The Battle Over Charter Schools HOW DID THINGS BECOME SO POLARIZED?

SUMMER 2017

HARVARD ED. MAGAZINE

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SUMMER 2017 � ISSUE N 157

Editor in Chief Lory Hough [email protected]

Creative Director, Ed. Patrick Mitchell MODUS OPERANDI DESIGN WWW.MODUSOP.NET

Assistant Dean of Communications Michael Rodman 22 [email protected] The Battle Over Charters Contributing Writers Charter schools once had wide bipartisan support from Jill Anderson educators, parents, and others. What happened? Bobby Dorigo Jones, Ed.M.’17 Zachary Jason STORY BY ZACHARY JASON Barry Yeoman

Illustrators Melinda Beck David A. Johnson Mike McQuade

Photographers Jill Anderson Jillian Clarke “ We think it’s Todd Dionne essential to Jonathan Kozowyk help parents Ekaterina Smirnova understand how much of a Copy Editors difference they Marin Jorgensen 30 Abigail Mieko Vargus can make in their child’s development.” POSTMASTER A School of Their Own Send address changes to: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR 38 Harvard Graduate School of Education MEREDITH ROWE, ED.M.’99, ED.D.’03 One alum in North Carolina is giving homeschooled Office of Communications kids the structure of a traditional school. 13 Appian Way Poor, but Cambridge, MA 02138 STORY BY BARRY YEOMAN Privileged © 2017 by the President and Fellows of Incoming faculty member Harvard College. Harvard Ed. magazine is NEWS + NOTES FROM APPIAN WAY published three times a year. Tony Jack knows that not every low-income kid in college Using MP3s to teach in the forest, p. 4 � Center- vs. home-based Departments PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. is the same. care, p. 6 � Domonic Rollins on diversity, p. 8 � More than one way to STORY BY LORY HOUGH 4 teach algebra, p. 10 � Study Skills: Ethan Smith, p. 11 � Art for kids CONVO. — READER FEEDBACK 2 in Nepal, p. 14 � Pediatrician partnerships, p. 18 � On My Bookshelf GRAD. — ALUMNI NEWS + NOTES 45

with Assistant Professor Emmerich Davies Escobar, p. 20 BECK MELINDA CLARKE JILLIAN DIONNE; MCQUADE;TODD MIKE TOP: FROM CLOCKWISE CAMPAIGN 49

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Turns out our readers were not bored by our story, “Bored Past Tense starters. And 97 percent is the low 1 Out of Their Minds,” from the winter 2017 issue. In fact, met- end. ...‘Today I saw a group of kids rics show that it reached nearly a million people on Facebook of all colors doing complex algebra alone. One thread that generated a number of comments had to do With this issue’s cover story fo- with complete confidence,’ she with dramatically increasing project-based learning as a way to keep cused on the charter school battle, continued. ‘I saw a freshman read- students engaged. This prompted Serena Richardson to write how we wondered when Ed. magazine ing The Odyssey and discussing it, much she disliked group projects when she was a student and how first wrote about charters. It looks kids writing papers on Tennyson she still disliked group work as a nurse. Parents also got into the dislike the initial piece was from poems and Shakespearean sonnets, cussion. One mentioned that at her daughter’s school, group work is December 1996, in a theme issue kids using the computer with ease. I common but has an interesting twist: Team members can be “fired” on innovation that looked at what saw two of my students address an 2 at any point if they aren’t carrying their weight. Another parent wrote happens when people experiment audience of 200 at Harvard. You tell 3 that he was impressed with all the projects his fourth-grader was tak- in education. One of the features me where that happens in an inner- ing part in at school, including one that combined literature and so- profiled Boston-based City on a Hill, city school.’ cial studies and ended with the students running a mock presidential an early charter in Massachusetts “As for the question of bal- campaign. “There have been relatively few worksheets,” he wrote, that opened its doors in Septem- kanization, Kass responded that Last year, way before the November election, it was impossible “and I’ve never seen him so excited to go to school every day.” ANDREW ber 1995, just three years after the there is already a two-tiered system to read through my Facebook feed without there being at least FRISHMAN, ED.L.D.’14, wrote that he appreciated some of the points in the nation’s first charter opened. The in Boston (regular public and exam story but “was struck by the near complete absence of any mention of school, then located in a few rooms schools) and charters can make one or two posts from friends every day urging others to vote no leveraging students’ talents/passions and bringing them into school,” on the second floor of a YMCA, the situation better, not worse, by on 2, a ballot question in Massachusetts that would have lifted as well as the lack of discussion on engaging students in authentic, was the brainchild of Sarah Kass. giving students more choices. ...‘Our the cap on charter schools. Some of the comments highlighted out-of-school learning experiences such as interest-based internships. A former teacher who took a leave goal should be to make every public (Note: There was a related sidebar to the story by Associate Professor of absence from the Ed School’s school a school we should be ex- the belief that charters cherry pick only the best and brightest Jal Mehta that included some information on the importance of extra- doctoral program, Kass was serv- cited to send our own children to.’” or that funding for charters “siphons” money from traditional curriculars and electives.) Another reader, a former English teacher, ing as the school’s principal. In the suggested that the key, in addition to engagement, was empowerment. article, she mentions that despite public schools. I remember not quite knowing how to react. Students who are empowered, he wrote, truly own their learning. community support for the school CONNECT WITH ED. For years working here at the Ed School, I had written about Ed — including teacher buy-in, with Another feature from the winter 2017 issue, “No More Sink 360 teachers vying that first year School alums who worked in charters or who had started them 2 the Sub,” about the unique concept for finding and using sub- for four teaching positions — there and were doing incredible, creative work — work that showed stitute teachers created by Parachute Teachers, generated not was also pressure to show that what TWITTER.COM/HGSE HARVARDEDUCATION. TUMBLR.COM how having options for teachers, parents, and students was just comments from readers, but also outside media coverage. In mid- they were trying to do mattered. As February, for example, the Atlantic ran a Q&A with Parachute found- the story noted: making a huge difference, especially in urban districts. Why, I WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN er and current Ed.L.D. student SARAH CHERRY RICE, who talked about “The intense scrutiny of City on FACEBOOK.COM/ ISSUU.COM/HARVARD wondered, were my Facebook friends not seeing this? How had the VCR cart being wheeled out every time a substitute came to her a Hill and of other charters means HARVARDEDUCATION EDUCATION school in Arkansas, where she grew up. That same month,Education that there has been pressure from charters become the enemy? I decided that this polarization in In our winter issue, Dean Next looked at the story the Atlantic had written, calling Parachute a the beginning to produce and docu- thinking had to be addressed in Ed., in what became our cover Ryan’s Twitter username company “attempting to disrupt the market for substitute teachers.” ment results. Asked to assess the YOUTUBE.COM/ MEDIUM.COM/ HARVARDEDUCATION @HARVARDEDUCATION was incorrectly given at Just a week earlier, an Education Week Teacher blog ran a short story school’s progress, Kass responded story, “The Battle Over Charter Schools.” the bottom of page 2. about our story and the work. And in January, Smithsonian.com also that ‘the evidence is everywhere. His correct username is did a Q&A with the headline, “Forget Substitute Teachers. Parachute “‘How about 97 percent at- INSTAGRAM.COM/ LETTERS@GSE. WATCH AN ASKWITH DEBATE ON THE MASSACHUSETTS CHARTER CAP:

@DeanJimRyan. Teachers May Be the Future.” tendance every day?’ she asked for KOZOWYK JONATHAN DETWILER; TODD TOP: FROM HARVARDEDUCATION HARVARD.EDU GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS

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Two Rabbits and a Hand- Crank MP3

STUDENTS HELP CHILDEN FORMALLY NEWS + NOTES FROM APPIAN WAY LEARN IN THE FOREST

STORY BY LORY HOUGH

It was one of those ideas that happened by chance. A couple of years ago, SARAH STRADER, ED.M.’17, was in Cameroon, conducting research on education among the Baka, a group of nomadic hunter-gatherers living in the eastern forests of the country. Strader learned that Baka children rarely attend formal schooling, especially in the early years, in part because of their nomadic lifestyle, but also because of language 4 barriers — the Baka speak Baka while 5 in most schools in the region, lessons are in French and Bantu. But Strader also learned that families wanted — and needed — their children to learn more. “While the Baka have a perfect mastery of the forest, it is threatened by logging, mining, and poaching,” she says. “Children need to know not only how to thrive in the forest, but also how to protect it and engage with outsiders on an empowered footing.” But how? Beyond the nomadic lifestyle, there are other barriers to formal learning: No electricity and the shady forest provides little opportunity for solar power. There are no books because the Baka don’t have a written language. By chance one day, Strader noticed a couple of Baka kids listening to Bible stories on a Saber MP3 machine — a small hand-crank device that was left behind a decade earlier by missionaries. “Parents and I came to realize the potential of this tool for education, especially given their nomadic lifestyle,” she says. “From there, I developed the idea into a project model, in collabora- tion with our incredible local partner ASTRADHE, to create the project that is being implemented now.” Even the

Photograph by Sarah Strader

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name of the project — originally Chasing Two Rabbits, now just Two Rabbits — came from the Baka themselves TEACH YOUR when a father initially discussed the fact that having his PARENTS WELL children learn the local forest knowledge and pursue formal education was like trying to chase two rabbits at once: If you try, you will lose them both. Now, using a research-based curriculum that Strader In her new book, Growing Each Other Up, Professor SARA co-created with Baka parents, local Baka members LAWRENCE-LIGHTFOOT, ED.D.’72, tells a story about reach- (whom Strader communicates with in French) record mu- ing out to a friend when her then-teenaged daughter sic, songs, and educational stories onto the hand-crank was leaving her feeling frustrated and exhausted. Hun- MP3 in their language to teach preliteracy skills. All ref- gry for advice, Lawrence-Lightfoot assumed the friend erences are of local things that the children know from would share her own war stories and even, perhaps, the forest and their lives. During a recent NPR interview, rescue her. Instead, the friend said something that at Strader likened the lessons to how Sesame Street uses first left Lawrence-Lightfoot even more frustrated: “Your songs to teach turning letters sounds into words. daughter is living on another planet, and she has a lot to Two years into the pilot, Two Rabbits has served 150 teach you about it. …Listen to her.” children in two villages with four Baka lesson facilitators, As Lawrence-Lightfoot writes, “For weeks, I brooded and now, in addition to Strader, there is a small team of about her take on my troubles, and finally realized that other Ed.M.’17 students involved, including MARY PHAM, she was saying something powerful and fundamental: who worked as a peace educator in conflict-affected Center-Based Versus that these intergenerational conversations — even the areas of Myanmar; KARA HOWARD, who served as a hardest ones — are opportunities language teacher in Lesotho with the Peace Corps; and Home-Based for parental growth and insight, MATT OWENS. who taught in Spain. Howard says they all and that our children are indeed met during the two-week preorientation program for the HOW DO CHILDREN ATTENDING VARIOUS our teachers.” International Education Policy Program. A decade and a half later, as TYPES OF PRESCHOOLS COMPARE? “Through our discussions both inside and outside she was writing Growing Each of class,” she says, “we realized that we had a com- Other Up, Lawrence-Lightfoot re- bination of experiences that could help make the Two flected on the times since those 6 Rabbits model stronger.” She says they used their time STORY BY JILL ANDERSON early battles when she was able 7 at Harvard to get feedback on how to best incorporate to step back and resist the tit for research-based early childhood education practices tat that often happens between into the model. There are also plans to pilot the program or decades, policymakers instead receive home-based care. possible that Head Start centers such as those who work outside of parents and their children. in Myanmar, starting with a feasibility study in several and researchers have focus- As Miratrix explains, they were are no better than other centers, the home on weekends or during “How do we as parents have internally displaced-persons camps. ed on the question of wheth- interested in seeing how these but we found that center-based nonstandard hours, center-based those rare moments of revelation “We believe that our model, which is low cost, mo- er publicly funded preschool, different groups performed. care is superior to home-based care is just not an option. Other and epiphany?” she writes. “This bile, and based in the local culture and language, could specifically Head Start, makes a What they found confirmed care for many children.” parents may prefer home-based process of stepping back comes with shifting our role be salient for children that have experienced violent difference. But new research the long-understood benefits of So how can more children settings because they provide from teacher to learner” as parents eventually “grow out conflict,” Howard says. “We hope to be able to adapt the by Assistant Professor Luke Mira- center-based preschool, especial- benefit? The study raises trou- opportunities for instruction in of growing our children” and the parent–child relation- Two Rabbits model to be effective within the population trix, along with TODD GRINDAL, ly as compared to home-based bling questions about the op- their home language. These chil- ship flips. in Kachin State camps. Cultural adaptation is a huge ED.M.’06, ED.D.’13; LINDSAY PAGE, care. Examining children’s vo- tions available to families with- dren also need to have access to What has become most intriguing to her, she writes, component of our model.” ED.M.’04, ED.D.’11; and Avi Feller, cabulary skills, the study found out access to publicly funded pre- the types of stimulating interac- is the way that children become their parents’ teachers This past March, Two Rabbits was named a finalist in broadens the perspective to con- strongly positive effects on chil- school. While some families still tions that are more often provid- when adolescence transitions into young adulthood. the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge. And last sider the alternatives: What hap- dren enrolled in Head Start ver- may be able to afford a private ed in center-based settings.” “I shift the lens and landscape as I explore the December, the team got a boost when they won $10,000 pens to the children who attend a sus those who would otherwise preschool program or would find This new research should also 25-year developmental sweep from the ages of 15 to from GoFundMe in their #GoBeyondGiving Challenge center-based program, and what stay at home. The study found ways for their children to engage put to rest any lingering debates 35 and focus on the lessons that parents learn from — something that surprised them. “We had been rais- happens to children who don’t? no evidence that Head Start of - in the enriching, stimulating ac- over whether publicly funded their ‘almost-grown’ progeny — those progeny of early ing money to fund our feasibility study in Myanmar for In their study, the researchers fers any additional benefits in tivities that preschools offer, oth- preschool works, the research- maturity who are still figuring out the calculus between January and to measure the results of students who compared children with access improved vocabulary over other families find their options lim- ers add, and allow the conversa- distance and intimacy, still negotiating the balance completed a year of Two Rabbits as they complete first to publicly funded preschool pro- er center-based preschools, sug- ited to home-based care. tion to shift, finally, to how every between separation and closeness to their parents. grade in Cameroon in February,” Howard says. “Both of grams like Head Start to similar gesting that policy conversations The takeaway, the research- child can benefit. Whether these almost-grown offspring are parents these were possible thanks to GoFundMe and will allow themselves, whether they are living with their parents or children who didn’t attend a cen- should focus more on moving ers suggest, is the need for more JILL ANDERSON IS A WRITER IN THE us to continue honing our model and hopefully adapt it ter-based preschool program. children from home-based care research on improving access to COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE. not, the relational and emotional bonds continue to be to new communities effectively.” Then they separated the chil- into formal care, rather than on center-based programs, especial- negotiated.” LH dren into two alternative groups moving children from one pre- ly for low-income families, and — those who would still attend a school program to another. new efforts to improve the over- center-based preschool program, The bottom line is that “these all quality of early education. even if not Head Start, and those results suggest that getting kids “We should work to improve THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY who would not attend a center- into center-based care is a good the quality of home-based care,” APPEARED ON USABLE KNOWLEDGE: WATCH A VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH LAWRENCE-LIGHTFOOT READ MORE AT: CHASINGTWORABBITS.ORG based program at all but would idea,” Miratrix says. “It is quite Grindal adds. “For many parents, UKNOW.GSE.HARVARD.EDU ABOUT HER BOOK: GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS

Illustration by Melinda Beck

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“ In my opinion What’s Universal? advancing inclusion requires us to NEW DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION OFFICER TACKLES HARD QUESTIONS heighten our AROUND TOPICS LIKE RACE, GENDER, AND FEELING EXCLUDED awareness of who we are, how we show up, and how we are received by others.”

