Restructuring Instruction-Chicago Public Schools. Part 1, July 20, 1993

Dr. Asa G. Hilliard, III spoke to teachers and principals in Chicago, Illinois on July 20, 1993. In this recording, part one of two, Dr. Hilliard argues that every child can succeed in school and master the college preparatory curriculum, including those in special education programs. He states that student success is predicated on whether the teachers and principals want the students to learn or not. Hilliard cites the work of teachers such as Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz of Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Jaime Escalante of Garfield High School in Los Angeles, California. In particular, he focuses on their success in teaching mathematics, including calculus, to African American and Hispanic American students in high schools and colleges where those students had long faced low expectations. Hilliard expresses skepticism over theoretical instructional approaches that have not had success in actual schools. This recording ends abruptly in the midst of a discussion of how to make “ordinary” teachers into successful teachers.