According to the Nation’s Report Card, 88 percent of African American eighth graders read below grade level, compared to 62 percent of white eighth graders. On average, African American and Hispanic twelfth-grade students read at approximately the same level as white eighth graders. Clearly our schools are not meeting the needs of diverse students, who now comprise over 40 percent of the U.S. school population. To help teachers better serve students of color, we at Teaching Tolerance are excited to announce the launch of a new set of professional development tools, the Teaching Diverse Students Initiative, or TDSi, as we call it.
These research-based tools can also help principals, teacher educators, school improvement teams and anyone or any group with an interest in improving the instruction and educational outcomes for all students.
We know teachers are the experts on what really yields results in the classroom, so we worked with a number of experienced educators, as well as education scholars, to develop TDSi. Let us know what you think—more importantly, discuss your ideas with other educators on our website. We would love to hear what’s going on in your classroom and what techniques work for your students.
Please visit the professional development area of our newly remodeled website for more information on TDSi.
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