STORY BY LORY HOUGH

ot long after Domon- not opportunities for them re- He continued to ask questions ic Rollins started at the gardless of role, we would then when he later applied to the Uni- Ed School in the fall as the work with this and explore what versity of Maryland and wasn’t first diversity and inclusion of- this means. Attending to some of directly admitted into the busi- ficer, he held a series of get-to- the common forms of exclusion ness school. know-you workshops for man- will point to the ways or spaces to “I asked, ‘How do you expect agers and staff. It was his way do the initial work.” students coming from schools of saying hello to the communi- Rollins, who recently fin- like mine to be able to do those ty and also a way to get a pulse ished his Ph.D. at the University things?’ My school, Baltimore on what people were thinking of Maryland on how black male Polytechnic Institute, was a mag- 8 around topics like race, gender, administrators navigate racism net high school, and I graduated 9 and inclusion — the very topics in higher education, says he also in the top 10 percent of my class,” he was tasked to work on. At one wants to help everyone better un- he says. “Yet the business school of the meetings, a woman asked derstand not only one another, at the University of Maryland was which constituency they should but also themselves. a different league. And I was rais- be focused on: student needs? “So much of our focus in the ing the question about expecta- staff concerns? faculty? academy, especially in education, tions on the basis of my prepara- It was a good question, one is on what we can do for others,” tion suggesting that I did the best that Rollins knew the answer — he says. “It is not our tendency to I could do with what I had. At a all of the above — wasn’t going be deeply reflective about our- young age, I started asking ques- to be easy to tackle. But looking selves. In my opinion advancing tions about the system. Quickly, I back on that meeting, he says a inclusion requires us to height- was shifting where people would good way to start is to ask anoth- en our awareness of who we are, locate the problem. The problem er question: What is universal? how we show up, and how we are isn’t with the student, necessar- “By asking ‘what is universal,’ received by others. This is heavy ily; it’s with the system.” we begin to see what is shared lifting for people.” Rollins says he “eventual - across constituent groups,” he His own awareness started in ly managed to carve out spaces says. “If I ask what is universal high school, when he served as a that felt like they were for me. for women at HGSE, I may learn student rep on the Baltimore City I’m the kind of person who will that regardless of whether wom- Board of Education. go in and make it better.” It’s en are faculty, staff, or students, “This experience was one part of his personality, for sure, they are not represented in lead- that made me acutely aware of but also intentional. ership or feel like their issues are some of the educational injustic- “I try to structure my life by not represented. If this were true, es I was experiencing. I learned doing things I love to do,” he I would then have a focal point about how schools were funded, says, including recently getting around a concern of inclusion what college preparation curric- a tattoo of a tree on his shoulder. for women that accounts for stu- ulum was offered, and how deci- “The branches say passion, love, dents, staff, and faculty.” sions get made,” he says. “It was and purpose; the trunk, identity; With people of color, he says, this experience that helped to and the roots, authenticity. It’s “if it were universal that people of give me the lens to see inequities what it’s like for me,” he says. “I

CREDIT HERE CREDIT HERE CREDIT color at HGSE felt like there were and to be able to ask questions.” don’t know life otherwise.”

Photograph by Jill Anderson

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STUDY SKILLS

Ethan Smith, Ed.M.’17

The first time ETHAN SMITH went with a friend to a poetry group at Berklee School of Music, he wasn’t sure he was going to like it. The sax was his thing and had been since the eighth grade. “I was in love with the sax,” he says. “It How to Solve for x was everything I did in high school.” But listening to other students at the poetry group, he Multiple Ways found the experience incredibly inspiring. “It was amazing how honest everything was.” Smith changed course and ended up TEACHING ALGEBRA IN MORE THAN ONE WAY AND minoring in spoken word. “It became what I ADDING IN DISCUSSIONS ACTUALLY WORKS devoted most of my time to.” Some of this time included helping Bos- ton teenagers perform spoken word poetry through the 826 Writers’ Room, a nonprofit STORY BY LORY HOUGH youth writing and publishing organization. Smith was also working on his own writing, mostly personal pieces connected to his transitioning, including A Letter to the Girl I fter spending six years “Sometimes math teachers had recruited teachers from the Used to Be, a powerful piece he performed this past fall at the Ed School’s storytelling event, in the classroom and de- have a tendency to say do it this Greater Boston area, across 50 dis- Double Take. “I was trying to figure myself out,” 10 cades researching how way, but in reality, there’s always tricts, to pilot the project. Teachers he says, “something I encourage my students children learn math, Professor more than one way in math,” Star could opt in, which, Star says, was to do, too.” Jon Star knows there are times says. “Teachers show other ways actually helpful. Now finishing his year in the Arts In Educa- when teachers just need to tell sometimes but not a lot. Maybe the “The teachers who found this tion Program, Smith says we all have unique students what to do. But, he says, text doesn’t include multiple ways most successful didn’t see this as stories to share, but we often don’t think about sometimes, especially when it or maybe they’re not sure how else an add-on to what they were al - how sharing these stories can help not just ourselves, but also people we haven’t met. comes to teaching algebra, there to do it. Our material shows them ready doing but a reimagining to “It’s an extremely powerful experience to are two other approaches that are there are lots of ways.” what they already do, but better,” be able to share some piece of our individual more effective: show them multi- The second part of the proj- he says. At times, they also had truth through poetry,” he says. “Equally as ple ways to learn and have more ect, which can be a little harder to convince teachers that these powerful is when someone reaches out and class discussions. for teachers, especially in high methods, which are backed up by says that they connected with the piece in These are the foundations of school, is incorporating more dis- his research and the research of some way. It takes bravery on the part of the poet to say their piece, but what comes from a project Star started working on cussion into the classroom, he others, would work. that is a representation of survival that many this school year with middle and says. Too often, math class doesn’t “Sometimes teachers, when people may share but didn’t necessarily have high school algebra 1 teachers in involve discussing how someone asked to show that there are mul- the language to articulate. Through sharing Chelmsford, Massachusetts, pub- got an answer or why something tiple ways, will say, ‘My students our art in this way we can start to build a com- lic schools. Over the next three doesn’t make sense. are already struggling with the munity and connect deeply with one another.” years, teachers who volunteer to “Teachers are used to talking one way I’ve shown them.’” When he first started sharing his own story take part will be given profession- more to students. We want them He tells them that maybe the about transitioning, he says he didn’t give his hometown community just outside Seattle al development, as well as curricu- to engage students who are wres- students just don’t understand enough credit for being able to understand. lum material they can weave into tling with certain points of the les- that one way, “but if you said “It’s impossible to be compassionate about what they are already doing. son,” he says. “When students are there are a couple of ways to do something that you’ve never been exposed “This isn’t ‘drop everything and faced with two different ways to this and asked what makes the to,” he says. “But after I came out, I was re- do this,’” Star says. “This is some- solve a problem, that’s where we most sense, they’ll be happier in ally surprised how supported I was. I’ve had thing you can integrate into your want them to start a discussion.” your class. And discussion can be former teachers reach out to me on Facebook. own practice. It’s what you know To make doing this easier, they motivating for students. We have And my family has been supportive.” His dad even signed up for creative nonfiction writing works and what we know works.” will provide teachers with discus- data that shows that math stu- classes to help him figure things out. Part of the project involves sion prompts and suggestions on dents like this approach — it’s lib- “It’s been inspiring to me in my process,” showing teachers ways to help stu- how a discussion might follow erating for them to know there are LEARN MORE ABOUT Smith says. “He shows me drafts. It’s cool to STAR’S MULTIPLE METHODS see how he’s processing this.” LH dents see that there’s more than Prior to working with the choices. It’s not just do it the way RESEARCH: GSE.HARVARD. one way to solve algebra problems. Chelmsford school district, Star the teacher says.” EDU/ED/EXTRAS

Illustration by Melinda Beck Photograph by Jonathan Kozowyk

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2016-17: School Year Rewind

AN A-TO-Z REMINDER OF THE MEMORABLE EVENTS AND ISSUES FROM THE PAST ACADEMIC YEAR

A D K N R X Z

Students and their DEFINE. DEFY. DIS- KIND weather NEW FACULTY includ- RALLIES and marches XQ: The Super School 5 The SAUL ZAENTZ families went APPLE MANTLE. These were left us with a few ed Emmerich Davies were common this Project announced its FOUNDATION awarded PICKING in October the buzzwords worn unseasonably warm Escobar, Irvin Scott, year, including the his- $10 million winners, the single largest at Honey Pot Hill days in January, Claudia Costin, and toric Women’s March which included five 3 on t-shirts at this donation ever in the Orchards. year’s Alumni of Color but snowstorms in Bertrand Schneider. on Washington (and projects connected to Ed School’s history, Conference, which was February and March affiliated marches the Ed School. for the study of early B attended by more than also closed Harvard. O across the country), education. 700 people. which included more Y than 100 Ed School 12 BRAVE is the word . L 13 students and alumni. most people walked E T U W 5 YALE, to the dismay away with after Decorating the back of many, beat Harvard listening to eight 6 of your LAPTOP EDUCATION AS A G J S TRANSGENDER 5 UNIVERSITY WHERE do we come for the first time in 10 community members became a thing this HUMAN RIGHT was DAY OF REMEM- PROFESSOR was from? At orienta- years in the annual share their personal year for students. 2 the focus of an GUTMAN LIBRARY 5 SWAY CALLOWAY, on November a title given to the tion, students shared Harvard–Yale football stories at this JEB BUSH, former BRANCE Askwith Forum with was turned into a club music journalist and 20 was marked at Ed School’s Danielle where they come from game. It did not affect year’s Double Florida governor, Hanan Al Hroub, one night and one night former MTV correspon- the Ed School with a Allen — Harvard’s by placing a pin on a Ed School student tail- Take event. spoke at an Askwith M winner of the 2016 only for the student Forum and during a dent, joined a panel powerful display of highest faculty world map in Gut- gating, as our intern, Global Teacher Prize. holiday party. Harvard EdCast about MASKED superhe- of speakers after the dozens of posters in honor (see page 19). man. (Turns out, we Bobby Dorigo Jones, C the role of the states roes, mini elephants, showing of The Cycle, a front of Gutman of have students from 50 Ed.M.’17, showed his F H in education policy. and many witches 1 In August, 714 stu- short film he produced those who have been countries.) dad, Bob. Politics and descended on Appian dents arrived on cam- about the relationship murdered as a result education heated up Way for the annual pus for ORIENTATION, between police and of transphobia. in Massachusetts, The HARVARD ALUMNI Halloween parade. including 652 Ed.M., FOUNDATION ZAENTZ ZAENTZ: ROSE/SAUL LAURA ALLEN: ANDERSON/DANIELLE JILL WEBER/SWAY: MATT QUAD; communities. and at a September FOR EDUCATION group, 50 doctoral, and 12 Askwith Forum, around founded by several C.A.S. The dean may or lifting the Ed School graduates, CHARTER may not have hit the in the launched its podcast SCHOOL CAP dance floor with them. Bay State. series. I P

During this year’s The PRINCIPALS’ J-term, Professor CENTER celebrated its Howard Gardner 35th anniversary. lectured to a V packed room on Q 1 FIERCE, the Future “INTELLIGENCE and VOTING REFORM was Indigenous Educators INTELLIGENCES.” 3 The school’s version just one of the top- Resisting Colonial of a QUAD continued ics that the Reverend Education, organized to be a relaxing spot Jesse Jackson spoke a supplies drive for students on a warm about in February as for Standing Rock school day. (Between part of an HGSE Black

protestors. classes, of course.) ANDERSON JILL ORIENTATION: AND BUSH JEB HROUB/ AL HANAN Student Union event.

HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 12 4/30/17 11:21 PM HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 13 4/30/17 11:21 PM Intro. Harvard Ed. Summer 2017 YOU ALREADY HAVE 5 ESSENTIAL Q’S The Kids Art All Right WHAT IT TAKES TO ASK YOURSELF (OFTEN) AIE STUDENT GIVES YOUTH IN NEPAL THE CHANCE TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES BY ELISE FOSTER, ED.M.’06, ERIK BURMEISTER, AND ALYSSA GALLAGHER

With this year’s commencement right around the corner, we thought it wise to share a list of five essential ques- STORY BY BOBBY DORIGO JONES , ED.M.’17 tions that you should ask yourself regularly, courtesy of In today’s education climate, it’s a a lucky discovery, it’s a deliberate Dean Jim Ryan’s commencement speech from last year. constant battle to figure out how to management approach. (And if this summary isn’t enough, check out Ryan’s new do more with less. Funding struc- For example, during an initia- book based on these questions called Wait, What?: And tures aside, administrators meticu- tive to revolutionize STEM learning Life’s Other Essential Questions.) lously evaluate each dollar spent across the Los Altos School District looking for the greatest return on in California, assistant superin- investment. What becomes possible tendent Alyssa Gallagher tapped 1.) Wait, what? when administrators extend return- math teacher Courtney Cadwell Ryan says it’s a very effective way of asking for clarifica- tion, which is crucial to understanding. “It’s the question on-investment thinking to people and three others to be part of a you should ask before drawing conclusions or before inside their buildings, knowing that blended learning pilot team tasked making a decision.” everyone is brilliant at something? with integrating online learning Multiplier leaders, as described tools. It was a messy process with 2.) I wonder… (followed by why or if) in The Multiplier Effect (Foster’s big challenges. Cadwell stepped in “As in, I wonder why our schools are so segregated, book), use their intelligence to am- asking questions and helping others and I wonder if we could change this. Or I wonder why plify smarts and capability. Multipli- make sense of the issues. Gallagher students often seem bored in school, and I wonder if we ers believe that everyone has some- recognized how these messy areas could make their classes more engaging.” thing worthwhile to contribute. They brought out Cadwell’s natural lead- ozens of thick, inky letters in schools,” she says. Like oth- later, disaster struck. A massive Shrestha’s graffiti mural see brilliance everywhere, actively ership — her genius for navigating 3.) Couldn’t we at least? overlap each other across er students, Shrestha was subtly 7.8 magnitude earthquake tore painted on a wall in uncovering and accessing each complexity. The more complex the “It’s what enables you to get past disagreement to some 14 Worcester, Massachusetts, 15 employee’s “native genius” — that challenges, the better she was. consensus — as in, couldn’t we at least agree that we the canvas — a cascade of and systematically nudged away through Nepal in April of that for the annual POW WOW all care about the welfare of students, even if we dis- teal, then yellow and orange, over from expressing her creative self, year, upending many communi- art festival. thing he or she does exceptionally After a successful pilot, Gallagh- agree about strategy?” a black backdrop. A small crowd a realization she came to after de- ties and lives. The CAM quickly well that can’t be turned on or off. er wrangled funding to spread these shelters SNEHA SHRESTHA, ED.M.’17, ciding on an arts major at Gettys- reorganized and raised money Multipliers not only put genius to new strategies across all upper- founder of the Children’s Art Mu- burg College in Pennsylvania. to send its staff out into affect- work, but they stretch these natural grade math classes involving more 4.) How can I help? seum of Nepal (CAM), from the While there, she decided “there ed communities. Shrestha post- talents in new ways that cause than 50 teachers. Cadwell became “How we help matters as much as that we do help, and if you ask how you can help, you are asking, with humility, growth. By redefining what it means an elementary school principal while chilling December air coming needs to be a place where kids poned her admission to Har- for direction.” through the open door of a live can just be kids, where they can vard, opting to remain at home to give 100 percent, the school or a second pilot team member took a art show in Harvard Square. do what they want and express and help youth start healing from district quickly develops a reputa- new STEM role. Starting with a blank 5.) What truly matters? “All the words say, ‘You can themselves the way that makes the traumatic event. Over three tion as a “place to grow.” Connect- sheet, these “Magic Markers” — “This is the question that forces you to get to the heart imagine too!’” says Shrestha, sense to them,” she says. months, CAM worked with UNI- ing natural passions and native people who create something from of issues and to the heart of your own beliefs and con- who goes by the name “Imag- A few years later, while liv- CEF to reach more than 5,000 af- genius to opportunities isn’t just nothing — designed a lunchtime victions.” ine” in the art world. Nepal’s ing in Boston, Shrestha applied- fected children through art. Tinker Club for student design first female graffiti artist and a for a grant to build her dream, “The museum’s role has challenges. Working for a multiplier, student in the Arts in Education launched a crowdfunding cam- evolved into a support system for teachers felt utilized, stretched, and (AIE) Program, Shrestha paints paign, and moved home to Ne- our children experiencing trauma ready for the next big challenge.

