Ready to start your education journey?
Contact us today to create your personalized professional development plan and bring your teaching to the next level.
Greg Wolcott
The ASCEND Approach
The New Science of Student Behavior, Motivation, and Engagement
You are not failing. Your students are not broken. The model is incomplete.
Most behavior books begin after a student acts. The ASCEND Approach begins earlier. It starts with what the student's brain predicted, what the environment communicated, which needs were supported or thwarted, and what repeated experience has taught that student to expect.
Behavior is not a problem to eliminate. It is a signal of a need that needs to be met. When educators learn to read that signal, everything changes.
Teachers have never worked harder at behavior. More plans, more programs, more consequences, more rewards. And still the same students struggle, the same patterns return, and the same question hangs in the air: what are we missing?
Drawing on neuroscience, motivation science, and more than twenty-five years in schools, Greg Wolcott answers that question. ASCEND is a coherent map built on six lenses for seeing behavior clearly. Each one names the pitfall that quietly pushes students away, the moment it happens, and the pathways that draw them back. You will recognize your own classroom on every page.
In these pages you will learn to build clarity before confusion becomes refusal, recognize strengths hidden inside difficult behavior, protect belonging and safety, and help students find their way back after hard moments. Every chapter moves from story to science to Monday morning practice, with tools you can use the day you read them.
For teachers, ASCEND replaces the question that keeps you up at night, what am I doing wrong, with one you can actually answer: what does this student's brain expect, and how do I change it? For leaders, it offers a shared language an entire building can climb with, one classroom at a time.
ASCEND never asks you to choose between the child and the rule, connection and consequences, compassion and accountability.
It teaches you to choose both.
About the Author
Greg J. Wolcott is an educator, author, consultant, and speaker with more than 25 years of experience helping schools create cultures where students and educators thrive. As Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning in Woodridge School District 68 (Illinois) and founder of Drive Learning, Greg partners with schools across North America to transform research into practical, high-impact strategies that strengthen relationships, engagement, and learning.
Drawing on research in education, social psychology, positive psychology, and neuroscience, Greg is known for delivering actionable ideas that educators can implement immediately. He has presented at conferences, led professional learning for school systems throughout the United States and Canada, and taught graduate and doctoral courses as an adjunct professor at Concordia University Chicago.
Greg is the author of Significant 72: Unleashing the Power of Relationships in Today's Schools, a book that challenges educators to intentionally build meaningful connections with every student. Whether writing, speaking, or coaching school leaders, his mission remains the same: to help educators create schools where every student feels seen, valued, and inspired to succeed.