Stay and Prevail: Students of Color Don't Need to Leave Their Communities to Succeed

by Nancy Gutiérrez, Roberto Padilla

A guide to disrupting harmful mindsets and practices in our schools so that students can thrive where they are. In many schools and districts, students of color living in low-income communities are told in simple and covert ways every day that they must leave their communities if they want to be successful. The message may be well-intentioned, but the leave to succeed (L2S) mindset is a dangerous narrative that affects students' sense of self. Students start to Are low-income or marginalized communities inherently "bad"? What happens to the people who don’t "make it out"? Who is worthy of success? Instead, Nancy Gutiérrez and Roberto Padilla turn the L2S mindset on its head to interrogate how school and district leaders can nurture and support students to find success in their own communities. They share real-world vignettes, reflection questions, and clear and simple tips to build an asset-based, uplifting approach that honors the backgrounds, cultures, and strengths of Black and Brown communities. You will learn how to * Recognize how the L2S mindset is pervasive in many schools.
* Encourage students to develop their unique stories of self that highlight their cultural backgrounds.
* Build schools that are innovative, offer a community-rich curriculum, and are held accountable to provide deep learning to all students.
* Rewrite the dominant narrative in your school system to become a disruptive yet positive force in education.
* Embrace the moral responsibility to be an equitable, fair, and compassionate leader to all students, no matter their socioeconomic backgrounds. No one is truly served by deficit-based narratives, and for every student to feel valued and affirmed, schools and districts must embrace the idea that any student in any school can stay in their community and prevail.

145 pages, Paperback

Published August 4, 2023

Reviews

[Kevin Parkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome book about a crucial topic I don't think is discussed very often, a mindset they call the "leave to succeed" (or L2S) mindset. It's not one I had heard named before, but once they articulated it, I do recognize it frequently. That mindset is when someone holds a deficit-based mindset of a community, when they identify one or two students from that community who they believe have potential, and when they encourage those students to leave in order to be successful. It might mean magnet schools for high schools, Ivy league colleges, or just - in general - leaving their current communities as quickly as they can. The authors successfully explain that although the people who hold L2S mindsets might think they are helping such students, everyone loses in such situations (including the students encouraged to leave AND the rest of the students who stay behind). Finally, the authors present numerous strategies for countering the L2S mindset, and it feels very practical. Plus, it's a quick, easy read. I recommend it for educators and educational leaders.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stay and Prevail was a hard read for me, not because of the writing, but because of the questions it raises and leaves hanging. While I understand and respect the authors’ sentiment about belonging, resilience, and identity, I found myself wrestling with what it means for those who leave their home countries to come to America, like my family did. The narrative’s heart is strong, but its moral center feels a bit unresolved. I appreciate its honesty and ambition, but I walked away unsure of what, exactly, we’re meant to make of migration and its consequences.