the calligraphy of the Nepali al- pal. Within months, she found- from the earthquake. Our staff A first step to engage people WISE WORDS phabet into mesmerizing frac- ed CAM in Kathmandu, with the have been trained by art thera- at their highest point of contribu- tal arrangements. “My culture is mission of being the first sustain- pists now. We used to have a lot tion is to become a genius watcher, very close to my heart. The script able art space for Nepali youth. of kids visit us; now we go to the actively on the hunt for what’s na- is centuries old. It deserves more Shresta quickly learned that schools,” Shresta says. “Because tive. Constantly challenge yourself “ If you don’t understand it appreciation for its aesthetics.” the growing museum’s needs of the earthquake, many schools to uncover latent capabilities by and you act as if it doesn’t Shrestha first began paint- outweighed her own under- think there’s even less of a reason asking, “How is this person smart?” ing on the walls of her bedroom standing of how to run an orga- to do things like the arts when, One by one, you’ll discover the na- exist, you may shoot as a kid. She only really enjoyed nization. “All the strategizing I in reality, this is when [children] tive geniuses of your staff. yourself in the foot.” art at home because, in her ex- was doing was just me,” she says. need it the most.” Professor FERNANDO REIMERS, ED.M.’84, ED.D.’88, in perience, Nepali schools encour- A mentor, CALEB NEELON, ED.M.’04, ELISE FOSTER, ED.M.’06, IS A LEADER- response to a disparaging remark then-presidential age academic skills over creative suggested the AIE Program. BOBBY DORIGO JONES IS A NEW SHIP EDUCATOR. ALYSSA GALLAGHER candidate Donald Trump made about the term “global GRADUATE OF THE EDUCATION POLICY LEARN MORE ABOUT SHRESTHA IS WITH THE WISEMAN GROUP. ERIK enterprises. “In Nepal in gen- She applied and was accepted AND MANAGEMENT PROGRAM AND AND CAM AT IMAGINE876.COM BURMEISTER IS SUPERINTENDENT OF citizenship,” on why understanding global affairs is

eral, creativity is not allowed in early 2015, but a couple months AN INTERN WITH ED. AND NEPALCAM.COM/#CAM SHRESTHA SNEHA MENLO PARK CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT. critical to making sense of one’s life. (Commonwealth)

HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 14 4/30/17 11:21 PM HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 15 4/30/17 11:22 PM Intro. Harvard Ed. Summer 2017 JOBS FOR THE FUTURE AT FIVE

THE MAKING OF

Lecturer Gigi Luk

As Gigi Luk knows, based on her own experience speaking many languages, as well as her ongoing research on children at the Brain.Behavior.Education Five years ago, it started with one report from the Ed (BEE) lab at the Ed School, bilingualism School that revealed that the majority of young people in shapes our brains for life. In fact, as she America were not being prepared for success. As Path- has also learned, the ability to speak ways to Prosperity noted, fewer than half of all teens more than one language in a changing in the country reach their 20s with marketable college world is not only helpful, but it could degrees despite 65 percent of jobs requiring postsec- actually be a survival skill. ondary credentials by 2020. Unfortunately, as the report also found, more attention is given to college readiness than to career readiness. The need to address this skills 1982 1989 topics in psychology. I a negative impact Two years later, I During middle school, was fascinated by the on academic per- gap, they found, was urgent. moved back to Hong we had a choice to knowledge psycholo- formances. These In response, the Ed School joined forces with Kong with my family so take French instead gists accumulated to complexities masked Boston-based Jobs for the Future, which includes many I could start elementa- of Chinese. I opted to understand human the positive cognitive alumni, to create the Pathways to Prosperity Network. ry school. I attended a learn French because behavior. In particular, consequences that I The network began small, working first with four states 16 Catholic school where having the opportunity I was drawn to how have observed as a 17 to develop clear career pathways for young people that I heard the story about to learn about differ- psychologists study researcher. 1977 the Tower of Babel. ent languages was human development would, in turn, create a pipeline of skilled workers for I was born in Hong The story was about very important for me. and cognition. 2013 employers. The network has grown: Today, more than a Kong where English how God tried to I was fortunate enough During a fellowship dozen states are involved, covering nearly 46 percent of and Cantonese are stop people build- to grow up with many 2001 supported by the K–12 public school students. And the work these states spoken. My parents ing a tower that was opportunities to learn During my senior year Spencer Founda- are doing is tangible. In Delaware, for example, innova- and relatives spoke reaching up to the sky languages, both in of college, I completed 2008 tion, I began to think guage backgrounds, learning. In addition to tion grants were awarded to 15 high schools to develop both languages to me. by scattering people everyday life and in two research proj- After obtaining my of different ways to not just monolingual conducting research, pathways to high-priority industries in the state such as around the world and classrooms. ects and worked as a doctoral degree, also study bilingualism, and bilingual groups. I traveled to Ecuador, 1980 confounding them teaching assistant in from York, I started a development, and Saudi Arabia, and computer science and culinary arts and hospitality. My parents and I to speak different 1997 a statistics course. I postdoctoral fellow- 2011 learning. Instead 2016 Luxembourg to learn Network director AMY LOYD, ED.L.D.’13, who initially moved to Singapore languages. As a young I started to study enjoyed the research ship at a geriatric Learning about the of comparing the During my sabbatical more about what bilin- did her Ed.L.D. residency with Jobs for the Future, says, because my father bilingual, I won- economics as an and teaching experi- hospital to study difference bilingualism absolute performance in the fall, I integrated gualism means in dif- “This has become a huge national movement, with lots had a job there. In dered why this was undergraduate at York ences as a senior as how lifelong bilin- has on the aging brain, levels of children with these focuses into a ferent countries. Our of energy behind it. One report launched this, but now it Singapore, there are a problem because University in Toronto. it was gratifying to gual experiences is I joined the Ed School different language functional magnetic ability to acquire mul- has expanded to something so much bigger.” many languages: every person can just During the freshman engage in knowledge related to brain health to begin understand- backgrounds, I started resonance imaging tiple languages is a Most recently, the network decided to reach back Mandarin, English, learn to speak more summer, I took an generation and dis- in the aging popula- ing how bilingualism, to focus on change (fMRI) study. Using survival skill adapting Tamil, Malay, and other languages and com- introductory course semination. With my tion. It is apparent as a life experience, and differences. With cognitive neuro- to the changing world. even further than high school. Possible Futures, Possible dialects. I used to live municate! covering a variety of passion to conduct that no single brain shapes develop- these focuses, my science tools, my It’s not a special tal- Selves, its new program for middle school students, pro- in a very multicultural research on develop- region is dedicated ment and learning in research team and I research team and ent, but an adaptation vides open-source curricular modules for middle school neighborhood, and ment and cognition, to managing multiple children. For children designed studies that I extended the cur- to the environment. If teachers to download and use centered around skills my parents sent me I decided to pursue languages. Therefore, with diverse language include all children rent knowledge on you live in Europe, you for success and looking toward the future. The latter, in to a school that used research to learn I examined how differ- backgrounds, there with different lan- bilingualism and need to be bilingual. particular, allows students to look at their strengths and Japanese as a medium about how our mind ent brain regions work is much emphasis on I hope that the sci- of instruction. I did and brain are shaped together to support English proficiency ence of bilingualism personal “sparks” — what motivates them — and ways not speak a word of by our experiences, the control of multiple in the United States, will strengthen our they can use these to contribute to society. LH Japanese. To this day, particularly bilingual- languages. It was which is a narrow embrace for language I still remember the ism. My passion to remarkable that bilin- representation of diversity in education feeling of not being understand language gualism, an everyday bilingualism. Further- and beyond. Looking able to comprehend use and behavior has experience for many, more, bilingualism is back at my early years and share my thoughts grown from a personal is reflected in our be- associated with other in Hong Kong and LINK TO THE NETWORK: PTOPNETWORK.JFF.ORG because I do not interest to an intel- havior and also makes socio-demographic Singapore, I know it LINK TO THE POSSIBLE FUTURES SITE:

speak the language. lectual curiosity. a mark in our biology. factors that may have (TOP) ANDERSON JILL did for me. PTOPNETWORK.JFF.ORG/POSSIBLE-FUTURES

HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 16 4/30/17 11:22 PM HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 17 4/30/17 11:22 PM Intro. Harvard Ed. Summer 2017 ALLEN HONORED

In November, political philosopher and Ed School Professor Danielle Allen was named a university professor — Harvard’s highest faculty honor, which recognizes individuals whose work crosses the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines. The appointment as the James Bryant Conant University Professor comes after being at Harvard for less than two years. Since the professorship was started in 1935, 25 individuals have been given the title. Allen’s work explores the history of political thought and notions of citizenship and equality. In addition to teaching at the Ed School, she is also director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and profes- The Doctor Is In sor of government in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Her packed resume includes a HOW TEAMING UP WITH PEDIATRICIANS IS HELPING MacArthur genius grant, participa- ONE PROFESSOR WITH HER RESEARCH 18 tion as a Pulitzer Prize board mem- 19 ber, and five books and countless articles in both scholarly journals t’s an interesting dilemma for Associate Professor MEREDITH ROWE, ED.M.’99, and popular media, including Our I ED.D.’03. In order to do some of her research, which looks at literacy and vocabulary Declaration and Why Plato Wrote. development from birth until age 3, she needs to study little kids. But as she has found She is a contributing columnist for over the years, recruiting families, at least on a large scale, isn’t always easy. She would The Washington Post and serves send out mailings or email parent groups. They would even post signs around town. Even- as co-chair of the newly appointed tually, they’d find families, maybe 40 or 50 kids, but getting hundreds was always harder. university-wide task force on inclu- That’s why, when pediatrician Barry Zuckerman from Boston Medical Center reached Where’s sion and belonging. out to her, she jumped at the chance to collaborate on a new project: providing informa- Ed.? In response to now holding a tion to new low-income parents about how they can help their babies develop vocabulary, named chair once held by Harvard in a place all parents visit — the doctor’s office. political theorist John Rawls, Allen “Barry came to me, and within seconds we both realized there were benefits to this “ Teachers have to be says, “I’m deeply honored. One partnership,” Rowe says, noting Zuckerman had similar experience reaching parents aware. They have to always chases after one’s heroes, through Reach Out and Read, his nonprofit that provides books to children at pediatric and I look forward to doing whatever visits. “The thought was if we could go through pediatricians who have access to these know who’s in their I can to be worthy of this remarkable families anyways and are seen as trustworthy, it would be a more effective way to reach classrooms. They have honor.” LH families. Pediatricians are a trusted source of information for parents.” to be aware which The plan is to recruit parents at Boston Medical when they bring their babies in for their child has a parent who four-month checkup. Families would be given an app that would deliver messages during the first two years of life, including short videos on everything from the importance has been deployed of pointing to being responsive to baby babble to managing parent stress. or a parent who just FOLLOW ALLEN ON TWITTER: “We think it’s essential to help parents understand how much of a difference they @DSALLENTESS came back.” READ THE ED. STORY ABOUT HER can make in their child’s development,” Rowe says. Parents will answer questions after NEW VIDEO PROJECT: GSE.HARVARD. watching the videos, which will be produced with WGBH once funding comes through. Former Second Lady Jill Biden (pictured) EDU/ED/EXTRAS speaking to the Harvard EdCast at the White Assistant Professor Dana McCoy is also part of the team. “The goal is, through this House in November about Operation Educate team, for Dana and me to provide context, Barry to be the connection to pediatricians, the Educators, the initiative she started to meet the needs of military children. and Jillian Orr at WGBH to produce the videos,” she says, adding that although it’s a lot of work building relationships, “it’s a great example of capitalizing on people’s strengths

and using community experts to make things happen.” LH HERE CREDIT HERE CREDIT

Illustration by Melinda Beck Photograph by Matt Weber

HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 18 4/30/17 11:23 PM HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 19 4/30/17 11:23 PM HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 20 20 Intro assistant professor Emmerich Davies Escobar, ON MY BOOKSHELF coffee shopin winter. excited to check them out. short storiescalledMexico City Noir. I’ve never read any noir stories,soI’m but if it’s for pleasure, the distractions andnoiseare welcome. was a no-brainer given my interest inSouth Asia. writers from there anddedicatinganentire issue to them. The India issue nice jobof focusing ononecountry and finding young fictionandnonfiction India issuehasbeenonmy listever sinceitcameout.Granta doesa really loved that helpedmeunderstand what isgreat abouturbanareas. Granta’s 21st-century follow-up to The DeathandLife of Great Cities was, a bookI versation with my roommate who isanurbanplanner. Iasked him what the NEXT UP: ANY PLACE WHERE YOU FIND IT HARD TO READ? FAVORITE SPOT TO CURL UP WITH A GOOD BOOK: Boundary by C.L.R. James simply because they’re my two favorite books. be Midnight’s Children by SalmanRushdie andnonfiction would beBeyond a BOOK THAT YOU OWN THAT YOU’D NEVER GIVE AWAY AND WHY: PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO KNOW I’VE NEVER READ… FAVORITE BOOK FROM CHILDHOOD AND WHY YOU LOVED IT: THE THING THAT DREW YOU TO THEM: YOU’RE CURRENTLY READING: after Gandhiby Ramachandra Guha or any of Amartya Sen’s books. let like that apocryphalstory of the Englishprofessor that hadnever read Ham in particular. his was The Andromeda Strain althoughIcan’t quiteremember why that one into MichaelCrichtonasa child,andif Iremember correctly, my favorite of India issueof stories. currently reading are Walkable Cityby Jeff SpeckandGranta magazine’s have far more books onit than I’mactually engaged with, but the two Iam and when hisdepartment found out,hedidn’t get tenure! Probably India . GSE.HARVARD.EDU LY PUBLISHED A BOOK, LET US KNOW: THE ED SCHOOL COMMUNITY AND YOU’VE RECENT GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS FOR A FULL LIST OF BOOKS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE: I’mgoing to beinMexico City, soIjustpicked upa collectionof LH My bedside table ismostly aspirational, andI . IF YOU’RE PART OF Walkable Citycameabout from a con- BOOKNOTES@ If it’s for work, anywhere noisy, My deckin the summer anda - I was weirdly really Ha! This questionis In fiction, it would - fessor diversity andmerit? Associate Pro- What docollegestudents think about Natasha Warikoo have helped them. their privilegesor upbringingmay process, not taking intoaccounthow was fairly chosen though aninclusive themselves aspartof anelite that to peopleof color. Many alsosee don’t necessarily see the benefit long asitbenefits themselves. They with affirmative action,butonly as an abstract way andreluctantly agree understand the value of diversity in found that many elite white students College, Brown, andOxford and interviewed studentsatHarvard THE DIVERSITY BARGAIN NATASHA WARIKOO, ED.M.’97 , Photograph by Ekaterina Smirnova Harvard Ed Harvard 4/30/17 11:23 PM .

