Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement

This is an important book. It is common sense that how trusting - or not - we feel shapes how we act, learn and teach. This volume reports on a study of 12 Chicago schools over a three-year period. The findings powerfully underscore this truth in ways that have not ever been studied in such a methodologically rigorous manner: Trust in schools promotes student achievement and effective school improvement efforts. I highly recommend this book to school and parent leaders who want to support K-12 social, emotional, ethical and academic school improvement efforts. Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D. President, Center for Social and Emotional Education Adjunct Professor in Psychology and Education Teachers College, Columbia University Adjunct Professor in Education School for Professional Studies, City University of New York

I'm ordering this book on the strength of comments made by Dr. Sally Kilgore, President and CEO of Modern Red SchoolHouse: Q. What have you read lately that has influenced you? The book in education that I have been mulling over is called Trust in Schools. It is authored by Barbara Schneider and Tony Bryk at the University of Chicago, who have been engaged in helping Chicago schools for over a decade. Their research led them to ask, "What conditions were most predictive of substantial change in student achievement?" And, as it turned out, trust relationships that exist between educators and the parents of the children served, among teachers, and then between the principal and his or her staff. What they found was that the ability to improve practices that require trust among all the relevant actors-parents, administrators, and teachers. Many schools have very troubling relations between parents and educators. Educators still, and probably understandably, say, "We're great teachers, but the students just aren't motivated." We have to confront the question: How can one be a great teacher when they fail to have impact on those with whom they are working? That is the kind of challenge that I think Trust in Schools, to some extent, addresses.