Disrupting Failure : How School Leaders Enable Excellence and Equity

Disrupting Failure provides a roadmap for using critical race theory (CRT) as a framework to disrupt the acceptance of school failure for students of color.

This book challenges current attacks on CRT in education, arguing that the anti-CRT rhetoric is based on falsehoods. Using examples from a majority BIPOC low-income school that was deemed failing, the authors show how the main tenets of CRT were applied to make significant academic gains for previously racially marginalized students. Readers will see how school leaders—together with teachers, students, parents, and community members—created an inclusive community of interest that disrupted the normalization of failure for these students. The school leadership team successfully actualized social justice and educational equity resulting in tangible improvements, such as lowering the rate of special education referrals and increasing the graduation rate.

Book Features:

• Combats a taken-for-granted belief among educators that most students of color will not do exceedingly well in school.
• Examines how a leadership team centered race and racism to re-think, re-show, and re-do school leadership.
• Offers practical guidance on how teachers can re-frame their interactions with BIPOC students.
• Uses examples from a racially diverse school in the Rocky Mountain West that went from low performing to being awarded the best performing middle school in the district.