CREDIT HERE HED04-FOB-Intro.indd 21

STYLING BY LIZ PARSONS Summer 2017 One of the goalsof this new bookby Genevieve Siegel-Hawley tried to counteract them. school districtboundary lines” as well asregions that have shows “thedamages wrought by the segregating impact of Carolina; andChattanooga, Tennessee —Siegel-Hawley Virginia; Louisville, Kentucky; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North segregation. Using data from four U.S. districts—Richmond, in understanding the relationship between boundary linesand wealth University, is to shedlighton the major issuesinvolved HAWLEY, ED.M.’05 WHEN THE FENCES COME DOWN , assistantprofessor at Virginia Common- Rick DaltonandEdward St. John and how to get started. book alsoincludeschapters onunderstanding the challenges get through college.Inaddition to real-life casestudies, the is nolonger a luxury, buta necessity —and then successfully low-income students find pathways tocollege— what they say lessons learned that canhelpeducatorsand volunteers help at the University of Michigan,share practical resources and for Every Student,and RICK DALTON,RICK ED.M.’79, ED.D.’88 COLLEGE FOR EVERY STUDENT GENEVIEVE SIEGEL- EDWARD ST. JOHN, ED.D.’78 , president andCEO of College , professor activities for parents andcaregivers. “try this” and“share the joy” exercises and definitions and a glossary of terms,as well as Language, alsocontainseasy-to-understand to frame the chapters. Her book,The Joy of to write her own book,usingcommonquestions textbooks or inacademiclingo.So Tuck decided ommend to them. Most were written ascollege tions and there were few books shecouldrec- and speechdeveloped, they hadmany ques- when shespoke to parents abouthow language and speech-languagepathologist, found that Over the years, Tara Tuck THE JOY OF LANGUAGE TARA C.A.S.’91TUCK, , a teacher selves for dubiousends.” burdens they placeon them- parents to reconsider the time hascome for American mass media, they say. “The “grossly exaggerated” in the child development hasbeen influence of parenting on of their parenting.” Yet the but about the effectiveness not only about their children “feel burdened andanxious, with parents elsewhere, parents, they find, compared dren. American middleclass development of their chil- and how this affects the around the world parent how differently people and Sarah LeVine explore fessor BobLeVine, emeritus, ment, anthropologists Pro- hood andchilddevelop- cultural aspectsof parent- After decadesstudying the LeVine Robert LeVine andSarah DO PARENTS MATTER? 4/30/17 11:23 PM 21 HED04-FEA-CharterSchools.indd 22 22 Over 3. The Charter 1. 4. THINGS BECOME SO POLARIZED? HOW DID Summer 2017

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ZACHARY JASON ZACHARY MIKE MCQUADE STORY BY STORY Battle 2. Schools 5. 4/30/17 11:35 PM HED04-FEA-CharterSchools.indd 23

CREDIT HERE Summer 2017 Illustration by John Doe 4/30/17 11:35 PM 23 Harvard Ed. Summer 2017

he fiercest battle yet in percent of its students (98 percent minority) are ac- America’s struggle over char- cepted to college? Nationwide, while charters only ter schools erupted last fall in educate 6 percent of the nation’s students, they regu- Massachusetts. If passed, a larly fill a third ofU.S. News and World Report’s top ballot initiative in the general 100 high schools. election would have given the Or are we talking about Philadelphia’s Harambee T Commonwealth the power to Institute of Science and Technology, a K–8 charter annually add up to 12 new char- with a cafeteria that on weekends converted into an ter schools — publicly funded, illegal nightclub? Harambee was featured in a recent independently run alternatives Last Week with John Oliver segment on sensational • to traditional public schools. examples of failing charters, including several that They would have been built closed in the middle of the year, and a Florida ele- in a handful of urban communities, where 32,000 mentary charter that shuttered in the middle of a day. children, a majority black and Latino, were sitting on Reville’s point: It’s impossible to generalize char- waiting lists of existing charters as they languished ter schools. How charters are run, funded, and over- in underperforming district schools. But teachers, seen varies dramatically from state to state, school parents, and investors across the state, and the coun- to school. In Charter Schools at the Crossroads, one try at large, took to picketing, advertising, evangeliz- of the most comprehensive overviews of the charter ing. In one corner formed Save Our Public Schools movement, CHESTER FINN, M.A.T.’67, ED.D.’70, concludes, (aka No on 2), a coalition that included teachers “The charter track record can best be described as 6,800 unions, pta committees, the Jewish Labor League, stunningly uneven.” and the Brazilian Women’s Group, and aligned with But voters most often asked Reville a simpler the likes of the naacp, the mayor of Boston, and question: “What am I voting for?” A majority were Senator Elizabeth Warren. They argued, broadly, unfamiliar with charter schools; there are 78 in Number of public charter that charters pilfer money and students from dis- Massachusetts, to traditional public schools’ 1,934. schools in the U.S. trict schools, aren’t held accountable, and privatize As Finn told me, “Most Americans still have no idea public education. what a charter school is.” Knowing seems to make a Their opponent called themselves Great Schools difference. WhenEducation Next surveyed parents, 24 (Yes on 2), a cluster of charter advocacy groups, teachers, and members of the general public across 25 funded by the Walton family and former New York the country last fall, only 28 percent supported the mayor Michael Bloomberg and aligned with low- formation of charter schools. Yet when participants income parents of public school children, Mas- were provided a two-sentence definition of a charter sachusetts Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, school, 52 percent approved. and Governor Charlie Baker. Yes on 2 insisted that Today charters educate 3 million pupils (a million all families should have the ability to choose their more sit on waiting lists) in 43 states. But as some 330 education, and teachers should have the freedom new charters open a year, the sides grow more polar- to innovate. Both sides spent a combined $33 mil- ized. Folks like Meg Campbell claim they fight for lion, one of the largest ballot-item campaigns in charters because they’re fighting “on the side of jus- the state’s history. A week before the election, polls tice.” Others, like KELLY HENDERSON, ED.M.’06, a public curricula, personnel, and budgets free of the regula- “The charter [school] showed a dead split. high school English teacher in Newton, Massachu- tions to which district schools are beholden. For ex- To help decide, dozens of constituents asked Pro- setts, claim that charters are not only an “attack on ample, many charters have longer school days and track record can best fessor Paul Reville, former secretary of education in public schools,” but also a “pernicious” and deliber- school years than their peers. It is the good and the be described as Massachusetts, how they should vote. Reville was ate “attack on women,” who comprise 76 percent of bad that charter schools have done with that autono- the chief architect of the Education Reform Act of public school teachers. my that has largely fueled the charter battle. stunningly uneven.” 1993, which introduced chartering to Massachu- How did charters get so muddy? How did a move- Looking back, a schism over charters seems inev- setts, and he’s been an outspoken champion of char- ment that began with far-flung bipartisan support itable because its roots are so tangled. In the 1960s, Chester Finn, M.A.T.’67, Ed.D.’70 2.9 ters since. But whenever someone asked, “What do just 25 years ago morph into one of today’s most con- conservative economists and liberal academics alike MILLION you think of charter schools?” Reville was quick to tentious debates in education? argued for school choice, albeit for different reasons. respond, “Which school are we talking about?” In Capitalism and Freedom, published in 1962, the Are we talking about New York’s Success Acade- Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman my or KIPP schools nationwide, perennially profiled irst, a definition. the “charter” in proposed that the government provide needy fami- to give “incentive for each [public] school to be sen- Number of U.S. students enrolled in charter schools examples of the best — charter, public, and private in- charter schools is a contract, agreed upon lies with vouchers that they could redeem at private sitive to the needs and expectations of its constitu- cluded — in the nation? Are we talking about any of F between those who run the school and the schools. This would allow market forces, not the gov- ency,” as Sizer later wrote. the five Massachusetts charters that Senior Lecturer entity that authorizes the school’s exis- ernment, to shape public education — causing fail- Finn cites seven other “ancestors” of chartering KAY MERSETH, M.A.T.’69, ED.D.’82, investigated in Inside tence (which ranges from school districts ing schools to close and compelling individuals and including a growing emphasis on educational out- Urban Charter Schools, wildly different in curricula, • to for-profit companies to boards of educa- organizations to open competitors. comes and equity, and “the impetus to replace a bu- pedagogy, and mission, but all wildly successful? Are tion). Charter schools are public schools, tuition-free Then-Ed School Dean Theodore Sizer made a reaucratic quasi monopoly with a competitive mar- we talking about Boston-based Codman Academy, and open to all on a first-come, first-serve basis, or by similar proposal in 1968 with a “Poor Children’s Bill ketplace.” Finn, president emeritus of the Thomas founded by MEG CAMPBELL, C.A.S.’97, ED.M.’05,, where 100 lottery. But the charter grants autonomy to develop of Rights,” though not to grant the market power, but B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank, says

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the propulsion toward school choice is and has al- he extended Budde’s argument, and proposed the Opponents also cite the high turnover rate: Nation- ways been that “way too few kids in America have establishment of publicly funded, independently wide, charters lose 24 percent of their teachers each been able to pick their schools, and way too many managed schools that could experiment with ways year, double the rate of traditional public schools. have been stuck in bad schools that they have no al- to educate the some 80 percent of students that he Why? Longer hours and less pay, for one. But char- ternative to.” As Dean James Ryan wrote in an Ed estimated traditional schools weren’t serving well. ters in general are also less apt to retain teachers for Week blog, “Are you comfortable allowing more af- Shanker piqued the curiosity of a group of pro- decades, and more apt to embrace both a startup-like fluent families to choose their schools while denying gressive educators and policymakers in Minnesota. culture and millennials’ compulsion toward multiple poorer families similar opportunities?” They pitched charter schools as educational “labs” careers, and to continuously recruit fresh, highly mo- In 1974, Ray Budde, a World War II veteran and — district schools would adopt trials that worked. tivated talent. (The average Success Academy teacher, an education professor at the University of Massa- Teachers unions feared a lack of accountability for example, leaves after four years.) But the attrition chusetts Amherst, introduced the idea of charter- and charged that charters would prove a back-door gap is narrowing, and these numbers are also slightly ing. He proposed that states grant charters to create entrance to private-school vouchers. But the state misleading: When charters franchise, many veteran new, experimental programs and departments at passed a charter law in 1991, and the country’s first faculty leave existing schools to ensure the new loca- existing public schools. The response? Nothing. As charter school opened a year later. St. Paul’s City tions maintain the quality of the original. Still, high The first charter school opened Budde recalled, “No one felt that things were so bad Academy still exists today. California passed a char- turnover tends to diminish student achievement. in Minnesota in 1992 that the system itself needed to be changed.” ter law in 1992; six states followed in 1993. And critics highlight that after 25 years and some But soon after he shelved the idea, think tanks In The Charter School Experiment, the authors 6,000 schools, charters still on average produce and the federal government released a series of note that charters schools’ early advocates “envi- results roughly equal those of the public schools to damning reports on public schools, most notably sioned small-scale, autonomous schools run by in- which they set out to be better alternatives. Nation- the Reagan Administration’s A Nation at Risk: The dependent mom-and-pop operators who would be wide, low-income students, especially black and His- Imperative for Education Reform, the 1983 report positioned to respond to local community needs.” panic, tend to benefit from charters the most, stud- that warned of a “rising tide of mediocrity.” The vision enjoyed sweeping appeal. Everyone from ies show. But for white and Asian students, as Finn When Budde resurrected his charter idea in 1988, the naacp to the Walton Family Foundation to the notes, “the effects are generally neutral or negative.” he caught the attention of Albert Shanker, longtime Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supported char- president of the American Federation of Teachers. ters. Bill Clinton signed a federal support program Though teachers unions almost unilaterally oppose for charters in 1994, and every president since has he staggering range in charter charters today, Shanker became the movement’s advocated for school choice. As John Oliver quipped, quality starts with authorizers. Every first major booster. Writing in The New York Times, “Charter schools unite both sides of the aisle more T charter school has a state-sanctioned or- 26 quickly than when a wedding DJ throws on ‘Hey Ya.’” ganization that grants its license, re- 27 But as charter schools bloomed, the laboratory views its performance, and renews or theory largely gave way to the reality of a parallel • terminates its contract. About 200 char- education system. Charters collaborated with pub- ters close a year, not just for academic shortcom- lic schools far less often than teachers unions liked, ings, but for flawed governance or leadership, a drop DeVos is a champion of vouchers, TYPES OF CHARTER SCHOOLS and liberal legislators — historic allies — began to in student demand, or financial miscalculations. state-funded scholarships that side with the unions more readily. Competition bred Districts themselves authorize 39 percent of the parents in low-income districts Half of the country’s 6,800 charters could be classified as “general,” without a specific animosity. Finn boils down the charter battle to this: country’s charters, state education agencies 28 per- mission, pedagogy, or curriculum. In addition to novel approaches, many charters fol- “If you are an adult invested in district education cent, and the rest include colleges, nonprofit, and can use to send their children to low “good old-fashioned education practices” that district schools had abandoned, as for jobs, and you discover charters are slowly eating for-profit organizations. In Indianapolis, even the private or religious school. a Massachusetts Department of Education study found. Specialized charters include your lunch, you will grow intense in your desire to mayor’s office has authorizations. An undiscerning progressive (like some Montessori), single-gender, STEM, and arts-based, plus: contain or kill charters.” authorizer is the main root of weak charters. Known as Michigan’s “godmother of school choice,” newly appointed Secretary of The top criticism of charters is that they rob fund- Take Ohio, often called the Wild West of char- Education Betsy DeVos, above right, with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, has been one of the top funders of Detroit’s charter schools No Excuses: Characterized by high academic and behavioral expectations and rigor- ing from district schools. It’s the primary tactic No tering. Notorious for its leniency with authorizers, ous structure, no excuse schools predominate in urban areas with a majority of minority children. Some 15 percent of charters follow the no excuses model, though fewer on 2 took last fall. And it’s true, but only in that states 65 in all, Ohio celebrated what Charter Schools at call themselves such today. One franchised example includes KIPP, with 200 schools and districts transfer funding per pupil; the money the Crossroads dubbed a 15-year-long “fiesta of al- across the country. follows the child. In 2016, the Massachusetts Tax- most unlimited chartering” that resulted in a last- payers Foundation concluded that the district–char- ing hangover. A 2014 study from the Center for Re- income parents, often pick schools based on con- Online: Virtual charters educate 8 percent of all charter students and are found in 17 ter balance had been stable — 3.9 percent of students search on Education Outcomes (credo) at Stanford venience and safety, “but pay little or no attention states. In 2015, Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that the were in charters, and 3.9 percent of district funding University found that the average Ohio charter stu- to whether the kids were learning anything,” says average online charter student, compared with the average district school student, went to charters. But district schools argue that this dent, compared with his or her public school peer, Finn. Demand for things like location, security, and achieves 72 fewer days in reading each year and 180 fewer days (not a typo) of learning in math, based on a 180-day school year. still makes it harder to cover their relatively un- acquired 14 fewer days in reading and 43 fewer days athletic programs allowed failing charters to thrive. changed operating costs. For example, if a school of math in a 180-day school year. The results were (See sidebar for more on parents.) Hybrid: These schools include face-to-face and online instruction. Forms vary greatly. loses two students per grade, they lose the per-pupil nearly identical five years earlier.credo cited many Also consider Michigan, home state of Secretary At San Francisco’s Flex Academy, students take online classes in the same building funding but fixed administrative costs remain the authorizers’ inability to “provide monitoring and of Education Betsy DeVos. Known as Michigan’s five days a week, but on-site teachers only intervene when students perform poorly. At same. As Moody’s found in 2012, a yearly trickle of oversight” as the primary source of failure. “godmother of school choice,” DeVos has been one others, students complete the vast majority of coursework at home, save for occa- students transferring isn’t the “critical mass” dis- But Finn also blames parents. Learning why they of the top funders of Detroit’s charter schools, which, sional drop-in hours. trict schools need to justify cutting programs, and sent their children to charters, he says, “was a real as a New York Times op-ed commented, “even char- Expeditionary Learning: Largely influenced by German educator Kurt Hahn, “EL” so some districts struggle to adapt. But some states, cold shower.” Surveys by the Center on Reinventing ter advocates acknowledge is the biggest school re- schools like Launch focus on immersive, interdisciplinary, and often community-based Massachusetts included, have even reimbursed pub- Public Education at the University of Washington form disaster in the country.” As the Times reported,

