Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today’s Classrooms

by H. Richard Milner IV, Gloria Ladson-Billings

2012 Outstanding Book Award, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)
2010 Critics' Choice Book Award, American Educational Studies Association (AESA)

Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There addresses a crucial issue in teacher training and professional the need to prepare pre-service and in-service teachers for the racially diverse student populations in their classrooms. A down-to-earth book, it aims to help practitioners develop insights and skills for successfully educating diverse student bodies.
 

The book centers on case studies that exemplify the challenges, pitfalls, and opportunities facing teachers in diverse classrooms. These case studies—of white and African American teachers working (and preparing to work) in urban and suburban settings—are presented amid more general discussions about race and teaching in contemporary schools. Informing these discussions and the cases themselves is their persistent attention to opportunity gaps that need to be fully grasped by teachers who aim to understand and promote the success of students of greatly varying backgrounds.

Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There arises out of recent scholarship about race and education, but it is more directly inspired by the pressing need for useful and credible guidance for professional educators in diverse classrooms. It will prove indispensable to teachers, administrators, and scholars alike.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching, Race, Read For School, Grad School

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

Reviews

[Baelor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give this book 2.5 stars if I could.


My department (high school language department) chose to read this book over the summer, in part to help us become better teachers to the increasingly diverse student body at our school.

Milner focuses on race-related diversity in this book; the concepts certainly apply to other dimensions of diversity as well. He presents an overview of the needs of diverse classrooms and strategies that teachers can employ to better teach and support their students. The book is bipartite, divided into theoretical (the first chapter and conclusion) and case study (everything in-between) components. The theoretical sections are good; I found the case study chapters poorly organized and too vague to be useful.

Milner tends to avoid jargon, a welcome decision given how easily educational matters can be highjacked by ideological movements with abstruse terminology. Words like "privilege" and "lifeworlds" appear, but context is generally sufficient to specify a definition if one is not already familiar with these words. The prose is, however, irritating. Milner loves triplets. Students cannot merely grow, they must grow, develop, and mature. Teachers plan, prepare, and implement. And so forth. He adds longer lists for variety's sake. I cannot tell whether those are better or worse. Let me illustrate: "...they should be allowed to create, construct, recreate, and reconstruct their identities as they grow, mature, and develop in knowledge, ability, and skill" (127). Now imagine reading, processing, and cogitating upon such sentences for two hundred pages. While the book was never difficult to understand, the needlessly onerous prose was a challenge to slog through. Surely any one of "grow," "mature," and "develop" is sufficient? The distinctions, if they exist, are not self-evident, nor are they explained, and therefore they may as well not exist.

Furthermore, the case study sections are often very repetitive. Mr. Hall wanted his students to learn. He realized that developing relationships with them could help them learn. Therefore, because he wanted his students to learn, he developed relationships with them, thereby enabling them to learn better. etc. This made the book feel too long, even at 208 pages.

The substance of the book is good. Milner lays out his theoretical framework, which is solid, and addresses some concerns that are still present in education -- why bother teaching with diversity in mind? Should all classes be taught in the same way? What mindsets and practices, though well-intentioned, can actually harm students? I was quite impressed with his suggestions, which are thorough and concrete.

The case studies are not as good, and so cursorily presented that I do not even consider them part of the book's substance. There are occasional glimpses of meaty issues: a teacher's classes being taken away because she dared to address race, a teacher incorporating contemporary music and interactive activities into his science classroom, for example. Far more often, however, we are treated to vague statements of teachers appreciating their past, connecting with students, and valuing students as individuals. What does "multiple opportunities to succeed" mean? Many attempts on homework? Many test re-dos? Many assignments? Do students who consistently produce high-quality work on their first attempts resent students being given multiple opportunities to receive the same score? etc. Two case studies involved racial tensions between students and teachers, but the students' opinions and thought processes are not described, so the incidents lose all impact and generalizable significance. More detail would have been better. As the books stands now, the case studies are almost useless. Milner should have just woven specific episodes into his theoretical discussion; there is not enough material or specificity in his case study chapters to merit 130 pages of them.

