Schools That Succeed: How Educators Marshal the Power of Systems for Improvement

Informed by years of research and on-the-ground reporting, Schools That Succeed is Karin Chenoweth's most inspiring and compelling book yet--an essential read for educators who seek to break the stubborn connection between academic achievement and socioeconomic status.

Chenoweth draws on her decade-long journey into neighborhood schools where low-income students and students of color are learning at unexpectedly high levels to reveal a key ingredient to their success: in one way or another, their leaders have confronted the traditional ways that schools are organized and have adopted new systems, all focused on improvement. In vivid profiles of once-embattled schools, Chenoweth shows how school leaders doggedly and patiently reorganized internal systems in order to prioritize teaching and learning, resulting in improved outcomes that in many cases exceeded statewide averages.

From how they use time to how they use money, schools that succeed combine a deep belief in the capacity of their students to achieve with deliberate systems focused on student needs. As a result, they create vibrant places "where teachers want to teach and students want to learn."


About the Author
Karin Chenoweth is author of It's Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (2007), HOW It's Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools (2009), and co-author of Getting It Done: Leading Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (2011), all published by Harvard Education Press. A longtime education writer, she has written for a wide range of publications, including the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, Education Week, Black Issues In Higher Education (now Diverse), Kappan, and Educational Leadership. Since 2004, she has been writer-in-residence at The Education Trust.