research projects, character development, and leadership skills. ZJ lic schools the funds they lost to charters. SHUTTERSTOCK and others revealed that parents, especially low- half of Detroit’s charters performed only as well, or

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ut charter advocates, of course, They contend that charters inadequately serve pro-district school only, simply as a revolt against WHAT PARENTS THINK OF CHARTERS argue that they exist as better alterna- children with special needs. Charter schools sus- Trump. Reville says many leaders of high-quality tives to terrible public schools. And pend children with disabilities at a higher rate than charters have decided to keep a low profile for now. In 2016, Education Next magazine asked 1,571 parents to assess B states with judicious authorizers have a public schools, and there have been many cases of “They don’t want to be alienated by associating with their children’s respective district, charter, or private schools. strong record of charters outperforming inadequacy due to a lack of resources, experience, a DeVos–Trump charter framework,” he says. Private school parents were more satisfied than their peers on • districts. Massachusetts has one lone and insensitivity. Nationwide, however, the gap is On the other hand, DeVos is a champion of vouch- almost every measure of their schools’ performance (save racial authorizer, the state board of education. Every Mas- relatively small: 12.6 percent of public school chil- ers, state-funded scholarships that parents in low-in- and ethnic diversity, with which charter parents were equally satis- sachusetts charter must provide annual evidence of dren have special needs, 10.4 percent in charters. come districts can use to send their children to private fied). Parents of charter and public school children are equally its “faithfulness” to its contract, its academic suc- And many charters serve special needs children or religious school. Charter and district supporters satisfied with their respective school’s quality of teachers, safety, cess, its equity among students, and its engagement specifically, such as Utah’s Spectrum Academy for alike tend to dislike vouchers. As a result, would both and facilities. But parents of charter school children were “very with parents, and be subject to annual financial au- autistic students and Minnesota’s Metro Deaf Char- sides of the charter war unite against vouchers? How satisfied” more often than district school parents in terms of their diting and site visits, otherwise the state can close ter School. things move forward with DeVos could drive district schools’ discipline (34 to 17 percent), student achievement the school. “That’s the thing I like most about char- They also note that since charters serve a dis- and charter schools to compromise and collaborate. expectations (38 to 25 percent), “instruction in character or values” ter schools: There’s a public mechanism for shutting proportionate amount of minorities, they are more Merseth, Campbell, Reville, and Gardner all (38 to 21 percent), and on every measure of the schools’ communi- them down,” says Campbell. credo found in 2013 racially segregated than traditional public schools. argue that there’s already much more collabora- California has the most charter cations with parents. ZJ that the commonwealth’s charter students gained As the Brookings Institution also noted last fall, this tion than the mainstream narrative of competition schools of any state: 1,253 36 more days in reading and 65 more days in math a is a delicate balancing act. “Reducing school segre- suggests. The Alma Del Mar Charter School leads year. Studies from the Ed School’s Center for Educa- gation and improving the quality of schools serv- monthly professional development workshops for tion Policy Research and mit show similar results, ing minority students are both important goals, but public school teachers in New Bedford and neigh- and two months before the election, Brookings In- they are not necessarily the same.” Still, the naacp boring towns like Fall River and Dartmouth and has stitution released a study that found the state’s char- boosted the No on 2 campaign in October, when the partnered with the local high school, where Alma’s ter cap “holds back disadvantaged students.” Mas- civil rights organization called for a national morato- top eighth-graders can take ninth-grade algebra. If worse, than traditional public schools in the city, sachusetts is the poster child for charter success. rium on expanding charters until there was less seg- pro- and anti-charter zealots “zoom in, they’ll see which are some of the most challenged in the coun- Standouts include Alma Del Mar, a K–8 charter regation and better accountability and transparency. lots of cross-pollination,” says Gardner. try. (Last year, only 10 percent of rising high school that WILL GARDNER, ED.M.’10, founded in 2011. While In the end, despite the polls, Reville says the vote Bolstering the original “laboratory” ideal of seniors scored college ready on reading tests.) Some running an afterschool program for middle school- was always “no contest.” No on 2 had a sprawling charters, informing the public more about charter of the worst charters have even added locations. The ers in low-income New Bedford, Gardner was ground game, thanks in part to 110,000 members schools themselves, closing failing charters, holding problem stems largely from Michigan’s plethora of shocked that, in spite of the “tremendous resources of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. And for-profit charters as accountable as nonprofit char- 28 authorizers (44), most of which allow “just about and human capital” in Massachusetts, many stu- the message they repeated relentlessly stuck with ters and district schools — these would all staunch 29 anyone [who] can raise the money” to open a school, dents were woefully behind their peers even in sixth the undecided voters: Charter schools steal public the charter debate, experts all agree. according to The Washington Post. grade. After fielding suggestions from dozens of schools’ money. Most charter advocates agree the In Charter Schools at the Crossroads, Finn and his 8 Perhaps it’s not surprising that for-profit compa- local parents, he decided to start a “high-demand, referendum was a doomed political strategy. Ex- coauthors make their final case for charter schools nies run 80 percent of Michigan’s charters, far more high-support” school where college prep would start plaining the nuances of funding “gets too compli- by referencing the Massachusetts Constitution of than any other state. Finn writes in Crossroads that in kindergarten. Alma’s teachers are expected to cated for the average voter,” Reville says. Sixty-two 1780, the oldest constitution in continuous effect Number of states without there’s nothing “reprehensible” about profiting from keep their cellphones on at night for homework help percent of voters rejected the cap lift. Only 18 of 351 in the world, written centuries before the advent of charter schools “public education, any more than a paving contrac- and/or emotional support and to visit the home of towns voted a majority in favor, and they were all in charter schools and decades before Horace Mann tor that profits from work it does for the highway every child every year. suburban districts without charters. In the state with universalized public education. The document man- Alabama department.” Charter opponents argue schools In Dorchester, Campbell’s Codman Academy, the nation’s greatest charter record, the vote marked dates that the Commonwealth “cherish the interests Kentucky 62.1 Montana shouldn’t be run like businesses — weighing educa- which was founded in 2000, is the only school in the the charter movement’s greatest defeat. of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of PERCENT Nebraska tion with efficiencies. Some even see a slippery slope. country located within a community health center. them … to encourage private societies and public in- North Dakota Says Henderson, “Are we going to have charter po- High school students complete healthcare intern - stitutions … to inculcate the principles of humanity South Dakota lice forces, charter fire departments?” ships, and all students receive free dental cleanings he charter war has only grownmore and general benevolence, public and private chari- Percentage of votes for Vermont Ideologies aside, the overall record of for-profit and vision screenings. fraught since the election. President ty, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality.” NO West Virginia the Massachusetts ballot question schools is subpar. In 2009–10, while 66 percent of A Dorchester resident for the past 35 years, Camp- T Donald Trump backed Michigan native Lofty goals for all children, and very open-ended for to expand the charter cap nonprofit charters achieved what the No Child Left bell sent her children through the Boston Public DeVos, an ardent school-choice crusad- how to achieve them. (37.9% voted YES) Behind Act defined as “adequate yearly progress,” Schools. But she started Codman after becoming er, to lead the Department of Education, Finn says, “If the goal is educational excellence only 51 percent of for-profit charters made the grade. frustrated with local public schools’ lack of flexibil- • with a proposed $20 billion for school- for children, we should be agnostic as to what sorts Beginning in the mid-2000s, many states have ity (BPS has the shortest school day in the country) choice initiatives. A victory for charters, but at the of institutions can best deliver it.” banned for-profit charters. At one point, the New and what she described as tracking systems that be- cost of deeper division. Jersey-based Edison Schools Inc. franchised 130 gin in second grade and perpetuate “the illusion that While not solely responsible for charters’ failings ZACHARY JASON IS A BOSTON-BASED WRITER WHOSE LAST STORY, “BORED OUT OF THEIR MINDS” WAS PUBLISHED charters in 22 states. They now run five. Today for- intelligence is innate.” Her fervor for charters only in Detroit (and although she has backed successful IN THE WINTER 2017 ISSUE OF ED. profits run 14 percent of all charters, many of which grew after she served on the Boston School Commit- charters in Michigan), DeVos remains what Reville are online charters, which have failed students horri- tee from 2011 to 2015. Even though more than 20 BPS calls a “divisive figure even within the charter move- bly. On average, online charter students achieve 180 schools were performing well below the state’s aver- ment” and has left many questioning her ability to fewer days of learning math each year. age, the committee, she says, “sat on its laurels just hold charters accountable. Charter opponents pound on these grim examples because its competition was so bad.” She concluded, Many also fear that should Trump become the to build the case of charter schools as a failed experi- “I’m under much more scrutiny as one little charter face of choice (he urged Congress, in his first ad- LINK TO DEAN RYAN’S ED WEEK BLOG, ment. As Merseth says, “Terrible schools are the big- school than any district school.” dress to them in March, to fund choice), many WHICH LOOKS AT CHOICES FOR PARENTS AT: gest black eye in the whole charter movement.” But No on 2 still found myriad criticisms. would-be supporters of charters may convert to GSE.HARVARD.EDU/ED/EXTRAS

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30 31

A School of Their Own

How one alum’s new learning center in North Carolina could redefine homeschooling

Story by Barry Yeoman Photographs by Jillian Clarke

CREDIT HERE CREDIT Opposite and above: Current students from Dimensions Family School

Illustration by John Doe

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works of the like-minded,” writes Robert Kunzman, a professor of education at Indiana University and managing director of the International Center for Home Education Research. Those networks range from informal playground groups to co-ops in which parents share the teaching or occasionally hire outsiders. Some public schools also offer part-time programs for homeschoolers. Dungan’s dfs goes beyond the informal, the like-minded, or the part-time. It provides a 10-room space that’s open every weekday from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. It draws a heterogeneous membership of 50 families from a wide geographic area. Its instructors, some hired and others parent-volunteers, hold graduate degrees. It offers outward-looking community activities like service projects and a craft market. Dungan recently launched a parent-education curriculum and has hired a researcher to gather periodic data to assess the efficacy of the model. charlotte dungan calls seven middle and “A co-op on steroids,” she says. high school students into a brick classroom above The curriculum, which runs from prekindergar- an ice cream shop in Durham, North Carolina. They ten through high school, includes classes in tradi- pile, loose-limbed and heaving with giggles, into tional subjects like chemistry and music theory. seats around a square table. “All right,” she says. Dimensions also offers instruction in less academic “All people, bring your voices down.” It takes a while skills: community service, self-governance, and, for the laughter to subside. When it does, DUNGAN, during another Big Picture Ideas class, emotional ED.M.’16, begins today’s Big Picture Ideas class with self-regulation. a small lesson on living with compassion. Dungan writes the word “hijacking” on the white- 32 One of the students, a 12-year-old named Mic board, asks for a definition, and then flips the con - 33 with flushed cheeks and fine blond hair, has brought versation from cockpits to adolescent brains. “Emo- a box of vegan cookies to share. “Do you remember tional hijacking is when your body takes over or it why we bring cookies?” Dungan asks the students. steals control of your emotion,” she explains. “You “It makes the space a little more comfortable, I are so mad that your brain literally stops thinking — guess,” says Luci, a blue-eyed 12-year-old wearing a the higher part of your brain — and [you] just punch camo hoodie. “Normally, we wouldn’t be able to eat somebody. Or your sadness takes over and you can’t “ I want you to food during class.” get that thing done that you know you have to do. You do this because “People want to come when there’s food, right?” are no longer going in the way that you would nor - the skills Dungan says. “It’s welcoming. And when everyone mally, rationally want to go.” eats the same thing, we’re thinking about others’ One student protests. “If you’re like that all the that you learn needs. When you think about your snacks, make time,” she says, explaining, “that is the way you can be applied sure that our vegan has something to eat. Or if would normally go.” way outside someone has a food allergy — we have a student who “Not in the long term, when you’re 40,” Dun- is allergic to walnuts — you can be thinking mind- gan says. “It’s not where you need to be, in order of a classroom. fully about making sure everyone has something.” to be healthy or successful or happy.” Adolescents, It will help If this lesson sounds rudimentary, it’s because she explains, lack the brain structure they need to you in your Dungan knows that these students have had fewer op- modulate their emotions. “But there are things you portunities than many of their peers to share snacks can learn,” she adds. Dungan introduces an exercise relationships. It in a classroom. They are homeschooled students who that she acknowledges will be “really hard”: sitting will help you in attend classes and clubs at a nonprofit learning cen- quietly for four minutes of intentional breathing and your schoolwork. ter called Dimensions Family School (dfs). Dungan guided body-awareness meditation. founded dfs last year with the intention of providing “Are you trying to torture us?” Luci says, laugh - It will help you peer support, social opportunities, and high-quality ing but serious. This is a class that is prone to wig- with your teaching to children and parents who have opted out gling and crosstalk, tomfoolery and the occasion parents.” of the conventional educational structure. dramatic exit. Four minutes of stillness would be It’s a sophisticated advance on an old idea. For unprecedented. “I want you to do this,” says Dun- Dimensions Family School the roughly 2 million homeschooled children in the gan, “because the skills that you learn can be applied founder Charlotte Dungan, United States, learning doesn’t necessarily entail way outside of a classroom. It will help you in your Ed.M.’16, giving advice to students at the new school sitting at a kitchen table all day with a parent and relationships. It will help you in your schoolwork. It she founded for homeschool

siblings. “Homeschoolers rely extensively on net- will help you with your parents.” families. HERE CREDIT

