Failure Is Not an Option: 6 Principles That Advance Student Achievement in Highly Effective Schools

Award-winning author and visionary educational leader Alan M. Blankstein is founder and president of the HOPE Foundation, a not-for-profit organization whose honorary chair is Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A former "high-risk" youth, Alan began his career in education as a music teacher. He has worked in youth-serving organizations since 1983, including the March of Dimes, Phi Delta Kappa, and the National Educational Service (now Solution Tree), which he founded in 1987 and directed for 12 years. He has created award-winning publications and video staff development programs. He is the author of the best-selling book Failure Is Not an Option®: Six Principles That Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools, which received the 2005 Book of the Year award from Learning Forward (formerly NSDC), and has been nominated for three other national and international awards.In addition to authorship of this award-winning book, Blankstein is Publisher of three Failure Is Not an Option®video series and Senior Editor along with Paul Houston of the thirteen-volume The Soul of Educational Leadershipseries. Blankstein also co-authored the Reaching Today′s Youthcurriculum and has published articles in Educational Leadership, The School Administrator, Executive Educator, High School Magazine, Reaching Today′s Youth, and Inside the Workshop. He has also provided keynote presentations and workshops for virtually every major educational organization. Blankstein is on the Harvard International Principals Centers advisory board, served as Board member for Federation of Families for Children′s Mental Health, is former Co-Chair of Indiana University′s Neal Marshall Black Culture Center′s Community Network and advisor to the Faculty and Staff for Student Excellence (FASE) mentoring program. He also served as advisory board member for the Forum on Race, Equity, and Human Understanding with the Monroe County Schools in Indiana, and on the Board of Trustees for the Jewish Child Care Agency (JCCA), in which he was once a youth in residence.