All Students Must Thrive: Transforming Schools to Combat Toxic Stressors and Cultivate Critical Wellness

by Tyrone C. Howard, Patrick Camangian, Earl J. Edwards

Teachers are striking from coast to coast – not just over money or benefits, but over the lack of resources necessary to support student mental health and social emotional development. Educators are sending a clear, urgent message to local, state, and federal governments and the public: Student learning will not be maximized until student social emotional wellness is prioritized.
 
All students deserve our best – and especially those who experience racial inequity, toxic stressors, cultural invalidation, homelessness, and other trauma. Today’s students deserve teachers who care about their overall wellness as much or even more than their academic well-being and success. Yet inequities abound, and the most vulnerable students who most need resources are often the least likely to receive such support.
 
So how can we ensure that all students thrive? By building and sustaining the critical wellness approach shared in All Students Must Thrive. This book brings together three theoretical frameworks relevant for equity in schools – wellness, critical pedagogy, and critical race theory – providing a structure through which to apply the authors’ strategies and approaches. Offering a multilayered approach to supporting students and their families holistically, this book helps educators of all levels nurture the social emotional wellness that is essential for all students to thrive.

Are you ready to transform today’s schools into tomorrow’s hubs of learning? Whether you are an educator in a small rural, large urban, or midsize suburban district – whether the student population is largely socioeconomically disadvantaged, racially segregated, or a balanced mosaic from diverse backgrounds – this book will help you understand how to demonstrate to students that they do matter, that their wellness is essential, and that they can thrive in their quest to learn.
 
It will not be easy work; it will not happen overnight. But you can make a difference in these student’s lives. You can disrupt teacher apathy to catalyze change. You can challenge the status quo and reimagine the outdated educational models of the past, helping to create strategic alliances and ecosystems of support that refuse to allow students to fall through the cracks. You can transform our schools and help our students reach their full potential – especially those often overlooked and underserved.
 
So be bold. Be courageous. Be reflective and dedicate yourself to improving leadership, practice, policy and research that benefits our students. Keep fighting, protesting, praying, and working until all of our students have the education they deserve – because they are worth it.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

Published September 26, 2019

About the author

Tyrone C. Howard is a professor of education at UCLA in the Urban Schooling Division of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He is also the director of Center X, a consortium of urban school professionals working toward social justice and educational equity in transforming Los Angeles schools. In addition, he is the director and founder of the Black Male Institute at UCLA, an interdisciplinary cadre of scholars, practitioners, community members, and policymakers dedicated to improving the educational experiences and life chances of Black males. Professor Howard’s research is concerned primarily with academic achievement of youth in urban schools. His work has centered on the achievement gap facing African American and other culturally diverse students, and the importance of providing teachers the skills and knowledge to assist them in reversing persistent underachievement. Before entering higher education, Dr. Howard was a classroom teacher in the Compton Unified School District. A native of Compton, California, Dr. Howard is one of the foremost experts on race, culture, teaching, and learning in urban schools. His book Race, Culture, and the Achievement Gap is a Teachers College Press bestseller that examines the roles that race and culture play in educational outcomes. Professor Howard has been a frequent contributor on National Public Radio and is also a contributor to The New York Times Educational Issues Forum. Dr. Howard has published more than 50 peer review journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports. In 2007 he was awarded an Early Career Award by the American Educational Research Association.

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for educators deeply invested in the intersections of trauma-informed practices with equity, critical race theory, and educational liberation. I read this text for Digging Deeper: Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, a course taught by Alex Shevrin-Venet in the fall of 2020. This book was stellar, challenging educators committed to equity to stay the course and continuously challenge the status quo that further traumatizes marginalized students.

What I most appreciated about this book was it was not a discourse in the basics of the ACEs or other trauma-informed frameworks, but rather challenges educators to look at schools as sites of trauma and retraumatization, whether in our curricula, deficit mindsets (think "grit!"), disconnection with cultural knowledge, microaggressions, inequitable school policies, and more. Powerful stuff.

[Ryan Mclean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I don't agree with everything in this book, it discusses important ideas that we as a society need to be thinking about and changing. I also appreciated the theoretical foundations of the race issues in America, it was honest and principle-based instead of the more typical shame-on-white-people approach I have seen in other books. The issues of Race need to be discussed in a way that encourages dialogue and change, and this book does that well.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have lots of turned down corners in this book. It is one of the more timely, well written and thought provoking “work- related” books that I have read in a while. It is going to the front of my shelf and I will dive back into it later.

[Katie Girardot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, accessible, and full of action items for both teachers and administrators. Must read for all educators.