America's schools are currently being impacted by several key forces. First there is the browning of our country and therefore a browning of our student body. Next, there is a persistence of an achievement gap produced by a change in student demographics all in tandem with the maintenance of stratified power (often advantaging those with racial and socioeconomic privileges). Finally, there is a movement to vilify any recognition of education as political (as is the case with critical race theory); thereby demonizing anything that challenges traditional interpretations on what knowing is, who the knower has been and what knowing is intended.

With these three forces influencing how we currently experience school, a teaching philosophy (and practice) is needed that will disrupt traditional stratifications of power and imagine teaching and learning to ensure that all students, even affluent white learners, achieve within and beyond their political context. Pragmatic Progressivism, as profiled in this book, is that philosophy (and practice). Through it, America's principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will be those experienced by every American (and not just those who have been historically privileged).