Overall, a book worth recommending for the theory/practical implementation. Read the first chapter and skip straight to the epilogue. The case studies are not worth the time investment. If Milner releases a future edition in which the case studies are more detailed and organized, then they may be worth reading.

[Carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting set of case studies that I look forward to revisiting multiple times as I continue my work towards becoming an effective teacher.

[Mary Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My principal gave all of us teachers a copy of this book and we read it over spring break. The overall goal of the book seemed to be to change the attitudes of teachers so that they will be more effective with their diverse students. The most valuable part of the book for me was the first chapter, which summarized some mistaken attitudes that teachers often hold and why they’re wrong. Teachers who claim to be color-blind, who believe in the meritocracy myth that says that the poor deserve poverty, who have low expectations for disadvantaged students, are unable to teach effectively because of their own attitudes. Changing these subtly (and not-so-subtly) racist and classist attitudes is the necessary first step, without which all of the other work is useless.

I planned two new lessons based on the information from this book, because I thought this attitude-changing isn’t only good for teachers, but for students as well, especially since mine are old enough to begin to grasp the complexity of these issues. They need to learn to make sense of their world for themselves, and I hope these readings and our discussions of them will help them do that. To deal with the issue of meritocracy, I’m resurrecting a chapter from Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and excerpting a new chapter from Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. I think it’s important for students to know that though the world will say it is their fault or their parents’ fault that they have not had some advantages, it’s not true, and I hope that this takes away some of the guilt and shame that come with poverty. If they can see the bigger picture and realize that their success or failure in life is dependent on things far outside their control, they can be freed from the stigma of struggling financially. I also have a new lesson on poetry about America, poems that try to make a statement and define America, that includes a rap song (in addition to Whitman and Emma Lazarus’s sonnet). This one is an effort to include the things that the students are interested in–hip hop is explicitly mentioned in the book as a potential learning tool–and to show that the stuff that we read for school is sometimes not all that different. I really wanted some perfect short reading that would illustrate the “culture of power” that Milner talks about here (quoting Delpit), but couldn’t think of or find one in time for the start of our new term (I’d love suggestions!).

My only complaint about this book is that it was kind of vague about what exactly the profiled teachers did to create good relationships with students and engage them in classwork. The advice is pretty generalized and consistent with established best practices. The book seemed to spend a lot of time describing the teachers’ personailities, identities and attitudes, and how these attributes made them successful, but I would have preferred a focus on actions that lead to success, since we have more control over our actions. It’s so hard to read books like this when I have specific problems in mind and of course there’s no immediate answer. It’s like the book is a magic 8 ball or something. I’m always looking for specific things that I could try to do tomorrow; maybe that’s not a fair expectation because there is no magic key. Still, it’s somewhat frustrating to read about perfect Mr. Hall, who “treats his students as individuals” in discipline matters, because how does that create the consistency that every other education text has told me is so necessary? What happens when students protest this inconsistency? He gives his students multiple opportunities for success, and that makes me wonder what he does when grades are due and several students still haven’t succeeded yet. I would love to see how that works in his gradebook: that’s how specific I want to get in these books. I want to go beyond the generalized theory and see how it works when you translate it to real life. The picture painted is so rosy that I want to push a little and find out what really makes these model classrooms tick. These expectations and frustrations of mine are not fair, I know. I’m wishing for the moon. The important thing is that the book is useful for the perspective it encourages teachers to take and its focus on social justice in education.

For more of my reviews, see www.mereader.wordpress.com

[Skylar · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Start Where You Are, Dr. Milner distills an enormous amount of wisdom that I wish I could have encountered early in my own teaching career. It’s hard to say whether “past me” would have absorbed all of the great work in this text in the same way, but “present me” has enough experience in different schools and classrooms to recognize how much truth there is in this text, and to recognize different versions of myself in the teachers discussed within.

