Alan is Senior Editor, lead contributor, and/or author of 18 books, including Excellence Through Equity with Pedro Noguera, and the best-selling Failure Is Not an Option®: Six Principles That Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools, which received the Book of the Year award from Learning Forward. Alan has contributed to broadcasts on NPR, PBS, ABC Radio, and written some 20 Op-Ed pieces and Articles for leading education print including Education Week, Ed Leadership The School Administrator, Executive Educator, and The Principal.
A former “high-risk” youth, Alan began his career in education as a music teacher. He worked for Phi Delta Kappa, March of Dimes, and Solution Tree, which he founded in 1987 and directed for 12 years while launching Professional Learning Communities beginning in the late 1980s. He then Formed the HOPE Foundation, while advocating for young people via district-wide reform and keynotes for virtually every major U.S. Ed Org, and throughout the UK, Africa, and the Middle East.
Alan has served on the Harvard International Principals Centers advisory board, and the Jewish Child Care Agency, where he once was a youth in residence.