KARIN CHENOWETH

Author and education writer

BOOKS & SELECTED ARTICLES

GETTING IT DONE: LEADING ACADEMIC SUCCESS IN UNEXPECTED SCHOOLS

"Getting It Done makes me more certain than ever that an important way forward for American education is to study what our best school leaders do and to use what we learn to improve professional development for current and future school principals." --Ronald Ferguson, Harvard University

HOW IT'S BEING DONE: URGENT LESSONS FROM UNEXPECTED SCHOOLS

"If ever there were a book on education that should be read, it is this one." --Pedro Noguera, New York University

IT'S BEING DONE: ACADEMIC SUCCESS IN UNEXPECTED SCHOOLS

"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

Quick Links

Education Week

"For School Improvement, Demographics Aren't Destiny"

Millman Lecture: Learning from Unexpected Schools

In October 2013, I delivered the Millman Lecture to the conference of CREATE (Consortium on Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness)

Huffington Post

For several years I wrote regularly about schools and education for Huffington Post.

Britannica Blog

For several years I wrote pieces for the Encyclopaedia Britannica Blog, which are archived here.

Homeroom

For five years I wrote Homeroom, a column on schools and education for The Washington Post. A few of those columns are archived here.

Teachers Matter. Check. Schools Matter. Check. Districts Matter. Really?

In October, 2015, Kappan published an article on two high-poverty districts that are near the top of their states in academic achievement.

How Do We Get There from Here?

In February, 2015, Educational Leadership published an article on school improvement.

How High-Poverty Schools are Getting It Done

In 2013 Educational Leadership published an article by Christina Theokas and me based on Getting It Done.

What Does It Mean to Be A Good School Leader?

In 2012, Education Week published a commentary by Christina Theokas and me based on Getting It Done.

Leading for Learning

In 2012 American Educator published an article based on Getting It Done.

Piece by Piece

In fall of 2009 American Educator published a piece based on HOW It's Being Done.

Uncovering Academic Success

In 2007, American Educator published an article based on It's Being Done.

It Can Be Done, It's Being Done, and Here's How

in 2009 Kappan published an article based on HOW It's Being Done.

The Education Trust

From 2004 until 2022 I worked at The Education Trust as writer-in-residence. After I retired I founded Democracy and Education, which can be found at www.assistdemocracy.org.

Authors Guild

Advocates for published authors since 1912

Authors Guild Directory

A compendium of member websites

It's Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2007)

It's Being Done follows in the tradition of the Effective Schools research from the 1970s that demonstrated that schools can do a much better job educating children than they generally do. It's Being Done identifies twenty-five traits that characterize the schools ranging from, "They teach the kids" to "They are nice places to work." Named one of the top five education books of the decade by Education Next, It's Being Done has been used by schools, school districts, and states around the country to jumpstart conversations about how to better serve all students.

The first in what became a trilogy, It's Being Done profiles fifteen schools and one group of schools that are either high-achieving or rapidly improving and that have significant populations of students of color or students who live in poverty.

It's Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2007)

Freeman A. Hrabowski, III

From Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, president of University of Maryland Baltimore County:

"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."

E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

From E. D. Hirsch, Jr., professor emeritus at University of Virginia and founder of Core Knowledge:

"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 some schools and their devoted staffs have refuted the idea that demography is fate."

After It's Being Done was published, educators asked for more information about exactly how the schools achieved their success. That led to the second book in the trilogy, HOW It's Being Done.

EXCERPTS:

From the Introduction: One of the big questions facing American education is, "Can it be done?" Can schools help all children learn to high levels, even poor children and children of color? Is it even possible for schools to help children who face the substantial obstacles of poverty and discrimination to learn to read, write, compute, and generally become educated citizens? As a longtime reporter and columnist writing about schools and education, I knew the answer was "yes," but I knew it as an article of faith rather than as actual knowledge.

From the Conclusion: After visiting all the schools profiled in this book, I began to feel as if the folks in these schools can be likened to the Wright brothers, who proved once and for all that manned flight was possible. 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.

From the Conclusion: I have become convinced that there is no one single factor that is at the core of a successful school. That is, there is no one structure, or one curriculum, or one set of policies and procedures that, if every school in the country were to adopt it, would transform them into high-achieving schools. Schools are complex organisms that can't be changed that easily. Over and over, the teachers and principals in these schools told me, "There is no magic bullet."