William H. Parrett has received international recognition for his work in school improvement related to children and adolescents who live in poverty. He has coauthored nine books; three recent books are bestsellers. The award-winning and best-selling first edition of this book, written with Kathleen Budge, guides lasting improvement and student success in high-poverty schools. He and Budge also cowrote Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices. As director of the Boise State University Center for School Improvement and Policy Studies (since 1996), Parrett coordinates funded projects and school improvement initiatives that exceed $5 million a year. His speaking engagements and work spans 44 states and 10 nations. Throughout his career, Parrett has worked to improve the educational achievement of all children and youth, particularly those less advantaged. These efforts have positively affected the lives of thousands of young people, many of whom live in poverty.

Kathleen M. Budge has 26 years of experience as a teacher and administrator plus 10 years dedicated to bridging the gap between the university and the teaching profession. She is an associate professor of Educational Leadership and chair of the Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Department at Boise State University, where her research focuses on poverty, rural education, school improvement, and leadership development. Budge is the coauthor of the award-winning and best-selling first edition of this book and Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices, and the video series, Disrupting Poverty in Elementary and Secondary Classrooms. Her speaking engagements include international and national conferences, webinars, podcasts, and symposiums on topic of poverty and the whole child. She earned her doctorate from the University of Washington in 2005. Budge continues to maintain that her most important and significant work has been teaching first graders to read.

Books by William H. Parrett