Illustration by John Doe

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A few students duck out. Most stay and eventually gan would drop off her eldest daughter at Span- quiet down. “Try to relax your hands and feet,” Dun- ish class, her son at nature school, and her second gan says. “Settle your body. And know that there’s a daughter at swimming practice, all the while shut- place of peace inside of you that you can go to just by tling her baby from errand to errand. “The essence breathing and paying attention.” of what I wanted to do as a homeschool was about relationships and about deep learning,” she says. It wasn’t supposed to be about chauffeuring. Researchers say homeschooling can stress parents as much as it rewards them. Some of the bur- den comes from never having enough personal time, some from playing a dual role in a child’s life. “There’s a lot of additional emotional baggage that comes with making your own child learn the times table,” says Jennifer Lois, a sociologist at Western Washington University. Lois has interviewed nu- merous homeschooling mothers, one of whom described how her son felt “completely safe breaking down emotionally” over an academic assignment — something he’d never do in school. Lois concludes that homeschooling parents suf- fer burnout much like that of professional educators. Those stresses are minimized when families form supportive communities. dungan was an accidental homeschooling Creating communities was on Dungan’s mind, parent herself. Raised in poverty, without a strong too, when she entered the Learning and Teaching parent-advocate, she suffered what she calls a “spot- Program at the Ed School in 2015. By then, she had ty” gifted education in the Michigan public schools. taught gifted children on the autism spectrum, “In fourth grade, I took fifth-grade math,” she says. founded a summer tinkering program, and ran off- 34 “The next year I didn’t have math at all; they had site camps for a science museum. Now she wanted 35 me be a reading tutor. And that was my experience to build a more ambitious organization: a central- of what it meant to be gifted: We’ll accelerate you, ized location to house a wide-ranging educational make you do extra work, then we’ll pull all your ser- program for homeschoolers. vices. And we’ll keep doing that year after year.” As she envisioned Dimensions, not only would it That said, the public schools also served as an relieve parents of time pressure; it would also pro- important safety-net function for Dungan. “School vide children with some of the social benefits of at- Above: Artwork from Medievel At the Ed School, Dungan did much of the plan- sofas and chairs. Off the lounge are three classrooms was a place where I could eat,” she says. tending school. Times, a class for the elementary ning for Dimensions’ launch, while deepening her where, during a recent visit, two high-schoolers ana- kids. Opposite: Backpacks, lunch- Dungan graduated high school, attended classes “They want a locker. They want a mascot. They boxes, and discovery. grounding in educational theory and strengthening lyzed different translations of a Taoist text and some at a community college, then became a computer want the feeling of belonging,” she says of the kids. her leadership, financial management, and research middle-schoolers created digital storyboards. programmer for 10 years. In 2006, after her second Unlike conventional schools, dfs could offer “those skills. She also learned how to foster diversity and Two rooms near the middle of the building are child was born, she enrolled in Ohio’s Antioch Uni- trappings with the individuality of their own pro- how to scale an institution beyond a single location. used primarily by elementary school children. One, versity to become an educator. While earning her gram, their own philosophy, their own pace.” “She had a core commitment to learner agency,” recalled the Creative Cave, has shelves stacked with bachelor’s degree, she worked at the Antioch School, calls Associate Professor Karen Brennan, “to pro- wire and beads, and supplies for sewing and scrap- a century-old private alternative school where stu- vide the structure and supports for them to design booking. Last fall, with the faint edge of Hurricane dents help design the rules and curriculum. their own learning.” Matthew approaching Durham, Dungan used the Then Dungan’s husband got a job offer in North With a master’s degree in hand, Dungan returned Cave to teach seven children about extreme weath- Carolina. The couple moved in 2008 with a first-grad- to North Carolina, where the homeschooling rate is er. The lesson covered geography, history, and sci- er and a 4-year-old, plus a third child on the way. Arriv- almost twice the national average. Then she began ence and ended with the creation of a miniature ing too late in the summer to find a compatible school, to race the clock. hurricane in a stainless-steel bowl. the couple decided to keep their kids home for a year. Further back, the kindergarten and pre-K stu- “Homeschooling was lovely,” Dungan says — so dents huddle around a table making arts-and-crafts lovely, in fact, that one year turned into nine (with dimensions opened three months later, in sheep from construction paper and felt. As the glue periodic forays into the public schools). Her children September 2016, on a commercial strip that once dries, their teacher gathers them into a nest of pil- — she now has four — “were all able to learn at their served millworkers and now caters to college stu- lows and rugs for story time. own pace. We were following their interests and go- dents and professionals. From the sidewalk, a wood- The reasons these children are being home- ing deep into subjects.” The highly educated Dur- en stairway leads up to a reception area that branches schooled vary widely. dfs registrar Mistie Gotch, ham-Chapel Hill area had a large, vibrant home- into three activity nodes. The front section houses the whose son brought the vegan cookies, worried that school community that offered myriad enrichment teen lounge, an often-rambunctious space governed conventional schools have a “homogenizing” effect opportunities. “But we were also driving around a by the older students with occasional adult interven- that “doesn’t always allow for the individual student lot,” she says, “and spending a lot of money.” Dun- tion; it has foosball and pool tables along with comfy to have a fulfilling sense of purpose.” Gotch wants

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her sons to understand issues like wealth inequality, to remedy this with project-based learning, starting taught at Khan Academy and did quantitative social which she feels most schools gloss over, and to de- on a pilot scale. “We’re going to see if, for kids who science research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Cen- velop a strong sense of environmental stewardship. do not love the traditional system — whether or not ter for Astrophysics. The weekly Outdoors at the Eno Brock Sayre, who teaches dfs’s Dungeons & they’re good at it — can we create projects for them class is one of dfs’s early forays into project-based Dragons class, started homeschooling his son, now that are meaningful, that cover the subject areas.” learning, and Jeckel integrates multiple disciplines 14, about five years ago — it was supposed to be a Some issues remain unresolved in these initial into today’s field trip. He turns the discovery of a short-term fix — when he decided the boy was being months, such as pricing. When Dimensions opened, spring into a lesson on groundwater versus surface ill-served by his charter school. “The stuff he was re- full memberships — which cost $300 per family plus water. He locates an exotic grass and points out the ally good in: They were like, ‘Oh, great, he just won’t $50 per child per month — also required parents to dense rhizomes that enable the plant to spread: an or- learn any math for three more years,’” Sayre says. work a certain number of hours. “My original vision ganic lesson about invasive species. Later, Luci, along Meanwhile, his son was struggling with writing. “So was that everyone would share a little bit of their time with Dungan’s 12-year-old daughter Kristin, leads the he would hide under his desk and cry until writing and talent,” Dungan says in November. “In some cas- younger children in a writing and drawing exercise time was over. Then he didn’t have to write.” es that’s happening beyond my wildest dreams” al- inspired by their riparian surroundings. Missing from the mix are families who home- though she worries that the most enthusiastic volun- It’s now the third quarter, and Dungan is rolling school for primarily religious reasons, even though teers might burn out. Other parents aren’t stepping up out her improvement plans. The elementary kids are they represent the majority of homeschoolers na- at all, often for legitimate reasons like family illness. immersed in “unit studies”: On a Tuesday morn- tionwide. Those families tend to follow more stan- Dungan suspects that some families have not ap- ing, the three-hour Medieval Times class includes dardized curricula. Dungan notes that Dimensions’ plied to dfs because of the work mandate. She won- a computer activity in which they dress knights and membership includes people of faith, even if they ders if there should be a higher-cost membership design posters for lost dragons. Later this morning use secular teaching methods. that exempts parents from labor. “Which brings me they will work in groups to build castles with clay. Despite their dissatisfaction with conventional I wanted to go to sleep as fast as I could because I The start of a carton-to-school- questions about our mission,” she says. “Do we want Teacher Leigh Ann VanSchaick, a former public schools, Dimensions parents say they don’t want to needed to get here,” says 13-year-old Beckett, who garden pollinator project. to offer a service, or do we want to build a commu- school teacher, has also woven math into the unit isolate their children at home. attends three days a week. He glances around the nity? Those are the things that keep me up at night.” (calculating castle perimeters, for example), along Before Niambi Jaha-Echols, artist and consul- teen lounge, where his friends are waiting for him with historic concepts like the feudal system. To help tant, moved east from Chicago in 2014, her now-13- to join them for lunch on the street below. “It’s defi- students imagine life before electricity, VanSchaick year-old son Jelani was struggling at a private school nitely nice to be a community,” he says. convened a “Round Table” meeting at which the that, in her view, set a lower expectation for him as Dungan, in November, says she is generally sat- children tried to read by candlelight. an African American male. Jaha-Echols also found isfied with the launch, based on the feedback she’s Dungan has also resolved the volunteering quan- 36 the curriculum relentlessly Eurocentric. Jelani, who getting. “There are parents that are really happy dary: Dimensions now offers higher-priced mem- 37 is serious and sensitive, felt alone. “I wanted to fit in,” that their kids have finally found a fit,” she says. berships that don’t include a work requirement. “We he says. “It felt like no one wanted me to be a part During at least one conversation a week, she has clarified that so we can charge people transparently of the activities after class. That weighed on me be- watched a parent shed tears of relief. when they decide not to volunteer,” she explains. cause then I started thinking I wasn’t good enough.” That said, “it would be unhealthy for us to think “Currently no one is using it — and we have a lot of When they landed in the North Carolina country- we had it right from the get-go. I think of us as a people stepping up to collect their hours.” side, 35 minutes from Durham, Jaha-Echols and her learning organization. You just have to open, and be There is more in the works. In March, dfs held husband, an engineer, decided to create a new mod- bad at stuff for a bit, and get better.” She has identi- an open house at its future second location, 40 miles el: a little bit of home teaching supplemented heavily fied some shortcomings, which she plans to rectify south: a farm in rural Moncure, where Dungan by “a la carte classes” in the community. “We knew when Dimensions’ third quarter begins in January. hopes the children will learn ecosystem monitoring, that socialization was a high priority for him,” she “Which makes me frustrated because I feel like we animal husbandry, and astronomy hands on. She en- says of Jelani. “We were able to outsource almost 90 could do things better right now.” The schedule for visions the children growing their own food and eat- percent of his classes. The only problem for me — be- each quarter, she notes, is set months in advance. “ They want ing it for lunch. She also plans to provide transporta- cause I’m not a homeschool teacher; I don’t feel like One of those shortcomings is the elementary a locker. tion between Moncure and Durham, so students can I could do that — was having to take him from place school curriculum: a hodgepodge of one-hour classes on a january afternoon, at the edge of a river take classes at both sites. to place to place. I became the unpaid Uber mom.” without a common thread. “People aren’t necessarily They want outside Durham, six students gather around a buzz- “I think this may be the wave of the future,” says Dimensions relieved the transportation strain willing to drive over for a single hour,” Dungan says. cut man for a hands-on lesson in stream restoration. Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at while also providing Jelani with the friendships he “What we hear now is, ‘Well, my kid really wants to a mascot. “This is Chasmanthium latifolium,” says Keith Boston College who studies homeschooling mod - craved. “What I love about dfs is that it’s in one do that engineering class and that math class. But the They Nealson, superintendent of Eno River State Park, els that encourage children to follow their own in- space,” his mother says. “He’s getting all the social Shakespeare class, not so much.” as he fingers the delicate seeds of a native oat grass terests. “In my view, the biggest part of education, components that typically happen in school.” Jelani Dungan’s solution is to create “unit studies”: want the growing along the bank. He explains that when ero- whether you’re in school or not, is what you learn in recognizes that he and his classmates are not be- three-hour interdisciplinary blocks centered on sion threatens to swallow up a hiking trail, workers interactions with other children.” For her part, Dun- ing shoehorned into a common set of expectations. topics like inventors, animals, and the solar system. feeling cut a new trail further from the water. They then close gan is less attached, over the long term, to running “They are able to work with anyone,” he says. “If Within the solar-system unit, for example, “they the old trail by scattering wild grass seeds, which the Dimensions than she is to propagating more alterna- you have a reading disorder, or something like that, would do math, and they would read a biography, of students will collect today. tives for homeschooling families. “I see the family- there is no pressure to get it right the first time.” and they would create a science project,” she says. belonging.” “These are river oats,” Nealson says. “They grow school model as a movement,” she says. If that pans “But it would all be integrated in a theme that they close by the river. Don’t fall in. That is a big rule.” out, she wants to help cut as many trails as possible. were interested in.” Dungan, on how Dimen- The students, both elementary and middle school, in the first months after dimensions’ Meanwhile, some of the older students have ex- sions provides homeschool set out to collect seed in plastic cups. Supervising BARRY YEOMAN IS A WRITER BASED IN students with some of the DURHAM WHOSE WORK HAS APPEARED IN THE opening, students and parents talk about the school pressed to Dungan that sitting in a classroom all social benefits of attending them is Dimensions’ newest teacher (and Dungan’s AMERICAN PROSPECT, POPULAR SCIENCE, THE in the language of homecoming. “Last Sunday, day isn’t their favorite way to learn. She’s planning a more traditional school. Ed School classmate), STUART JECKEL, ED.M.’16, who NATION, AND THE SATURDAY EVENING POST.

