"It's Being Done": Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (Paperback)

by Karin Chenoweth (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"'It s Being Done' is a refreshingly honest and thoughtful analysis of American K-12 education. It comes at a time when so many people are asking if it is possible not to leave children behind, especially children who are poor and of color. Chenoweth s research carefully documents important examples of academic achievement among these children in a variety of challenging circumstances. She identifies the many characteristics of successful schools, including setting high expectations for students, data-driven instruction, the wise use of school time, ongoing professional development of teachers, and comprehensive leadership teams made up of principals, teachers, parents, and community members. It s Being Done will contribute significantly to the national conversation on the education of our children. Perhaps more important, it will give us reason to hope." --Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

"Can a good school enable disadvantaged children to catch up? Some say, No, we must change society first. This scrupulous and humane book shows that a good school can make a decisive difference in giving every child a chance to achieve the American Dream. Karin Chenoweth is to be warmly thanked for showing in detail how some schools and their devoted staffs have refuted the idea that demography is fate." --E. D. Hirsch, Jr., Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia

"Every American must read this book. It demonstrates unequivocally that an unyielding belief in the ability of all children regardless of background to excel at the highest levels combined with a relentless commitment to excellent instruction can radically transform public education in this nation. If every school in America adopted the lessons of It s Being Done, then the achievement gap in my view, the greatest injustice facing our nation would be relegated to the history books." --Jason Kamras, 2005 National Teacher of the Year

Product Description
This straightforward and inspiring book takes readers into schools where educators believe and prove that all children, even those considered hard-to-teach, can learn to high standards. Their teachers and principals refuse to write them off and instead show how thoughtful instruction, high expectations, stubborn commitment, and careful consideration of each child s needs can result in remarkable improvements in student achievement.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Education Press (April 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891792393
• ISBN-13: 978-1891792397
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #65,434 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Non-ideological look at successful schools for students with various disadvantages, August 27, 2007

By	Timothy J. Bartik (Kalamazoo, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book, "It's Being Done", focuses on schools that are successful AND have high percentages of students with low incomes and students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Success is judged based on both consistent high levels of test score performance, and by visits that suggest that these high test scores really do represent high levels of student skills. The bulk of the book is made up of profiles of individual schools based on test score data and Chenoweth's visits to each school and interviews with key stakeholders at the school.

The author, Karin Chenoweth, is a former education writer for the Washington Post. She doesn't seem to really have an axe to grind. Compared to other books I have read about how to reform schools, she seems more focused on describing what is going on in these schools than in distorting reality to fit some ideological point.

Many of the book's case studies of individual schools are available for free online, under "Success Stories" at http://www.achievementalliance.org/news/ . However, the book adds some updates on how the schools have done since they were visited, and the last chapter has a very useful summation of what the authors feels the lessons are from these case studies.

This final chapter of the book does an outstanding job in summarizing the commonalities among these successful schools. These successful schools differ greatly in size, the school calendar and schedule they follow, their use of technology, whether they have uniforms or not, whether they use prepackaged school reform models or not, the extent of parent and community involvement, and many other features. But they do have some commonalities, which, according to Chenoweth, include the following:

1. Focus on making sure they really implement in a high quality way an alignment of teaching and the curriculum with high quality standards.

2. Using both aggregate data and data on individual students.

3. An openess to reexamining what they're doing.

4. Produtive use of school time they have, and efforts to expand educational time.

5. A focus on ensuring teacher quality.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For anyone who cares about American education, May 13, 2007

By	Thomas E. Ricks - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a terrific look at American schools that are succeeding. It gets well beyond the usual tales of charismatic principals to actually distill the methods and approaches that are common to these thriving schools. Educators may not like everything she has to say--but parents will.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engineering solution to education reform, January 8, 2008

By	Tom Fortmann (Lexington, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book describes 15 remarkable schools where dedicated educators defy difficult demographics and close the achievement gap. All are regular district schools -- no charters, privates, magnets, or exam schools -- where students of color and poverty achieve at high levels. The concluding chapter lists practices and qualities that fuel their success. In my view, the attribute that floated to the top in virtually every chapter was strong leadership supporting quality teachers.

The last three paragraphs are priceless. She likens these schools to the Wright brothers' first aircraft and says "Once Orville and Wilbur demonstrated how to answer the challenges of drag and gravity, getting from their experimental plane in Kitty Hawk to the Boeing 747 was no longer a theoretical challenge but an engineering one. In the same way, the schools profiled here demonstrate that the job of educating kids to high levels -- even kids traditionally considered 'hard to teach' -- is theoretically possible."

This is a must-read for anyone involved or interested in education reform.