Improving the Odds

"Del Prete has written a book that describes what it means to prepare for and teach in an urban high school setting. At the same time, he masterfully weaves the contexts of policy, content area, and school culture into a compelling story that outlines what high-quality teaching should look like." - Lee Teitel, Harvard University Graduate School of Education "'School-university collaboration' is a phrase far easier to roll trippingly off one's tongue than it is to accomplish with effectiveness and integrity. In this fine volume, we read an account that rings true and can guide others hoping to pull off similar difficult collaborations." - Lee S. Shulman, President Emeritus, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching "Del Prete provides a richly detailed account of how a team of teachers grows and nurtures a collectively built body of knowledge and practice that enables them to achieve remarkable results - year after year - with students from one of the lowest income urban communities in the state. If you want to know why we need to build a collaborative learning culture in schools, read this book. If you want to know how to do it, read it again." - Tom Carroll, President, National Commission on Teaching and America's Future "Tom Del Prete presents a fascinating case study of teachers at three high schools that really get it right when it comes to engaging all students in challenging content and higher-order thinking. In the process, he makes a compelling argument for creating high school - college partnerships that lead to a 'culture of learning' that engages teachers and improves student performance dramatically." - David Conley, CEO, Educational Policy Improvement Center, Director, Center for Educational Policy Research, and Professor, University of Oregon"