Fostering Resilience

Expecting All Students to Use Their Minds and Hearts Well

The author defines resilient schools as being focused on the protective factors that foster resilience for its members and are the key to student achievement: caring, high expectations and purposeful support, and ongoing opportunities for meaningful participation. This second edition of Fostering Resiliency: Expecting All Students to Use Their Minds and Hearts Well describes what actual resiliency-building schools look and feel like, and shows school leaders how they can create proactive, systemic school redesign. Based on case studies of schools that are incredibly successful despite various disadvantages, this book offers stories of schools that are 'fighting for their students' hearts and souls' and illustrates how school leaders can translate ideas and goals into a plan to build a resilient learning community in their schools. This new edition features an added case study, revisits the schools that were described in the first edition, and describes how some schools stayed on track, how others veered off track and then got back on, and how still others are fighting their way back to the top. Throughout the book the author discusses common themes:ácaring about, respecting, and really knowing both students and staff; teacher empowerment; family involvement; and the use of alternative means of assessment that allow students to show what they have learned and to take pride in their accomplishments.