"In this important new book Raquel Rios demonstrates what teachers can do to further equity in the educational experiences of their students. Her ideas are practical and her analysis of the possibilities is insightful and thought provoking. For teachers who seek to make a difference this book will be a source of hope and inspiration."
Pedro A. Noguera, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Education, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
"With the forces promoting corporate school reform projecting outsized power through their big megaphones, Raquel Rios performs an essential challenge, reminding us that education is a universally recognized human right and, at its best, an enterprise geared toward enlightenment, liberation, and the full development of the human personalitymind and heart, body and spirit. Drawing on a lifetime of experience, Rios urges us to expand our critical capacities as we fight for equity, justice, and an education worthy of free people."
William Ayers is a former Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago
"No matter what we teach or who we teach, we will find great value in the art, the spirit, the healing nature of Teacher Agency for Equity. The practicality of Rios’ work about establishing equity and justice in schools and the community is equally admirable and useful for teachers and teachers of teachers. Rios’ insightful questions at the end of each chapter challenge the reader to internalize the abstract concepts and stories within the book and particularize those into engagement with students, parents, schools and communities. But more important is Rios’ deep understanding that the wisdom in every community and classroom comes from the experiences and the genius of those at the bottom, not the gurus at the top. This consciousness, developed from her own diverse experiences, is congruent with the core beliefs of the long struggle of humans to be free. Her words and beliefs channel those of Civil Rights icons like Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Vincent Harding, and Bob Moses."
Joan T. Wynne, Ph.D./writer/educator, Miami Algebra Project Council