SUMMARY OF BEST PRACTICES TO ADDRESS OPPORTUNITY GAPS

1. Dealt with the presence of

race and culture:

2. Perceived teaching as
mission and
responsibility:

3. Developed critical
consciousness:

Teachers rejected color-blind, culture-blind, and diversity-blind ideologies. They saw

themselves and their students as racial and cultural beings and used that knowledge in
working with students and in teaching them.
Teachers cared deeply about their students and developed mission-minded approaches
that allowed students to reach their potential. They saw teaching as their calling and took
it personally when students did not succeed academically.
Teachers critiqued the knowledge and information available. They consciously fought
against injustice; they spoke out against inequity both inside and outside of the
classroom and empowered students to do the same.

4. Rejected deficit notions:

Teachers concentrated on the assets that the students brought into the classroom and
built on those assets in the learning contexts. They also understood their own assets as
teachers and used those as a foundation to bridge opportunity gaps in the classroom.

5. Did more with fewer

Teachers did not allow what they did not have to hinder their efforts, goals, and visions
for their students. They did whatever it took to succeed and for their students to
succeed; they never gave up, even when resources were scarce.

resources

6. Understood equity in
practice:

7. Built and sustained

relationships:

8. Understood power
structures among
students:

9. Understood the self in

relation to others:

10. Granted students entry

into teachers world:

11. Conceived of school as a

community with family:

12. Stressed the value and

importance of learning:

13. Immersed themselves in

students lifeworlds:

14. Incorporated pop culture:

Teachers understood the difference between equality and equity. They worked to meet
the needs of individual students and realized that their curriculum and instruction might
not be exactly that same among all students at all times but would depend on the
particular needs of each student.
Teachers understood that students needed to get to know them and that they needed
to get to know their students. They saw their teaching as members of a family affair and
viewed their students as their own family. In other words, they engage in other
mothering and other fathering.
Teachers understood that there were power structures among the students. They
recruited popular students to embrace the vision of learning and engagement in the
classroom in order to get other students engaged and motivated to learn.
Teachers assembled knowledge and understood points of intersection and
convergence between themselves and their students. They used this knowledge and
understanding to build and sustain relationships in the classroom.
Teachers allowed students to learn things about them and made connections to
demonstrate the commonalities that existed between students and teachers. They
shared stories with their students and allowed them to share theirs in order to build
community, collective knowledge, and points of reference.
Teachers conceived of school as a community that was established by all those in the
environment. They allowed students to have voice and perspectives in how the
community would be defined. Teachers respected and cared about those in the
community as if they were family members
Teachers explicitly conveyed the importance and value of education and learning to
students. They helped students understand and embrace the reality that one can be
smart and intelligent and, at the same time, cool and hip.
Teachers attempted to understand what it meant to live in the world of their students
through music, sports, film, and pop culture. They incorporated this knowledge and
understanding into the learning opportunities in the classroom.
Teachers understood the multiple layers of popular culture that students were
interested in outside of school. They incorporated this understanding in developing
relevant and responsive lessons for students.

Milner, H.R. (2010). Start Where You Are, But Dont Stay There. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press