Harvard Education Letter

Volume 25, Number 5
September/October 2009

Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools

An Interview with Karin Chenoweth

By CHRIS RAND

In her 2007 book, “It’s Being Done”: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools, former Washington Post columnist and Education Trust senior writer Karin Chenoweth used a strict set of criteria to identify fifteen schools with challenging student demographics that were nonetheless achieving academically. In her new book, How It’s Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools, Chenoweth visits eight new schools with a significant number of low-income students and students of color and reveals just how these educators are achieving their success. She spoke with Harvard Education Letter about the successful approaches and methods that she believes must be systematized at the district, state, and national level. To read the 2007 HEL interview with Chenoweth about her first book, click here.

What does How It’s Being Done have to offer educators as a sequel to your last book, “It’s Being Done”?

“It’s Being Done” laid out the case that the work of educating all kids can be done, and that we know it can be done because it’s being done in a variety of schools. I received two types of criticism for that book. The first was that these schools are outliers and that it’s unfair to expect all schools to be operating at that level. I ignored that criticism. The second was more compelling, and that was from educators. They said, “Okay, so it can be done, but I still don’t have enough information about how.” This book is an attempt to provide educators with more specific information as to how these schools succeed.

The “How It’s Being Done” Schools

These are the eight schools featured in How It’s Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools.

P.S./M.S. 124 Osmond A. Church School
Queens, New York

Imperial High School
Imperial, California

Ware Elementary School
Fort Riley, Kansas

Lockhart Junior High School
Lockhart, Texas

Norfolk Elementary School
Norfolk, Arkansas

Wells Elementary School
Steubenville, Ohio

Roxbury Preparatory Charter School
Roxbury, Massachusetts

Graham Road Elementary School
Falls Church, Virginia

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To read the remainder of this Harvard Education Letter article, please click here.