ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that the antidote to the pedagogy of poverty plaguing the schooling of poor students is a rich, engaging, high-expectation curriculum of the kind commonly found in high-achieving schools and classrooms. It reviews salient literature regarding how low-level, basic skills curricula limit poor students' affordances for learning. The chapter describes three areas of focus for educational leaders who are committed to creating and extending inclusive learning environments for students in poverty and other children plagued by deficit thinking: eliminating tracking and homogenous ability grouping, creating culturally relevant instruction, and enacting high-expectation curriculum. Based on interviews with the Lexington teachers and work on evidenced-based discussions in other high-poverty schools, authors have come to believe that one of the most significant effects of high-expectation curriculum like Shared Inquiry is that it often transforms teachers' perceptions of their students.