I’m also at a place where I can appreciate how genuinely useful a text like this is for guidance–it’s practical, certainly, and it provides concrete examples and suggestions throughout, but for me its greatest strength is its guiding principles: If you’re going to make meaningful changes to your teaching practices, you need to start by getting some of your beliefs and attitudes in order. Perspective is everything, and it’s hard to provide better, more vital instruction to your students if you’re weighted down by myths about “colorblindness” or meritocracy, or if you’re starting out with lowered expectations for students because you think they might not be up to the challenge of the work.

In particular, I find that I continue to think about Milner’s focus on the need to counter context-neutral mindsets and practices. There are so many pressures in education to treat all students and all classrooms as though they are interchangeable (in research, in curriculum, in assessment, etc.), and the way Milner identifies this perspective, highlights its negative impact, and pushes people to challenge it strikes me as especially important.

I feel like that push against context-neutrality is also a great next step for me to work on, personally. Opportunity-centered teaching, Milner writes, “insists that educators build tools to study and learn about a place (inside and outside of a school),” both to understand how the community context shapes what happens in the school building and to draw on the insight, perspectives, and experience of the community to which students belong.

Wherever you are on your journey, this book holds something for you. As others have noted, Milner’s writing is engaging and vital and at the same time deeply kind. You read it, and you feel encouraged–not in a hokey-hope kind of way, but in a way that says exactly what the title says: you can start right now, wherever you’re at, and you can grow.

[Ben Zimmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some useful information, but honestly I have seen most of it presented in more interesting and helpful ways elsewhere. I guess that my biggest frustration here is that the book felt kind of shallow. I would be interested in a book that spends more time explaining the benefits of diversity focused education. As it stands, Milner lays out some mindsets that get in the way, but doesn't spend much energy debunking them.

The other focus of the book was on implementing diversity focused educational practices, but again I wanted more detail. The book is driven by case studies, but never gets specific enough about exactly what the teachers are doing, what issues they are dealing with, or what their thought process was. I would have liked to see teachers' lesson plans or longer quotes from them explaining their experiences. One of the main benefits of anecdotal data is that it's memorable. It creates a story in the reader's mind. Despite him mentioning at the end of the book that he was setting out to do this, I don't think Milner succeeded.

If this book had more detail and did more to engage the reader I would really like it. I agree with the underlying philosophy, but I personally found the case study structure to be shallow. The most useful part of this book to me was in chapter 1 when the book talks about harmful mindsets that teachers often have. I suppose this is a useful as a broad overview, but I personally found the book's lack of focus kind of irritating.

[Lama Alharbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Milner's book is an excellent resource for educators, particularly in teacher education programs. It supports teachers by addressing issues of diversity and cultural conflicts in educational settings. The book has six chapters that first introduce the "Opportunity Gap Framework," which has essential principles: rejecting colorblindness ideologies, willingness to work with cultural differences, recognizing the myth of meritocracy, rejecting deficit mindsets, and context neutral sets. Through sharing teachers' narratives in three chapters, Milner showcases the ways in which teachers from different cultural backgrounds create a space for their students to learn and grow in complex and challenging circumstances. In the last chapters, Milner discusses "Opportunity-Centered Teaching." OCT, as Milner denotes, is about building communities and relationships that disrupt opportunity gaps and inequalities.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5. A useful resource for culturally responsive pedagogy and restorative justice principles. It was really nice how the author broke the book up by differentiating instruction for white and POC teachers. There wasn't a ton of new information in this book for me, but there were really great practical suggestions to put the theoretical approaches in motion.

[Michele Caracappa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first chapter alone earns this book a five star rating! The case studies that follow are not necessarily as strong, though they do serve to illustrate Milner's key points.

[Shameka]

Definitely read this book.

[Carlotta Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

this taught me more than my education class could even conceive of.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75- informative but not the best. text for my grad class

[Maddie Gehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a class, enjoyed the applicable stories.

