Reaching Higher: The Power of Expectations in Schooling.

REACHING HIGHER: The Power of Expectations in Schooling. Rhona S. Weinstein. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. 345 pp. Hardback. $45.00. In Reaching Higher: The Power of Expectations in Schooling, Rhona Weinstein, professor at Yale University, draws from her more than 30 years of experience as a school psychologist and consultant to discuss the effects of self-fulfilling prophecies and teachers' low expectations, which are prevalent in many educational environments. She examines the topic through the perspective of an "ecological model" (p. 7), which investigates how individuals interact with their environments, and how they are strongly influenced by people and events. Weinstein demonstrates that teachers' low expectations, often revealed through casual remarks, can have detrimental effects on students' academic self-concepts, and these effects can last well into their adult years.

Social democracy is addressed as the author analyzes instances in which minority, poor, and second language students are frequently assigned to low tracks and receive low-skilled instruction, which restricts opportunities to learn and lowers achievement. Weinstein persuasively argues that change will not occur until there is a shift in teacher expectations, equality in the support provided for all students, and a complete systemic overhaul of our educational institutions. Her intervention model encompasses a change process for teachers and administrators, incorporating a "positive expectancy culture" (p. 206), and includes training for principals, teachers, and parents on how to encourage rich achievement cultures that advocate high expectations for all children and provide the necessary support to challenge unfavorable educational environments.

The current No Child Left Behind legislation is perpetuating a downward spiral for our most vulnerable students through its accountability measures and sanctions for underperforming schools; however, Weinstein's recommendations provide some hope. This academic text is a must for teacher preparation programs and an excellent professional development resource for school reform.

The author organizes the text in three parts: providing background in expectancy theory in Part 1; examining children's voices and looking at the effects of negative expectancy processes through an ecological perspective in Part 2; and observing individual classrooms and examining varied cultures of high expectations, from the elementary school to the university level, in Part 3.

Weinstein, Area Head of Clinical Science and the Director for the Graduate Program in Clinical Science and Psychology Clinic at Yale University, is researching school reform and programs to prevent school failure. She studies populations of children at risk for low expectations, such as the socially disadvantaged, immigrant minorities, and children with special needs. While Weinstein is well-published in education and psychology professional journals, this is her first book. Therefore, it is all the more impressive that Reaching Higher has received two awards: the Virginia and Warren Stone Prize from Harvard University Press for an Outstanding Book on Education and Society, and the award for an Exemplary Book on Research in Teaching and Teacher Education from the American Educational Research Association. Reviewed by Sylvia Kane, Reading Specialist, Las Palmas Middle School, Covina, CA