This book responds to the critical question, `What is a 'good' school?' The author believes that a `good' school is a learning community that maximizes the potential of all of its students whether they are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American. A school cannot be a `good' school when some of its students are misidentified, misassessed, miscatagorized, misplaced, and misinstructed. We cannot and should not define `good' schools only from the perspective of student performance on standardized tests. A `good' school should take a holistic approach to education: considering each student's needs academically, socially, emotionally, culturally, and globally.

This book is punctuated with case studies, observations, solutions, and key points that should be invaluable in efforts to reform, restructure, and improve schools by translating research, resources, and rhetoric into fundamentally sound, `culturally responsive' professional practice.