[Amy Snyder · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a friend who is a principal in my district. She indicated that the book was a favorite of the superintendent. While I did find this book to be useful at times, at others it felt a bit forced and at times more race focused than I felt it needed to be. Many of the issues that the book dealt with in regards to closing the achievement gap are district is already trying to address. We have high quality teachers, a challenging curriculum, and a variety of opportunities for students. There were things in the book that I felt were very thought provoking, such as holding white teachers language hostage in fear of offending some students. I try to be as open and honest with my students as possible, and sometimes language can be an issue. There is too much government and administrative control in teachers classrooms which prevents them from having open, honest, and important conversations with their students about issues of race, gender, social class, etc. What also spoke to me was having high expectations for all students. This is what I expect in my classroom, but too often we as a school, and as a district overall, do not expect of our students. We don't expect them to come to class on time, to complete assignments, and to LEARN. All we expect is for them to show up and we push them through. This tells the students indirectly that we have no expectations of them and that we assume they CAN'T succeed, so we don't make them try. Students model the expectations we have for them, and if we hold them to high standards, most will achieve them. The book addressed what I try to tell my students all the time, school is about learning to LEARN and learning how to be a problem solver - skills they will need for the rest of their lives. It is not about algebra or global history, but about how they attain knowledge and learn to solve problems - things we too often sweep under the rug when we worry more about graduation rates than we do about learning. I liked how the author addressed bringing pop culture into the classroom, and validating the things that students enjoy. Video games and music are so much a part of our culture that we need to find ways to bring these elements into our teaching in order to engage students in the classroom.

[Amanda Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important book. I admit I went into it thinking it had a very narrow scope (it is mostly about diversity as where African American students are concerned, with scant and bare passing mentions to Asians, ELLs, and some rural, poor White students) and felt like this book had so much to say, but not enough space to say it in. It was frustrating. I actually had the pleasure of sitting at a talk from Dr. Milner and I have to say, while the talk itself was great an expanded on issues of gender and socioeconomic status - and really was better than the book, in my opinion - it was in the discussions after the talk with my peers I realized why this book is so important, and why so many people miss the point. Many people simply assume that they understand the issues presented forth; they think they do not have time for it, or that they already understand those issues (who, after all, is a "racist" in today's society, they ask), or that the system just isn't properly understood. Hearing people really not think any of the issues affecting our most diverse learners were worth their time or concern really opened my eyes to just how easy it is to overlook these challenges, in and out of the classroom. I certainly have a newfound appreciation for this book and the issues within, and consider it a worthy read. (And definitely see Dr. Milner in person, if ever the chance should come.)

[Lorraine Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was assigned to me for my final internship before receiving my teacher certification. I chose to read it ahead of time so that I could focus more on our discussions rather than being bogged down with the assignments. I enjoyed this book and I appreciate that Milner presents more extensive narratives to his reader rather than just the brief glimpses that we normally get in our research based articles. I feel that I got to see a wide variety of tried and true techniques that I could implement in my future classrooms. My only criticisms are that I would've like to hear more about the experiences of the preservice teachers that he observed and I wished that he had been able to share the teacher/teacher candidate experiences of more ethnicities.

[Daniela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love his concept of opportunity gaps. I wasn't so convinced by all of the case studies, but the book had some good ideas about the importance of talking about race in the classroom and promoting diversity in schools.

[Sofie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really did enjoy this book. I thought it raised really important and interesting perspectives about the impact of race in classrooms. I felt like the book was a little repetitive, but overall really enjoyed it.

[Adrienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is used for research purposes only for an article I am working on "educating the black male". It also gives me insight on tactics as a former educator/mentor/tutor.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Milner's book is a decent case study of secondary school (high school) educators experiencing race issues for the first time. What is remarkable to me is how there is little examination about how teachers can better their practice once these simple solutions (treat students kindly without bias) are utilized. This is really a starting place great for those who have no experience with racial tensions in the classroom (or working with multiple races in general), OR for administrators working with teachers in those conditions.