Travis Bristol
Bishop’s edited volume is a who’s who of education policy scholars. It is both timely and will prove to be timeless for our country’s next generation of education policymakers.”
–Travis J. Bristol, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley’s School of Education
Joyce Elliott
The long road to “Our Children Can’t Wait” is littered with singular fixes and flavors of the moment. This book is a destination where the full needs of students are met and honored by the contributors to this book. The wide-ranging, singular expertise of each serves to create this collection of years of thought, experience, research and commitment to ending the wait.”
–Joyce Elliott, State Senator, Arkansas, Fmr. Chair, House Education Committee, Current Vice-chair, Senate Education Committee, Former Public School Teacher
Julian Vasquez Heilig
Healthy schools are usually found in healthy communities. This book clearly lays out the case on how comprehensive policy approaches that focus on housing, health, segregation, environmental justice are the critical and missing components to addressing systemic racism and inequities in education.”
–Julian Vasquez Heilig, Dean and Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, University of Kentucky College of Education
H. Richard Milner
This book demonstrates why our children can’t wait for transformative policies during these troubling times of partisan politics designed to maintain an inequitable status quo. Grounded in the best of what we know from empirical evidence, authors in this contextually-situated and action-oriented book chart an agenda forward with fresh, insightful and bold policy recommendations that could make a powerful difference in the lives of those on the margins. A collection of essays from some of the leading thinkers in education and beyond focused on what is necessary to improve educational processes and outcomes, this book is a resource for any of us serious about the work of co-constructing and co-enacting opportunity policy and practice in the fight for social justice.”
–H. Richard Milner, author of START WHERE YOU ARE BUT DON’T STAY THERE, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Education, Vanderbilt University, President American Educational Research Association
Pedro Noguera
Our Children Can’t Wait, should serve as a wake-up call to policy makers, philanthropists, and others who support education, and who have worked to bring about its improvement. For too long, we have relied on policies that narrowly focus on raising student achievement. Meanwhile, the factors that affect the health and well-being of children have often been ignored. This book provides evidence from a variety of fields to show us why a broader, bolder and more comprehensive approach to child development and school improvement is needed. With chapters written by a collection of scholars from a variety of disciplines, this book provides the blueprint for creating new policies at the local, state and federal level, that can really make a difference for our children.”
–Pedro A. Noguera, PhD, Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California
Erin M. Simon
Bold and unapologetic, “Our Children Can’t Wait” distinctively calls attention to why our children can’t afford to wait for antiquated policies to temper the trajectory of their academic and personal well-being. In each thought-provoking chapter this book provides an unequivocal understanding of how inequitable policies have shaped our public education system, and failed our most vulnerable students in the process. The assemblage of authors offer an audacious framework for policymakers and other educational allies to dismantle inequities in public education, from a culturally inclusive and equity-centered lens. With an actionable framework that evokes the casting of new policies at all three spheres of government, any reader will discover new ways to support the social-emotional, physical and academic well-being of children.”
–Erin M. Simon, Ed.D., President, Association of California School Administrators
Angela Valenzuela
Justice in policy for the future depends on a nimble and intersectional understanding of everyday constraints and challenges faced by people of color in our country that are themselves artifacts of our nation’s vexed and fraught relationship to these communities. Kudos to Dr. Joseph Bishop for this bold and visionary anthology that calls out white supremacy while charting an imaginative, comprehensive, and solutions-based path forward.”
–Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D., Professor, College of Education, University of Texas at Austin and author of Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring
Arturo Vargas
Our Children Can’t Wait is an extraordinary compilation of thought-provoking analysis, evaluation and diagnosis of the nation’s public education system and policies, and the inequities in it that persist. The authors go an important step forward and present practical and evidence-based solutions and remedies so that our children can experience the promise of a high quality, equitable education.”
–Arturo Vargas, Executive Director, National Association of Latino Elected & Appointed Officials Educational Fund
Randi Weingarten
Our Children Can’t Wait is a timely and important compendium of strategies that will improve the lives of children across the country. With contributions from leading researchers across a variety of disciplines and expertise, each essay provides fresh, bold, evidence-based solutions to the challenges facing our nation’s public schools, which is exactly what our kids and communities need.”
–Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers