to look at them. Elizabeth warren the senator from massachusetts has a web site that serves as a watchdog and urges us to stay vigilant especially in a time where forprofit colleges are coming back so in the book i have many suggestions how we can reinvigorate careers and one of the things i spent some time discussing is the need to reinvest Community Colleges and redress in sure that theyll have Work Experience. Not just middle and upper class. Not Just Community service but a real commitment and i even suggest once service year for all americans a National Program where they have the chance between high school and college as part of their senior year to work deeply in daily in an area that speaks to their passion. Those who know me i take on this countrys current obsession with testing this is one of reasons no longer room in the curriculum for career in Technical Education. We have become so focused on shrinking and sorting students we have lost sight of the importance of teaching empathy and how to get along with those different from you at a time when the Democratic Institutions daily in mind to believe her curriculum focused on Student Agency and activism can help prepare young people to enter a world in which they have the tools to reshape the reality. We must continue to embrace of largest purpose of education to tell our young people understand the context of their lives including the cultural linguistic history as well as the of lives of those that our different from themselves. I know from seeing these young people with education in the arts does just that in the increasingly complex world we need to ensure the young people graduate from school can walk in one anothers shoes and to embrace languages and cultures and movements that our foreign to our own culture and learn to express connections through drawings and paintings to present those differences from becoming impediments to change. It is our job to help young people critically perceive the world the way it exist in the world and not as a reality but in the process of information even in the era of trump i remain hopeful in large part from the generation of students that i have taught and will continue to teach. My hope is further strengthened because of the raising teachers i have known who continue to do such amazing work each day. They create classrooms where they can realize their collective dreams. I hope the book gives tools to keep fighting. Thank you. [applause] i promised a student i would read her email to me on the radio a couple weeks ago. Dear ms. Nathan what a surprise i was listening to npr when i heard your name then your book i almost 32 cry it is a joy to hear it was not my fault that i did not make it. Hearing this silent tears of the struggle that many of us go through to make it through college and never do. Questions . [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] i talk about performing too understated the importance but what i take on in the book is the Unhealthy Alliance the schools have made them particularly those in an urban schools so the idea of working together is critical but that it is your fault the you dont succeed is not true. Can you address Teacher Retention . I ask because you describe those to teachers and to figure how to prioritize educational issues and my experience everything in the classroom is a negotiation but if you stay with it long enough be