High Expectations
for All Students
Zeichner (1995) states the importance of teachers and prospective teachers having high expectations for all students:
"The first element common to effective teachers in urban schools is the belief that all students can be successful learners and the communication of this belief to students (Delpit, 1988; Lucas, Henze, & Donato, 1990; Quality Education for Minorities Project, 1990). These teachers have a personal commitment to helping all students achieve success and truly believe that they can make a difference in their students' achievement (Hodge, 1990). Winfield (1986) distinguishes between teachers who assume responsibility for their students' learning and those who shift responsibility, when students fail, to factors such as school bureaucracies, parents, and communities.
Despite evidence to the contrary, many students in teacher education institutions continue to cling to the belief that some students cannot learn, and so they hold low expectations for them (Goodlad, 1990).... Low expectations for student behavior and academic achievement often focus on poor students of color. Research clearly shows that teacher education students, who are mostly white and monolingual, tend to view diversity of student backgrounds as a problem rather than as a resource that enriches teaching and learning. Moreover, many of these future teachers have negative attitudes about racial, ethnic, and language groups other than their own (Law & Lane, 1987; Paine, 1989). Such attitudes manifest themselves in low expectations, which then get expressed in watered down and fragmented curriculum for poor students of color (Moll, 1988; Nieto, 1992; Oakes, 1985). Teachers with high expectations for all students, on the other hand, effectively translate their beliefs into more academically demanding curriculum." (pp. 39-41)
