Closing the Attitude Gap: How to Fire Up Your Students to Strive for Success

I am a high school English teacher with 20+ years experience teaching urban minority youth. I purchased this book to give to a student teacher.

If Mr. Kafele knows how to fire up students to strive for success and close the attitude gap, he doesn't share his secrets here.

The book has little to no substance. Chapters are broken into topics consisting of one to four paragraphs. The topic sentences from the paragraphs in the section on "Showing Students That You're Committed to Them" are typical of the text and will illustrate my point: "I have been in many classrooms over the years where it was apparent that the teacher was not committed to the students--you could sense it in the lack of respect demonstrated on both sides of teacher-students interactions," (this is followed by one sentence); "A few years back, when I was working as a principal, a local television show did a story on me;" and, finally, "You, too, must demonstrate an obvious commitment to your students' overall educational growth and development." I challenge anyone to find a single practical strategy here. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut, "so it goes. . ."

I am disappointed that ASCD would publish such a superficial book on such an important subject. Dedicated teachers are working long hours with little pay to meet the needs of challenging students. The cynicism required to write and publish such an empty text has prompted me to submit the first book review I have ever written out of the hundreds of books I have purchased over the years.

I bought this book because I am an aspiring administrator and the admin team at my school site is reading it. I found very little information in this book that was new and insightful. One would get as much out of this book by reading only chapter titles and subheadings as I did by reading the whole book. It was very repetitive and left me thinking that Kafele simply did not have enough material to fill a book (and one under 150 pages), so he restated his ideas in as many slightly different ways as he could think of. Any educator who already understands that you must know and care about your students before you can facilitate their learning does not need to read this book.

Principal Kafele speaks from the front lines as a transformational educational leader. His latest book, 'Closing the Attitude Gap,' offers a powerful framework for teachers, principals, and district leaders ready to witness change, put aside excuses, and see students strive for academic excellence. Filled with reflective questions, personal stories, and helpful tips, Baruti Kafele's book can change the expectations--and the results--of the educator seeking to make a profound difference.

- Bill Sterrett, educator and author

It had some good ideas, but he was too rigid about what you absolutely have on your walls. My kids don't look at the walls aftwr I have them look at it and we discuss it. They're 7th graders

Baruti Kafele's Closing the Attitude Gap is an exceptional new book and inspiring read on what excellence in teaching looks like. Kafele is a true educator and his character, principles, and values grab hold of you on every page.

What struck me the most when reading this book was the responsibility Kafele places on TEACHERS to ensure their students succeed and reach their full potential.

He breaks down this responsibility into five "strands": 1) the teacher's ATTITUDE toward students, 2) the teacher's RELATIONSHIP with students, 3) the teacher's COMPASSION for students, 4) the ENVIRONMENT the teacher provides students to learn, and 5) RELEVANCE in instruction based on a student's culture, history, and "story."

These 5 strands are beautifully discussed, and any teacher who is feeling burned out or is not waking up every day with a purpose to make a difference in students' lives will feel called out by the principal right away.

The most powerful concept here is that the attitude gap - which Kafele defines as "the gap between those students who have the will to strive for academic excellence and those who do not" - can be closed in the hands of a good teacher.

What I appreciate most from this book is that the author thoroughly covers all the bases when discussing the profession of teaching. So many valuable insights are addressed such as developing a classroom culture, having a passion for personal growth, goal-setting, student perception, and what it means to be a professional, just to name a few.

Finally, the "Reflective Questions" at the beginning of each chapter (unlike most books where the questions are presented at the end) really get you thinking about your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher, leader, and human being. These questions not only preview the material to be presented in each chapter, they provide a standard of excellence to work toward as you strive to grow and become the best educator you can be.

-Dr. Paul Buyer, Professor of Music, Clemson University and author of Working Toward Excellence

This is a great resource to assist us to deal with students in urban centers especially the male student who often cannot navigate the systems of the school building. Many of my co workers start the day off wrong by assuming the glare, cold stare or challenging look is personally directed to them. Yet as the book points out it is especially critical for Black and Latino male students that we can navigate the attitude of ourselves and the students. When Kafele says, "I am convinced that black males must have an "attitude of excellence before actually experiencing excellence." The first chapter addresses a norm that is critical for an educator's success climate and culture which also just happen to be core to the new Teacher Evaluation tool in New Jersey. So you can bet I will be developing text dependent questions to assist my close reading understanding of the text.So in effect I can practice what I preach and model what I teach. The book is such an invaluable tool I have both the digital version and text version.

Extremely repetitive and common sense suggestions. There have to be better choices for helping close the attitude hap.

The content proved to be insightful and very helpful in my increasing my knowledge of working with students who may see the glass as always half empty.

Baruti Kafele lays a foundation for any educator working with young people, especially Black & Latino males. He provides solutions for school administrators, teachers and parents. This is a must have for every educator's book shelf!

This book is a must read for not only teachers and educators, but for our community leaders as well. It gives educators and the like the essential and necessary tools to aid our youth towards a successful future. It is our responsibility to provide and nurture this generation's ability to someday lead our world. This text does just that; it empowers, educates and exposes the things we need to do in order to foster our youth to strive and become successful. Thank you to Principal Kafele for sharing his gift and passion so that we may equip our future leaders!