The Hardest Questions Aren't on the Test: Lessons from an Innovative Urban School [Hardcover]

Linda Nathan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 1, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0807032743 | ISBN-13: 978-0807032749 | Edition: First Edition

The Boston Arts Academy comprises an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse student body, yet 94 percent of its graduates are accepted to college. Compare this with the average urban district rate of 50 percent. How do they do it? This remarkable success, writes Principal Linda Nathan, is in large part due to asking the right questions-questions all schools can consider, such as:

* How and why does a school develop a shared vision of what it stands for?
* What makes a great teacher, and how can a principal help good teachers improve?
* Why must schools talk openly about race and achievement, and what happens when they do?

With engaging honesty, Nathan gives readers a ring-side seat as faculty, parents, and the students themselves grapple with these questions, attempt to implement solutions, and evaluate the outcomes. Stories that are inspirational as well as heartbreaking reveal the missteps and failures-as well as the successes.

Nathan doesn't claim to have all the answers, but seeks to share her insights on schools that matter, teachers who inspire, and students who achieve.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Using rich and vivid examples, presented with passion and candor, Linda Nathan shows what it really means to go 'back to basics' in American urban education.—Howard Gardner, author of Multiple Intelligences

"Linda Nathan's wonderful account of piloting the Boston Arts Academy is personal, anecdotal, and yet focused on the critical Big Questions. Through stories of how these questions play out in hallways and classrooms, Nathan articulates a vision of how urban schools can flourish. I want to send this book to everyone who should be speaking up about new directions in public education."—Deborah Meier, The Power of Their Ideas

"Linda Nathan takes a courageous look at our deteriorating educational system and makes a case for reaching each student on his or her own terms using an arts-based curriculum that unlocks the creative thinking and capacity for self-expression that such an approach nurtures. The results are thought-provoking and inspiring."—Keith Lockhart, Conductor, Boston Pops Orchestra

"If you could start from scratch, if you could do any wild or crazy thing your imagination suggests, what kind of school would you invent for our children? It's a bold and propulsive and liberating question that has powered the work of the Boston Arts Academy for over a decade. Linda Nathan and her remarkable colleagues . . . provide argument and evidence, theory and action plan, utopian hope and practical road map to the necessary project of re-inventing America's schools."—William Ayers, author of To Teach and A Kind and Just Parent

"With heart, compassion, and a magnifying glass, Linda Nathan takes us into the world of an urban high school, with its daily trials, defeats, joys, and victories. This book does not shy away from raising questions, encouraging self-reflection, and ultimately opening minds."—Carol R. Johnson, Superintendent, Boston Public Schools

"This fascinating book takes you inside the mind of a uniquely gifted urban school leader and reveals the secrets that help her propel her students toward college: community, transparency, a profound understanding of adolescents, and, especially, moral courage. Reading The Hardest Questions ... is like shadowing a principal for a year. I recommend it to every teacher or administrator who wants to make a difference in the lives of inner-city children. "—Michael Thompson, author of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys

"Linda Nathan has written a remarkable book. Boston Arts Academy is an urban public high school just across the street from Fenway Park. So, I get to see, first hand, young people from every neighborhood in the city who greatly benefit from the approaches so clearly espoused by this innovative educator. With over 90% of graduates consistently going on to college (many the first in their families to do so), the results speak for themselves."—Larry Lucchino, owner of Red Sox, public school graduate

About the Author

Award-winning educator Linda Nathan founded the Boston Arts Academy in 1998. She consults and speaks on educational issues nationally and internationally, and teaches a graduate course at Harvard on building democratic schools. Nathan lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; First Edition edition (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807032743
• ISBN-13: 978-0807032749
• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 5.4 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #917,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Nathan is the founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy, the city's first and only public high school for the visual and performing arts. Under her leadership, the school has won state, national, and international recognition, including a Massachusetts Compass Award, a "Breaking Ranks" award from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and a Mentor School award from the Coalition of Essential Schools. BAA sends well over 90 percent of its graduates--all residents of the city of Boston--to college.

Linda was instrumental in starting Boston's first performing-arts middle school, and was a driving force behind the creation of Fenway High School, recognized nationally for its innovative educational strategies and school-to-work programs. She is also a co-founder and board member of the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston, a nonprofit education reform organization dedicated to creating more equitable and democratic schools. She was named 1990 Teacher of the Year by Channel 5 "Chronicle" in Boston, and from 1995 to 1998 she served on the National Academy of Science's Commission for the Science of Learning. In 2003, Linda received the Nadia Boulanger Educator's Award from the Longy School of Music for her work in arts education. In 2007, she was named a Barr Foundation fellow for her work in social entrepreneurship and leadership. In 2009 she received the Godine Medal for service to the community by Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Linda has published widely on issues of school reform and arts education. Her upcoming book, The Hardest Questions Aren't on the Test: Lessons from an Innovative Urban School will be released in October by Beacon Press.

Fluent in Spanish, she has worked on issues of school reform in Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. In 2006, Linda presented at UNESCO's World Conference on Arts Education in Lisbon, Portugal. She is a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she teaches a course titled "Building Democratic Schools."

Linda Nathan earned a bachelor's degree at the University of California, Berkeley, a master's in education administration at Antioch University, a master's of performing arts at Emerson College, and her doctorate in education at Harvard University.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspiring and practical book for any educator at any level. January 30, 2010

By K. Ajunwa

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As an educator who has worked in almost all levels of schooling this book offers insight regarding the serious issues that face education in America. Infusing hope with a critical lens of schooling, The Hardest Questions, inspires while at the same time challenges educators to reflect, rethink and perhaps redefine their understanding of the purpose of school. Certainly, this book will be added to university courses on foundations of education as well as classroom teaching. The personal narratives of teachers inside Boston Arts Academy (BAA) provide essential lessons, for current and future teachers, in classroom management and student engagement. However, I wonder is it possible for this model set forth by BAA to be reproduced on a national scale; every state or even school district needs a BAA. The question that remains is can Linda Nathan's BAA model be successfully recreated in places like Detroit, Philadelphia, or D.C. This reader certainly hopes so.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Powerful story, off-putting tone March 24, 2011

By polar bear

Format:Paperback

Linda Nathan clearly has a long record of successful leadership in urban schools, so what struck me most when I picked up "The Hardest Questions" was how poorly written this manifesto really is. The book's often awkward wording and perambulatory paragraphs leave the reader with the strange sensation that s/he is reading a less-than-satisfactory translation of a book originally penned in a foreign tongue. But, of course, a lack of eloquence does not in itself disqualify the book's content.

Ms. Nathan makes some vitally important points, but few are actually new; what truly distinguishes this book is its shameless narcisissm. The author begins with a balanced discussion of countless issues of contention in contemporary education, only to dismiss all convential approaches in favor of her own half-baked suggestion, which usually idealistically assumes some sort of democratic consensus among all stakeholders in the situation. The reader is left groaning when s/he understands what the author is actually suggesting: what every school in the nation REALLY needs is a Linda Nathan at the helm.

This book is highly valuable as an anecdotal account of the challenges faced by one school leader, but it is far from a universal blueprint for urban school reform.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Innovation up the wazoo October 4, 2009

By Newsdude

Format:Hardcover

You have to admire the courage of the author. She shares their struggles (their "warts and wounds") and doesn't claim to have all the answers...the questions ARE hard and sometimes painful. But she, her faculty and staff of this innovative and imaginative urban high school tackle them head on and certainly make progress - over 95% of graduates regularly go on to college. For those who believe that public education remains our last best chance at leveling the playing field for all kids, you'll be glad to read this important book.