Shattering Inequities: Real-World Wisdom for School and District Leaders

In Shattering Inequities, former California school administrator Robin Avelar La Salle and co-author Ruth S. Johnson, an emeritus faculty member at Cali­fornia State University, detail how to address deeply entrenched disparities in a practical and sensitive way. Each chapter revolves around a real-life example derived from the authors' work in improving schools and districts serving high-poverty, high-minority communities. As they unravel processes and the assumptions on which they are based, the authors provide what equity leaders should say and do when they encounter obstacles. They even suggest how leaders with an equity lens should respond when they don't know what to say and do. This book is powerful because of its spec­ificity and concreteness -- attributes not always found in education leadership texts. This is real-world wisdom indeed.
Shattering Inequities is a powerful yet practical guide for educators who seek to address deeply entrenched disparities in the educational experiences of their students. Written in a style that is clear and direct, this book will serve as an invaluable asset to educators who seek to make a difference in their schools, and in the lives of the children they serve.

I believe that all educators come to their work to make a difference for the children who need us the most. Holding that desire in your heart is a necessary condition, but alone will not make a difference. It takes thoughtful, strategic and deliberate action to accomplish this. Robin and Ruth give you a roadmap with proven paths to turn your good intentions into reality for the children you serve. You simply add courage and determination. If you can only read one book this year, read this one.
Shattering Inequities is for anyone that finds educational disparities unacceptable and wants to initiate sustainable strategies to eliminate these gaps. Avelar La Salle & Johnson's honest appraisals of personal and systemic barriers, paired with their "equity hooks" offer practical guidance that will take you from wanting to see a change in your school to being the change agent that makes it happen.
Shattering Inequities is written for educational leaders with the courage and readiness to expose those systemic practices and mindsets that betray the promise of educational equality for students from historically-disenfranchised communities. The reader profits from what we've learned from academic research, combined with the authors' years of on-the-ground experience working in schools. Avelar La Salle and Johnson provide a myriad of proven strategies for imagining and instituting new practices that enable all students to achieve academic success. The text is consistently engaging, replete with brainy concepts, metaphors, and moral imperatives that simultaneously enlighten, inspire, and instruct.
At last- a solution that guarantees that kids get what they need and deserve. Should everyone embrace the strategies and courage needed to do the work recommended in the reading, we won't have to worry about educational gaps any longer.

In this book it is claimed, up front and loudly, that all students are entitled to the best education regardless of family circumstance or zip code -and all means ALL. But it takes courage, and we need to be esteeming leaders who remove the predictability of success or failures that currently correlate with any social or cultural factor. Shattering Inequitiesprovides the directions, methods, and imperative to deliver on this claim. You just need to bring the courage to deliver.