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School Matters

Karin Chenoweth

Karin Chenoweth is writer-in-residence at The Education Trust, a national education advocacy organization, and author of It’s Being Done and HOW It’s Being Done and co-author of Getting It Done, all published by Harvard Education Press. Her columns originally appear on The Huffington Post.

For School Improvement, Demographics Aren’t Destiny

July 24, 2017

When I talk with teachers, I often find them flummoxed by my descriptions of "unexpected" schools. That’s the term I use to describe high-performing and rapidly improving schools with large populations of children of color and children living in poverty.

Organizing Schools Around Learning

April 11, 2017

People who haven’t hung around schools much might be puzzled by the essential argument that I am making in my new book, Schools That Succeed, which is that schools should be organized in ways to ensure that all students learn a great deal. They might think: “They’re schools!

Schools Can Get Better. They Can Also Get Worse.

April 3, 2017

In 1987 then-U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett flew to Chicago and pronounced its schools “the worst in the nation.” “I’m not sure there’s a system as bad as the Chicago system,” he said.

Here Are Some Schools You Should Visit, Secretary DeVos

February 22, 2017

On one of her first days on the job, Betsy DeVos did what any U.S. Secretary of Education might do: She visited a public school. Such an event might have gone relatively unnoticed if not for widespread worries that she neither understands public schools nor appreciates their central importance in building a civic community. So, good for her.

Tackling Achievement Gaps From Summer Learning Loss

October 17, 2016

A well-designed summer program can help low-income students read and do math better. In fact, attending a summer program regularly for as little as five weeks for two years in a row could result in about a quarter of a year’s gain in both reading and math for students from low-income families.