Academic Trust: Closing the Achievement Gap - A Guide for Teachers

Academic Trust: Closing the Achievement Gap-A Guide for Teachers addresses the science of institutional and interpersonal trust that provides a foundation for the topic of Academic Trust, a level of trust, deeper than relational trust, and specific to the teaching learning instructional processes unique to classrooms, that allows students and teachers to interact more openly in the instructional environment, thus closing the achievement gap. As teachers cultivate Academic Trust with each student, they expand their instructional impact to those students that reside in the margins.

Academic Trust is a teacher's guide to improving six instructional practices focused on behaviour teachers have control over, and three collective practices they can impact to support class and school improvement efforts, all the while building academic trust with their students. Richard Jensen describes Academic Trust as "a groundbreaking approach to examining the role of trust in the multifaceted challenges faced by educators and educational institutions." Teachers must have the trust of their students, and not just any kind of trust. Students must have academic trust in their teachers. Academic Trust provides a working definition, a conceptual framework, and a practical model of the components of Academic Trust, that expert and novice teachers will benefit from. Once the science of academic trust is established, the core of this book is the about the "how" of building teacher capacity collectively in the support of all students learning.

Tom Hierck writes, "As you work through the book, it will become clear how building academic trust is both essential to, and enhanced by, teacher influence and collective efficacy. Both these elements are in short supply in schools that struggle (driven by a lack of belief in students and colleagues) but thrive in highly functioning schools (where educators believe in each other and in their ability to guarantee learning for all). Rice brings these essential elements home in the final chapters and once again reminds the readers of the power of the team." Hierck concludes with, "The conclusion to the book is a powerful reminder that trust is visceral and fleeting. Our students make rapid decisions about the environments they will spend their school days in, and these decisions impact the learning they will achieve in that content or grade. Rice reminds us that teachers have the capacity and the control over that which matters most in the classroom - their willingness and ability to build relationships with their students that enhance academic trust. I am reminded of the powerful words of Haim Ginott who stated:

“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.”

I trust you will find this book makes a valuable contribution to your role as an educator and you’ll keep it close at hand as you build (or strengthen) your approach to cultivating academic trust and closing the achievement gap.