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NEW FACULTY MEMBER TONY JACK KNOWS FIRST HAND WHAT HIS RESEARCH REVEALED: SOME LOW-INCOME KIDS COME TO COLLEGE MORE PREPARED THAN OTHERS

STORY BY LORY HOUGH PHOTOGRAPHS BY TODD DIONNE CREDIT HERE CREDIT HERE CREDIT

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What he found is that colleges and universities, and While talking about these two groups, Jack often society in general, tend to treat all low-income stu- uses office hours as a way to explain how different dents the same. While reading articles for his Ph.D. their experience can be in college. in Harvard’s sociology department, Jack says the “One thing I would like for every college to do is story — whether it was written by an anthropologist, institute a policy that professors define terms like economist, or sociologist — was always the same. ‘office hours’ on the syllabus. That’s so simple,” he When “If you’re poor and black, if you’re poor and La- says. “The college doesn’t have to dictate what kind tino, if you’re poor and anything in college, you’ll of description they give because office hours look have this experience. Period,” he says. “There was different for a chemistry class or a Spanish class. Tony Jack so little variation in talking about the experience of But what would happen if a professor said, ‘Hey, poor students. I didn’t see in the research what I saw I’m Professor Jack. The class meets on Tuesday and started his at Amherst.” Thursday at a certain time, and my office hours are So Jack did what made the most sense: He set out 1 to 2:30, now let’s get started,’ versus ‘Hello every- freshman to change the research — and the national conversa- body. I’m Professor Jack, and class is Wednesday tion around diversity in higher education. and office hours are Thursday from 1 to 2:30, and I As his mentor and dissertation chair William Ju- view office hours as a time for us to not only go over year at lius Wilson, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, course material and larger course aims, but also an says, “When Tony initially described his research opportunity to talk about fellowships or how this Amherst project I immediately thought, Here is a project that course relates to larger issues.’ That’s making it per- will very likely uncover issues not previously con- sonal. How different do those two things sound to College in sidered by sociologists and will enhance our under- everyone? In the first one, you’re assuming every - standing of how pre-college exposure to important one knows what office hours are. They don’t. That’s social milieus for the acquisition of cultural and so- a fact of the matter. Not all kids come to college 2003, cial capital matters for low-income students.” knowing what office hours are. So translate it. And After two years of interviewing more than 100 this is a kind of translation that has nothing to do something black, Latino, and white undergraduates at an elite with language like Spanish or French or Mandarin. university, Jack came up with a new way to think This is about translating the college experience for seemed off. about how factors like poverty and socioeconomic students and their families.” 40 segregation — segregation by class — shape the way When Jack started at Amherst, he was lucky 41 He looked around and saw a diverse group of stu- students experience college. He splits low-income enough to know what office hours were because, dents, but unlike him, none seemed poor. They college students into two groups: The “doubly disad- although he had attended public schools in Miami talked about study abroad programs and boarding vantaged” are poor kids who went to public schools, through 11th grade, he transferred his senior year schools like Andover and Groton. Back at home, in often underresourced. The “privileged poor” are to a nearby private school, Gulliver Prep, after a bad Miami, summer was just a season. At Amherst, he poor kids who went to private high schools, usually experience with a football coach who didn’t value quickly learned, it was also a verb. well resourced. his academic skills. That one year — just one year “I kept asking myself, am I really the only poor As he explained during a recent podcast inter- — gave him a leg up navigating his way in college. black person here?” view with a Harvard alumni group, the terms are “My one year gave me such an advantage,” he The answer was no. purposefully loaded. “Privileged poor is kind of like says, noting that because of that year in private Some of his classmates had grown up the way jumbo shrimp, right?” he said. “It’s got that oxymo- school, he puts himself in the privileged poor cat- he did — barely making ends meet, the first in their ronic quality to it intended to make the reader ask: egory. “My school had mandatory office hours for families to go to college — but they had taken part How can one person be both privileged and poor?” teachers. Because they did that, I was used to go - in programs like Prep for Prep and A Better Chance What he found is that students who are privi- ing not only to my academic adviser at Amherst, but that pluck promising, low-income kids from strug- leged poor and went to private high schools come also to the academic dean. It put me on a pathway to gling urban schools and give them funding to attend to college not only academically prepared, but also be a little more at ease at Amherst.” private high schools. culturally prepared. Jack says they come knowing While he was doing his research, he found that What Jack noticed about these students was how to navigate the informal social rules that gov- other privileged poor students felt the same level of that, unlike other poor kids who hadn’t gone to elite ern college life and this gives them an advantage. comfort when it came to approaching faculty. He schools, they all seemed to be transitioning from For many, it also helps them get more out of college. tells a story about a boy from a troubled neighbor- high school to college without issue. They were al- On the other hand, the doubly disadvantaged, al- hood who attended an affluent boarding school. In ready versed in college terms like “orientation” and though also academically gifted, usually come less college, the boy felt “empowered” telling professors “syllabus.” They didn’t hesitate to approach faculty exposed to the norms and unspoken expectations he wanted to meet with them, and he had no qualms members or raise their hands in class. of college, making the transition especially difficult. calling a professor on his cell phone for virtual of- Jack didn’t know it at the time, but this observa- The privileged poor also experience culture shock, “I kept asking fice hours. tion would eventually help shape the research ques- but much earlier, he explains — in middle or high myself, am I really As Jack said, low-income kids who come up tion that he is currently trying to answer as a junior school, when they are recruited into programs like the only poor black through the private school pipeline learn not only fellow at the prestigious Harvard Society of Fellows Prep for Prep. As one student told Jack, “The shock that it’s okay to reach out to faculty, but that it’s ac- and as an incoming faculty member at the Ed School: I would have experienced [at an elite college], I ex- person here?” tually expected. In his research, he found that the Why do students from equally disadvantaged back- perienced from eighth grade to high school, …from privileged poor pattern with middle-class students

grounds experience the same college so differently? public to private school.” HERE CREDIT in this way. In contrast, the doubly disadvantaged

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kids not only feel too intimidated to speak up, espe- of a few of his pieces, including a ceramic chef that how to deal with you. They were used to wealthy their divergent pre-college experiences are shap- cially to those in authority, but they believe that the holds cooking utensils and sits in the kitchen of his white or wealthy Latino.” ing their sense of belonging in college and how they way to success is simply to put your head down and Cambridge apartment. There’s another of a Dalma- He remembers turning in a paper for AP Euro- move through elite institutions.” work hard. tian dog he called Cookies and Cream that he gave pean history and got a B. He worked harder and got We also need to rethink what diversity means for Jack credits former First Lady Michelle Obama to one of his elementary school teachers who recent- an A- on the next paper. The teacher held up his A- colleges and universities. While higher education for being public and personal about similar strug- ly shared a photo on Facebook. paper to the class and questioned if it was his work. has made necessary strides in the past few decades, gles in college. Recently, when asked to write an op- “We used to stay at Virrick until 11 at night, when He was mad. His mom was mad. as Jack recently wrote in The New York Times, “they ed reflecting on President Obama, Jack asked if he the lights went out, doing ceramics and playing flag “But it was one of those moments when you learn have thought less about what the inclusion means could write about Michelle instead. football and card games like Spades and Tonk,” he a lot. I never take for granted that these places [elite for academic life, or how colleges themselves might “Not that I don’t love President Obama — I do — says. “If I was doing any activity outside of home, schools] have issues. I never want it to be seen that need to change to help the least advantaged on their but what First Lady Michelle Obama has done, es- it was at Virrick. It was a safe space to be creative.” it’s all a bowl of cherries,” he says. “It’s a Band-Aid road to success.” pecially for first-generation students, especially in The neighborhood though, like many, skewed to- where stitches are needed. Sending a student to a In other words, achieving diversity alone isn’t the higher education, has been phenomenal,” he says. ward sports — something Jack liked but didn’t love. private school can help that student, but it doesn’t final answer, he says. “I don’t mean to sell it short, Most notable was a graduation speech she gave to “The neighborhood was one where if you were Jack in Miami with his add to structural inequality. I’m clear that I don’t but creating a diverse class is easy. That requires mom, Marilyn, just before a high school in Chicago in 2016 where she talked good at sports, everyone knew who you were — a they flew to Cambridge think everyone should go to private schools.” money. That requires being able to say we’re go- about growing up on the city’s south side and later, classic tale,” he says. Frank Gore, a running back for for his Ph.D. dissertation ing to recruit this many people and we’re going to at Princeton, being afraid to ask for help, feeling it the Indianapolis Colts, was a local kid. “Everyone defense in 2016. • • • take the cost of the school off the table. That’s easy was a sign of weakness. Looking around at her con- knew Frank. He was a cool dude,” Jack says. “But I compared to creating an inclusive community. I say fident freshman classmates, she said, “They nev- was a bookworm. I was always a nerd.” Because of What Jack does think is that we need to do a better time and time again, we need to move from diversi- er seemed to question whether they belonged at a his size — Jack is now 6’4” with a size 16 foot — his job of equalizing the pre-college experience. Disad- ty to inclusion. We need underrepresented students school like Princeton.” mother didn’t want him to play organized football vantaged students shouldn’t have to be recruited to not only graduate, but also graduate whole and Jack says about the speech, “She laid it out and with kids his age until freshman year in high school into a program like Prep for Prep and leave the pub- hearty. That’s a more noble goal in the end.” made it so personal. What she has done for my re- when he reluctantly joined to please his brother. “I lic-school system to get a good college education. After spending seven years as a resident tutor at search in that one speech is as influential as some enjoyed the camaraderie, but I still did ceramics.” We also need to start telling the full story about Mather, one of Harvard’s undergraduate residen- sociologists I’ve been reading for the last eight years. Football was what led him to private school. disadvantaged kids and success. He talks about for- tial houses where he says he was allowed to be the She’s allowed me to see how powerful the personal “I had no intention of going to private school, but mer Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick as a “Glee-loving, Harry Potter-reading, House-watching narrative of someone in a position of power can be.” we had a football coach who only wanted you as an good example. person that students would geek out with,” he saw athlete–student. If you didn’t need the coach to go “ What Michelle “Deval is one in a million,” he says. “He writes many doubly disadvantaged kids who didn’t feel 42 • • • to college, he didn’t care,” Jack says. He was even- Obama has done, in his autobiography that he was so poor that he had whole and hearty. “Universities have a responsibil- 43 tually cut from the team after a shoulder injury, and especially for to share a bed with his mother and sister or sleep ity to say we’re not helping all of our students in a Since then, Jack has been very forthcoming about the situation led to what he calls a “bad breakup” on the floor — they had to alternate. It’s remark- way that we should.” sharing his personal narrative. He grew up in West with the school. He decided to leave. “I would have first-generation able — a Horatio Alger story of someone who pulled Which is why he’s already gone to bat for them, Grove, a section of Coconut Grove that the Miami stayed. I was going to be a public school student my students, himself up by his bootstraps. He’s a remarkable guy, first by helping to get the Harvard undergraduate Herald dubbed “the Miami neighborhood that time whole life.” especially in but what happens when you frame him instead as dining halls to stay open during breaks so that low- forgot.” Some of Florida’s first black settlers, Baha- At Gulliver Prep, he says he was exposed to a lot, higher education, someone who graduated from Milton Academy? All income kids who aren’t going home or on vacation mian natives, set roots there in the 1880s, and the both good and bad. He got more attention from his of a sudden you’re like, ‘Yeah, someone from Milton have a place to eat. area quickly became home for people who worked teachers and thrived in small classes, but he says, has been Academy went to Harvard Law School.’ How many “I could talk all day about how these two groups at the Peacock Inn or as nannies and butlers for the “They weren’t ready for diversity. They didn’t know phenomenal.” times have we heard that story before?” experience college differently, but both groups go wealthy. He lived there with his sister and broth- But they’re one and the same person, Jack stress- hungry during spring break,” he says, referring also er, a single mom, and his grandparents. His mom, es. “We love telling poverty stories of poor black the privileged poor. “I never say one is richer than Marilyn, worked security; his grandmother was a people so that we don’t actually want to see any kind the other. I say one has more cultural capital than maid for a lawyer in nearby Pinecrest. He says the of diversity in that story. To tell you how life can be the other. Both lack economic capital.” Wednesday before payday was often tough. for someone who’s poor and black or poor and Lati- He’s also mentoring future Ed School students. “When I go home, it’s one of those moments in no — everyone wants to hear that — but to tell a story To one student from his home state, he said, “If you which you remember the lived history of segrega - about how all of a sudden that person went to one of come here, I’m going to mentor you through the tion, both racial and socioeconomic,” he says, “and the oldest, most prestigious boarding schools in the nonacademic side of Harvard. To know that now I’m you see the legacy of that.” country with a multimillion dollar endowment, then in a position where not only can my research help He started out as a Head Start kid, something he went to Harvard Law after Harvard undergraduate? colleges become more open and accessible to all of says he’s very proud of, and later spent most of his That is real. My research shows that on average, 50 its students, but also my being here is making the nonschool hours at nearby Elizabeth Virrick Park, percent of the lower-income black students at elite place feel slightly more comfortable for some stu- a city-run playground that offered organized after- colleges graduated from private high schools, which dents” is amazing. school and summer programs. One of the highlights is remarkable. One-third of lower-income Latinos, Quoting actress Viola Davis, he says, “Diversity was ceramics, something he did at Virrick from el- on average, graduate from private schools. These is not a trending topic or something to be placed on ementary to high school with a park leader named are huge numbers. But we still want to say they the back burner as soon as the day is done. What we Gina Knowles. have a singular experience. What I’m saying is not do here shapes conversations in ways we should nev- “We would go there every day after school and only do they not have a singular experience, but I’m er underestimate. I don’t take it for granted that the stay with Gina. I never really talked about Gina be- showing just how different their experiences are things we do here can shape the policies that a gen- fore,” he says. “With her I made owl banks, chess [from one another]. I’m also using their experiences eration has to contend with. Which is why I’m very

sets, everything.” He pulls up photos on his phone SHUTTERSTOCK to show that where their experiences are different, clear that I don’t think everyone should go to private

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school. I don’t think that is the route to end inequal- Hogwarts’ headmaster Albus Dumbledore: It does NEWS + NOTES FROM OUR ALUMNI COMMUNITY ity. That will only produce it even more. I have to be not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. careful about my policy recommendations.” “When I got to Amherst, I was working so much In the book he is currently writing with Harvard — four jobs — that I exhausted all of my financial Education Press, slated to come out in the fall of aid work study funds in the first semester,” he says. 2018, Jack is also clear that his goals are personal. “I got straight A’s that year, but I never got to know “As I write this book, I’m not writing it for sociol- or explore Amherst. It reminded me to slow down. ogists or for a battle to see who understands x theory I so often am future-oriented that I forget to live in better,” he says. “I’m writing it so that both students the present.” and college officials can understand the experienc- He’s trying to do just that. These days, he takes es of the new diversity in long walks along the higher education and then Charles (listening to Har- Grad. understand what we need ry Potter books on tape), to do to fix some of the and treats students to din- problems that have been ners out as often as he can. “ When I go home, growing and festering for “The kind of conversa- it’s one of those too long. I realize that’s tion you have over a meal moments in which an ambitious goal, but I or baking is much deep- you remember didn’t spend eight years in er,” he says. It’s a lesson he the lived history a Ph.D. program to push learned from his grand- sand around. This book is mother, who taught him of segregation, as much about the profes- how to bake from scratch, both racial and sion as it is about the per- including her famous socioeconomic,” son. I’m a first-generation pound cake. “With Swan he says, “and you college student before I’m Down flour, Land O’Lakes see the legacy of a professor and I’m ok with butter, and Dixie Crystals that.” that. This research, the sugar,” he says. “If you fact that some of the sto- came home with anything Left, top: Jack at his ries are about people who else, you had to go back Harvard commencement 44 with Amherst Professor “ In the 30 years I have 45 graduated 10, 25, 30 years out to the store.” Kristin Bumiller. Bottom: ago, that could be me. I’m Although his star is Jack with his siblings, worked at Harvard a qualitative researcher so clearly rising fast at Har- Gregory Glenn Jr. and University, I have been Aleshia Jack. I value data, but also the vard (he also has a forth- privileged to count stories and the perspective coming professorship at among my students and of people who trusted me Radcliffe and the Ed School colleagues many who with the experiences they recruited him two years have been refugees, had, good or bad. I do not take that lightly.” before he’s slated to start) family has kept him immigrants, and citizens It’s one of the reasons his mom values his contri- grounded, says Amherst Professor Kristin Bumiller. of the countries now bution to education. She taught Jack in several of her courses and even included in the executive “She’s a smart woman, and she worked at a pub- now, a decade later, says her connection to him is order. They have been, lic school for 30 years as a middle school security “one of the strongest I have made during my long without exception, guard,” he says. “She knows, from an historical career teaching at Amherst.” He feels like family, talented individuals, context, that public schools have been gutted. She she says, and he often visits for birthday parties and committed to working saw that field trips ended. She saw that summer pro- other events. (It’s one of the things he says he loves to advance educational grams, which were for enrichment, not just catching about Amherst College. “Relationships never end” opportunity around the up, ended. Now there’s nothing. She also drove me at Amherst, he recently tweeted.) In turn, she fol- world, the kind of force to private school and saw the difference.” lows his research and has gone to all his graduations. But that’s not the only reason she’s proud. She knows his relatives. “After you meet his mother, for good that helps us “She’s most proud that I found something that you fully understand the secret to his success — it is advance a world governed makes me happy. She always wanted us to do our founded in her enormous pride in his accomplish- by reason.”

