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Open this book to find insights, resources and strategies from 17 ground-breaking educators and community leaders around the world who share passionate first-person accounts of how to engage students and families of diverse backgrounds. This book, prepared with both a depth of understanding and sensitivity, provides a context for the future and a perspective for preparing teachers to teach our children to succeed in the 21st Century. It provides important information that will facilitate schools being more ready to successfully meet the needs of their students through understanding the richness and complexity of diverse communities. -- Mark R. Ginsberg, Dean, College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University Eileen Kugler honors her readers by giving them the space to acknowledge the strength of diversity, the power of interdependence, and the soul of relationships and connections. She presents us with the face and voices of the 21st century. It is not testing that will create equity and opportunity for all of our students: it is the belief, ability, confidence, and respect for each other that is at the heart of a democratic society, and a quality public education. Do you want to know what a good school looks like? Read this book. -- Arnold F. Fege, director of Public Engagement and Advocacy, Public Education Network As educators, we all need this practical book to help us foster and teach intercultural competence, a skill necessary for our students and their families to help them thrive and grow. -- Juli Kwikkel, Elementary Principal for Storm Lake, Iowa Thoughtful, insightful and rich with depth and detail, this book explores the nuances of diversity's power in public education. As a teacher who has taught for almost 20 years in one of the nation's most diverse schools, I quickly identified with the authentic spirit of the voices on these pages. This unique collection of first-person accounts provides a breadth of experiences that should be a must-read for any teacher, parent, principal or superintendent. -- Alan Weintraut, Annandale High School, Annandale, Virginia In a book patterned after the need for collaborative relationships to improve education, editor Eileen Gale Kugler brings together 19 creative perspectives on diversity in Innovative Voices in Education: Engaging Diverse Communities (2012). Recent demographic shifts in the United States support the need for the discussion of diversity espoused by this book. There is a greater need for all those involved with the education of these students to increase in both knowledge and understanding of how to best engage these diverse communities. The stories in this book, told by the innovators themselves, help reach Kugler's goal of "bringing innovations in diversity out into the open" (p. xvi) to inspire anyone who has a stake in the field of education, including educators, administrators, parents, and community members. This book has value and possible applications for a variety of stakeholders in the field of education. Almost all educators are in classrooms with diverse students and will find both inspiring stories from their colleagues as well as some practical resources for engaging their own students in this book. Part three may be of particular use to administrators and school district personnel in order to initiate school leadership that values diversity from the top down. Education researchers will also find many fascinating stories of innovation in this book that may provide avenues for further research and resources for further inquiry. Individual chapters in this book would even be of value to teaching programs throughout the country dealing with specific issues of diversity. However, the true value of this book lies in taking all five sections together and reading the book as a whole, to enhance the realization that engaging diverse communities involves the much-needed perspectives of all five parts. School Community Journal
