Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2022 -

In Am I My Brother's Keeper? Villavicencio (Univ. of California, Irvine) discusses the successes and shortcomings of the Expanded Success Initiative (ESI). A predecessor to President Obama's My Brother's Keeper program, ESI was designed to improve graduation rates and post-secondary outcomes for Black and Latinx boys in the New York City school district. Part 1 of the book focuses on the implementation of ESI, while part 2 analyzes how it addressed systemic inequalities. What sets Villavicencio's remarkable book apart from others is how it provides recommendations for practice that are informed by both the achievements and the failures of ESI. In addition, the practical strategies offered in each chapter compel readers to reflect critically on how to address the disparities faced by students of color. Although this book is a must read for educators and school administrators, any college student or researcher interested in a refreshing perspective on the issue of inequities in the American educational system would appreciate and benefit from reading this work. Given the current social climate, Villavicencio's timely volume is a much-needed source of hope.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

Radical Care invites educators to consider what caring for students means, particularly Black and Latinx students, and to think about care in the context of what Rivera-McCutchen (Lehman College; the Graduate Center, CUNY) calls "radical care." The author outlines five elements of radical care: "adopting an antiracist stance, cultivating authentic relationships, believing students' and teachers' capacity for excellence, leveraging power strategically, and embracing a spirit of radical hope." Her experience in New York City public schools informs this kind of care, and she uses personal examples throughout the book to demonstrate its effectiveness. She also encourages educators to think about how they can implement this style in their own teaching and leadership. This book will be particularly helpful to principals who can lead this charge and empower teachers and staff in practicing radical care. Similarly, new teachers can use this book to alter their perceptions of what being a teacher means in the 21st-century urban environment. All will find this framework can give them the ability to challenge existing structures of inequality. A must-read for all teachers and educators in K-12 education.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

Whiteness Interrupted tackles the complex subject of racial identity among white educators and makes it understandable for many Americans. Bell (sociology, SUNY Cortland) takes readers on a journey through the minds and lives of white teachers employed in a majority-Black school district in upstate New York. Through a series of in-depth interviews with dozens of white teachers, Bell examines how whiteness is constructed and reckoned with when individuals have spent their lives claiming to be "color-blind" and reject the idea of white privilege. The interviews are carefully interwoven throughout the text to introduce and support themes related to white racelessness, which helps make the topic intriguing and relatable. Bell uses the interviews to uncover the teachers' limited understandings of white racial identity and how they conceptualize themselves as white victims in Black spaces. The author diligently explores many contradictions in the interviewees' statements and draws deeper meanings that can be applied beyond the walls of a school. The book concludes with a call to further explore and examine non-white racialized spaces. This is definitely a must-read for all, particularly as the US becomes a majority-minority society.Summing Up: Essential. All levels.