In 2004, Karin Chenoweth, a longtime education writer and former Washington Post columnist, took on a challenging assignment: find and write about neighborhood public schools that “demonstrate that all children can learn.” Working with the Achievement Alliance and using a strict set of criteria, Chenoweth identified 15 schools and spent two years writing about them for a book, “It’s Being Done”: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools, published this month by Harvard Education Press. She spoke with the Harvard Education Letter
about what she found in these schools, what they have in common, and why they are succeeding.
Describe an “It’s Being Done” school.
It’s a high-achieving or rapidly improving school that has a substantial number of children of color or children of poverty, or both. In most cases, more than 90 percent of these students are scoring proficient or above on state tests, sometimes less if they are in states with higher standards. The schools profiled in the book include a mix of big and small, urban and suburban, and racially isolated and integrated schools. The criteria I used are so stringent that it is safe to say that schools that meet all requirements are rare (see sidebar “‘It’s Being Done’ School Criteria”).
What was it like to do all these school visits?
It was great. As a reporter, I’ve been in many schools, and for the most part they give me a headache. Schools can be so boring. I’ve been in schools that do things like make kids practice sitting for assemblies. Nobody practices how to sit in these schools. Kids were learning things all the time. These are really exciting places where people are very excited about what they do. They really renewed my faith in public education.
What distinguishes the schools in your book from run-of-the-mill schools or from “crummy poor-kid schools,” as you call them?
Their relentless focus on instruction. That’s what they talk about: What they need to teach and how to teach it. That’s the main conversation in the schools. In crummy poor-kid schools, the conversation is dominated by “If we had better kids we would have a better school.” I’ve heard versions of that I don’t know how many times. Run-of-the-mill schools just teach to the high-achieving kids. That’s the standard way schools are run. The rest of the students they just give assignments to, a lot of worksheets and such. Those schools may have some good teachers, but you can’t count on the school to pick up on weak teaching.
What other important things do these high-achieving schools have in common?
For the most part, the principals distribute leadership very consciously, very deliberately. Teachers make very important decisions about finances, such as how to use Title I money; about operations, such as opening and dismissal; and about curriculum and lesson plans. The principals really make the teachers part of running the school.
They also set up the school so teachers are successful. These schools are not easy places to be successful. When 90 percent of your students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, they come with additional problems that many teachers feel very deeply about. So every aspect of the school day and school practice comes under scrutiny to ensure that there is no wasted time or effort.
The principals in rapidly improving schools are very smart. They celebrate every success and find everything they can to celebrate. They’ll say, “We may not have gotten there this year, but look at this. We improved on this measure, and we’re really going to improve next year on this other measure.” Teachers feel supported.
Teachers
want to work hard for these principals because they know they have their back. I’ve been in schools where if a teacher admits they’re having trouble, the principal will say, “Well, if you’re having trouble with that, that will be reflected in your evaluation.” That would never happen in these schools. The principal would say something like, “You know who’s really good at that? So-and-so. We’ll get you in that classroom so you can observe.”
Test scores were a big part of your criteria for choosing these schools, but you say they are not “drill-and-kill” schools. What role does test prep play in these schools?
It varies a little bit. They all make sure that the kids are not surprised by the test format. They do what some of them call “test sophistication”—“This is how a multiple-choice test is set up, how the answers are formulated.” Some of them give practice tests, but they are all very conscious about not overdoing it.
Attitude also plays a big role in these profiles. Why?
If you think that nothing you do can make a difference for poor students or students of color, it saps your energy to do anything. Teachers have been told for years that there is nothing you can do to change demographic realities. Convincing teachers that they
can have an effect, that they are important levers in children’s learning—that’s key to changing the way schools operate. If you can do something, that’s an encouragement to try. If you can’t, then you might as well worry about how long your lunch break is. There are really some teachers who cannot be convinced that they can or should try to teach poor children and children of color. They should not be in school.
Many of the schools in your book are led by wise, even charismatic, principals—to the point where you worried about what would happen to their schools when they retired. Isn’t this a big problem in education reform?
I think a weak principal corps is a big problem. There’s not enough good training on how to be a good principal. These principals in “It’s Being Done” schools are very aware of the problems involved in replacing themselves, and it’s one of the reasons they are very careful to distribute leadership in the school. They’ve spent a lot of time helping their teachers become as skilled as possible, so they know how to read data, for instance. It’s not just the principal who understands how to do it. Some are very adamant that the teachers fill in the student data sheets themselves for this reason.
At bottom, a school has to have a good principal, but it doesn’t necessarily have to have a brilliant principal. A good school leader sets the goals and helps the staff understand and meet the goals. That takes skill and knowledge, not necessarily charisma.
