Safe Is Not Enough: Better Schools for LGBTQ Students (Youth Development and Education) - Softcover

Michael Sadowski teaches about youth development and education at Bard College and is director of the Bard Early College–Hudson Initiative, a program to offer Bard courses to high school students in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is the author of In a Queer Voice: Journeys of Resilience from Adolescence to Adulthood (Temple University Press, 2013) and Portraits of Promise: Voices of Successful Immigrant Students (Harvard Education Press, 2013). He also is the editor of the Harvard Education Press book series on youth development and education; Adolescents at School: Perspectives on Youth, Identity, and Education, now in its second edition with Harvard Education Press; and Teaching Immigrant and Second-Language Students: Strategies for Success (Harvard Education Press, 2004). He has written numerous articles and book chapters for publications such as Educational Leadership, Issues in Teacher Education, and the Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development, and he has contributed op-ed pieces to the LGBTQ news magazine the Advocate. In addition, Michael was editor of the Harvard Education Letter, for which he won the National Press Club Award for analytical newsletter journalism; served as a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; was vice-chair of the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth; and taught high school and middle school English and theatre at public schools in New York and Massachusetts.

In Safe Is Not Enough, Michael Sadowski highlights how educators can make their schools more supportive of LGBTQ students’ positive development and academic success. Using examples from classrooms, schools, and districts across the country, he identifies emerging practices such as creating an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum; fostering a whole-school climate that is supportive of LGBTQ students; and initiating effective community outreach programs.
 
“This compelling volume showcases exemplary people and programs to inspire the next wave of school reform on behalf of sexual minority and transgender students. It proves that LGBTQ curricular inclusion and student affirmation is transformative, regardless of district demographics or culture.”
—Arthur Lipkin, author, Beyond Diversity Day: A Q&A on Gay and Lesbian Issues in Schools
 
“Michael Sadowski provides an exhilarating vision of the future we have long sought: schools that embrace and affirm LGBTQ youth and celebrate diversity. Our movement has led the nation in improving how LGBTQ students are treated, and this book provides a thrilling overview of the transformation underway in great schools nationally.”
—Eliza Byard, executive director, GLSEN
 
“Academic success is only possible when students know that they are safe, welcomed, and valued in the classroom and the school, and when LGBTQ identities are honored and included in the school curriculum. Safe Is Not Enough gives educational leaders meaningful strategies for transforming the organizational- and classroom-level response to supporting LGBTQ students.”
—Christopher McGinley, professor of educational leadership, Temple University, and former superintendent of Lower Merion School District, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
 
Michael Sadowski is a faculty member in education at Bard College and is the director of the Bard Early College-Hudson Initiative. Kevin Jennings is the executive director of the Arcus Foundation.