best. She didn’t make us get certain grades. She ments, instilling the sensibility of always doing what FERNANDO REIMERS, ED.M.’84, ED.D.’88, loves that I’m loving what I do and that I’m still me. is right and responsible, and the ability to put him in IN A JANUARY HUFFINGTON POST PIECE BASED ON A SPEECH HE GAVE AT THE No matter what, I’m still me,” he says. This includes his place with the roll of an eye.” UNITED NATIONS a continued love for all things Harry Potter. He even It’s the eye roll that also keeps him grounded. has a pair of Harry Potter Chuck Taylors given to “When I go home to visit, I’m not Dr. Jack or him as a gift after officiating a wedding (he’s done someone who’s been in this paper or interviewed by five). Harvard College students have given a Raven- this person,” he says. “I still take out the trash. The claw beanie, an Elders Wand pen, and a Hogwarts last time I went home, my mom made me catch an

computer decal. Even his favorite quote is from Uber. She didn’t even pick me up. I’m just me.” ` HERE CREDIT

Illustration by David A. Johnson

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Learn more about Baxter: frompris- to serve on the board of directors 1972 1979 1988 IN MEMORY onertophd.com. at the National Board for Educa- , Ed.D., , Ed.M., was appointed , Ed.M.’79, Ed.D., coau- tion Sciences. Yazzie-Mintz was the 1940–1949 Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Anne Dichele Rick Dalton a professor at the Ed School since interim dean of the School of Vicki Jacobs, C.A.S.’80, Ed.D., will thored College For Every Student 2016 recipient of the Ed School’s NATHAN MYERS, GSE’40 1972, recently published Growing Education at Quinnipiac College. Di- take on the directorship of the Ed with Edward St. John, Ed.D.’78 (see Alumni Council Award for Outstand- TRENOR GOODELL JR., GSE’46 Each Other Up: When Our Children chele has been at the college since School’s Teacher Education Program page 21). Dalton is president and ing Contribution to Education. ALLYN SHEPARD, ED.M.’47 Become Our Teachers (see page 7). 1999, serving as director of the at the end of this school year. A prior CEO of College for Every Student. Master of Arts in Teaching Program high school English teacher, Jacobs 1950–1959 2004 and as a faculty member. most recently served as director of Fernando Reimers, Ed.M.’84, Ed.D., 1975 BONNIE RILEY, ED.M.’58 the Specialized Studies Program. spoke at the United Nations in Jennifer Chen, Ed.M.’99, Ed.D., is an Joan Bolker, M.A.T.’62, Ed.D., January at the 18th annual Commit- associate professor of early child- 1982 1960–1969 wrote two new books: Really Writing Richard Roberts, Ed.M., is the au- tee on Teaching About the United hood and family studies at Kean ELEANOR LEVINSON LEWIS, and Writing Medicine. Bolker Kay Merseth, M.A.T.’69, Ed.D., steps thor of two books: I Was Much Hap- Nations conference. At the event, University. She recently published M.A.T.’60 has been teaching writing for down at the end of the school year pier When Everything I Owned Was Reimers was also awarded the orga- Connecting Right from the Start: EUGENE LEE, ED.D.’61 many years, including at Harvard, as faculty director of the Teacher in the Back Seat of My Volkswagen nization’s Global Citizen Award. Fostering Effective Communication KEITH PRICHARD, ED.D.’61 where she founded the Writing Cen- Education Program. Merseth joined (nonfiction) and Digital Darling, with Dual Language Learners. A. FRANK LATTANZI, M.A.T.’62 ter, and at UMass Boston, where the Ed School in 1982 and will con- American Story (fiction). 1990 SUSAN LYMAN, ED.M.’63 she started the Language Place. tinue to serve as a senior lecturer. Eileen McGowan, Ed.M.’98, Ed.D., a PETER DURKSON, ED.M.’64 Paul Karofsky, Ed.M., recently lecturer at the Ed School, will take 1987 PAULINE STITZINGER, M.A.T.’64 published So You’re in the Family over the role of director of the Spe- 1978 1986 PHILIP RUBENSTEIN, C.A.S.’65 Sonja Anderson, Ed.M., recently Business. Karofsky is founder of cialized Studies Program at the end SHIRLEY MISHARA, ED.M.’66 Edward St. John, Ed.D., co-authored Anthony Baxter, Ed.M., recently published Sophie Topfeather, Su- Transition Consulting Group. His son of the school year. JANE BRECKENRIDGE, M.A.T.’67 College For Every Student with Rick published a memoir, From Prisoner perstar! The book is the second in a David Karofsky, who co-wrote the FRANK FARLOW, M.A.T.’67 Dalton, Ed.M.’79, Ed.D.’88. (See to Ph.D. He is a special staff officer series for children aged 8–12. She book, is president and CEO. 2005 WILLIAM WARREN, ED.D.’67 page 21). St. John is a professor at and prevention analyst for the U.S. is a public elementary school librar- ROGER BRANDENBERG-HORN, the University of Michigan. Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton. ian in Washington state. Sheena Collier, Ed.M., was ap- ED.M.’69 1991 pointed director of engagement DONALD LAYTON, ED.M.’69 46 Tara Tuck, C.A.S., recently published for the Greater Boston Chamber 47 The Joy of Language (see page 21). Last August, Willette Stinson, director of library services of Commerce, where she focuses 1970–1979 She is a teacher and speech–lan- at West Virginia State University, read through the on strategic initiatives related to SPOTLIGHT MARY MELODY, ED.M.’70 guage pathologist in Seminole PPE magazine between classes when she was attending the racial diversity in the private sector, DAVID SEELEY, ED.D.’70 Emily Longenecker, Ed.M.,Inspirational. worked in Tbilisi, Georgia (above), County (Florida) Public Schools. annual PPE Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians. among other duties. ADELE HERSEY, C.A.S.’71 SPOTLIGHT for six weeks this past summer. She was part of a six-person MARY CREAMER, ED.M.’71, 2010 team, put together by IREX, consulting for the Georgian Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Ed.M., C.A.S.’72 1993 Ministry of Education with the goalPractical. to make their educa- Linguistics based in Tokyo, where he Rachel Korn, Ed.M., was elected assistant professor at Virginia WILLIAM DOLAN JR., ED.D.’73 tion style less lecture and more participatory. She worked Dana Burde, Ed.M., won the 2017 edited the Handbook of Japanese to the Association of International Commonwealth University, recently NOEL SHERWIN, ED.M.’74 for IREX in Washington, D.C., for five years and is now a high University of Louisville Grawen- Applied Linguistics in the Hand- Graduate Admissions Consultants. published When the Fences Come SANDRA MCDADE, ED.M.’76 school worldGrounded history and geographyin Research. teacher in Virginia. meyer Award for Ideas Improving books of Japanese Language and Down (see page 21). NEILL WATSON, GSE’76 World Order for her work looking at Linguistics series. JUNE PIZZI, ED.M.’78 2002 the influence foreign-backed fund- 2006 ing for education has on war-torn Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, Ed.D., 1980–1989 Explore more than 1997 countries and how such aid affects a member of the Denver-based Elise Foster, Ed.M., was certified in LUANNE WILLIAMSON-PRYOR, humanitarian efforts. Natasha Warikoo, Ed.M., recently American Indian College Fund staff, November by Ed School Professor ED.M.’84 70 programs for early wrote The Diversity Bargain (see was appointed by President Obama Bob Kegan and Lecturer , REBECCA CORWIN, ED.M.’63, Lisa Lahey ED.D.’87 page 20). Warikoo, a cultural so- childhood, K–12, and higher 1994 STANLEY PAZDEN JR., ED.M.’89 ciologist, joined the Ed School in education professionals. Michael Walker, Ed.M., released his 2009 as an associate professor. THE 1-QUESTION INTERVIEW: 1990–1999 book The 1929 Sino–Soviet War: JOAN BOLKER, M.A.T.’62, ED.D.’75 The War Nobody Knew. Walker is a JEAN MALONEY, C.A.S.’90 2000 MATTHEW RYAN JR., ED.M.’91 retired U.S. Marine Corps officer. Allison Gaines Pell, Ed.M., will begin WHAT ONE PIECE OF WRITING ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE PAMELA COCHRANE, ED.M.’85, Q ED.D.’92 a new position as head of school at TO NEW ACADEMICS? 1995 ELLEN WILLARD, C.A.S.’98 the Wheeler School in Providence, Masahiko Minami, Ed.M.’88, Ed.D., Rhode Island, starting in July. Prior, Remember “writing” is both a noun and a verb: It’s what you A 2000–2010 hgse.me/ppe_ed is a professor at San Francisco she founded New Leaders for New produce, and how you do it. My advice is pay attention to the DONNA WICK, ED.M.’95, ED.D.’04 State University. He served as an Schools, which supports principals process. Figure out what works for you, and you’ll have an easier JOSIAH EPPS, ED.M.’10 invited professor at the National at urban schools, and a small K–8 and happier time filling your screen or your pages to say what you

WILETTE STINSON WILETTE Institute for Japanese Language and public school in Brooklyn. have to say.

HED04-BOB-Grad.indd 46 5/1/17 12:13 AM HED04-BOB-Grad.indd 47 5/1/17 12:13 AM Grad. Harvard Ed. Ever Wonder How Ed School Graduates Impact

Ed.M.’80, Ed.D.’86, as an immunity- advises Congress and the president pointed assistant director of the Education After They Leave Appian Way? 2008 to-change coach. on disability policy issues. Harbour Mandel Jewish Community Center’s Mark Carr, Ed.M., was named the is currently an adjunct faculty at St. Camp Wise residential camp in new principal of Walsh Jesuit High Catherine University in Minnesota. Beachwood, Ohio. 2007 School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. You are one of the Deidra Suwanee Dees, Ed.D., is 2010 2014 the tribal archivist and director of Wendy Harbour, Ed.D., was ap- 28,000 alumni the Office of Archives and Records pointed by President Obama before Eric Oberstein, Ed.M., produced Jonathan Hasak, Ed.M., coauthored Management for the Poarch Band of leaving office to serve as director the album Cuba: The Conversation Hard Questions on Global Educa- working in all the Creek Indians in Alabama. Dees of the National Center for College Continues, which was nominated for tional Change with former visit- is a former instructor at Pensacola Students with Disabilities with the a Latin Grammy Award and for Best ing faculty member Pasi Sahlberg 50 U.S. states Junior College. Association on Higher Education Latin Jazz album. and Vanessa Rodriguez, Ed.M.’13, and Disability. The organization Ed.D.’16. Hasak is a manager of and in 110 countries. public policy and government af- 2011 fairs at Year Up. THE 1-QUESTION INTERVIEW: Emily Cook Dwight, Ed.M., will Each year at this time, JENNIFER CHEN, ED.M.’99, ED.D.’04 become the new principal of KIPP Liliana Polo-McKenna, Ed.L.D., was Halifax Primary School in North named interim CEO of Opportunities our 700 graduates WHAT’S THE FIRST THING A NEW TEACHER CAN DO TO BET- Carolina, starting in August. She is for a Better Tomorrow, a Brooklyn- Q TER COMMUNICATE WITH DUAL-LANGUAGE LEARNERS? currently the principal and founder based nonprofit that helps high set out to change of KIPP Gaston College Prep Primary school dropouts. The very first thing that a new teacher should do is respect and in Gaston, North Carolina. A learn about their dual-language learners’ linguistic and cultural 2015 backgrounds by conducting formal and informal assessments, includ- the world 2013 ing observing students’ communicative skills and behavior exhibited Brian Barnes, Ed.M.’03, Ed.L.D., through education. in the classroom and conversing with their families about them. Abby Kaufman, Ed.M., was ap- was named as a 2017 Presidential Leadership Scholar. Barnes is the 48 cofounder and CEO of TandemEd in Memphis, Tennessee. As school leaders, along with those teachers, you shape the Jesse Tang, Ed.M., is the principal As teachers, learning experiences of more than Education of Schmidtt Elementary School in you collectively Denver, Colorado. 1 million students. needs inspire more than 2016 more people Vanessa Rodriguez, Ed.M.’13, Ed.D., coauthored Hard Questions on 100,000 Global Educational Change with like you. former visiting faculty Pasi Sahlberg students per year. and Jonathan Hasak, Ed.M.’14. Rodriguez is an assistant professor Help us find in the Center for Early Childhood Combined, you and all of the others who share Health and Development in the More than Department of Population Health at 5,000 of you other Ed School graduates help your passion the NYU School of Medicine. work in nonprofits impact the lives of more than for education. Kelvin Woon, Ed.M., cofounded that advance CubbyCase with Fred Ge, Ed.M.’16. HGSE’s mission. 15 million students The company sends subscribers education products and activi- each year in the United States alone. ties for kids aged 5–9, along with 2,500 of you related curriculum for parents. hold faculty and Wood and Ge developed the idea for leadership roles hgse.me/refer_ed CubbyCase while students at the Ed School. Francesca Barreiro and An- in higher education. drew Zuniga, both Ed.M.’16, joined the team as curriculum designers. WATCH a video highlighting these numbers at gse.harvard.edu/OurImpact

HED04-BOB-Grad.indd 48 5/1/17 12:13 AM HED04-BOB-Grad.indd 3 5/1/17 12:14 AM Harvard Graduate School of Education Nonprofit Organization Office of Communications U.S. Postage PAID 13 Appian Way Holliston, MA Cambridge, MA 02138 Permit No. 20

Strategies to Protect Students, Reject Bullying, and Build Communities Where Everyone Thrives

In a time of division and uncertainty for our country, educators, parents, and other concerned citizens are asking, “What can we do?”

How can we reject discrimination and support children who feel targeted for their religion, ethnicity, gender, or political beliefs? How can we help students manage conflicts, see new perspectives, and engage with ideas that challenge them?

You can find strategies and inspiration at One and All, a new website from Usable Knowledge. With stories, videos, and resources from educators at Harvard and in classrooms beyond, One and All collects workable ideas for district leaders, principals, teachers, and parents who want to encourage empathy and mutual respect.

What are you waiting for?

gse.harvard.edu/one-and-all

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