Thanks for stopping by to learn more about instructional equity and culturally responsive instruction that centers the student as the primary actor in his own education.
Have questions? Interested in on-site training for your team? Fill out the form and myself or someone from the Ready for Rigor team will be in touch soon.
Be sure to connect with me on social:
Join my professional network
Follow me @ready4rigor
I’ve authored two books to date, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain (2014) and the newly published Rebuilding Students’ Learning Power (2025) to provide practical tools and processes to help teachers build their capacity to coach students to engage in deeper learning.
It all comes down to the need to transform how educators engage underperforming students from all backgrounds to take on more rigorous learning.
I spent my first seven years as a classroom teacher. I’ve dedicated the past 20+ years to teacher education and professional development because I realized that it’s with teachers, in classrooms where real change happens at scale, not in one-off strategies.
These days a lot of folks call me “Dr. Hammond” since my books have become required reading in many teacher education programs and school districts. Well, to set the record straight, I am not a Ph.D. I do have a Master’s degree in Secondary English Education, with a concentration in writing instruction.
But, at heart, I consider myself a “boots on the ground” teacher.
I also coach instructional coaches, helping them support teachers more effectively in their professional learning communities. My approach isn’t theoretical, it’s grounded in what actually works in real classrooms with real students based on the science of learning.
My book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain has reached over 680,000 educators worldwide, and school districts across the United States, Canada, and Australia are implementing my Ready for Rigor instructional design framework to close opportunity gaps for their most vulnerable students.
I work primarily with schools and districts where leadership is ready to move beyond surface-level professional development offerings and are ready to reimagine how to use their professional learning communities (PLCs) to bring about deep, sustainable change in the classroom and develop collective efficacy among the teaching staff.
You’re here because you care about making learning more equitable—and I’m here for that too. On average, I send updates twice a month, sometimes more if there’s something timely to share from the field. I share new tools, insights, and real talk about culturally responsive teaching, equity, and building student learning capacity. Fill out the form to join our community.
