Most Powerful Question in Education

 Karin Chenoweth districts that succeed—breaking the correlation between race, poverty, and achievement  

It’s happening in school districts across our country, and it’s inspiring. District and school leaders are breaking “the correlation between students’ backgrounds and achievement. That is to say, they all serve students of color and students from low-income backgrounds, and they are all high achieving or rapidly improving” (p. 129). In Karin Chenoweth’s book, districts that succeed, breaking the correlation between race, poverty, and achievement, she revisits the school improvement stories of districts in Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, Delaware, and New York featured in her previous publications. Chenoweth follows up with these districts with even greater detail on “what about them makes them more effective than other similar districts” (p. 129).  

Their stories often begin with a district leader’s relentless focus and belief in making all of ‘our kids’ smarter. Chenoweth recognizes the value of these passionate educators and describes what distinguishes their successful districts from other communities. She references American educator, author, and pioneer of successful school research, Ronald Edmonds. To create a school and district culture where “it is incumbent on all personnel to be instructional and effective for all pupils” (p. 130). In other words, all school and district staff has a collective responsibility aligned with accountability to provide implicit instruction to each of the students they serve. Not as an individual effort, but collectively and collaboratively, their mission moves forward in tandem with a belief mindset. 

Chenoweth’s reference to relevant research on school improvement requires strategic leadership, decision-making processes, and secure systems as critical components to get each of our kids smarter (p. 140). In the story of Chicago, Illinois, Chenoweth shared the findings of the UChicago Consortium’s ten-year study of school improvement. The results list five essential elements, including partnering with families, creating a supportive learning environment with high academic expectations, engaging and challenging instruction, influential leaders, and collaborative teachers (p. 45-46). It is essential to note the Consortium research also emphasized principals as the “drivers of school improvement” and how they“played a key role for improving student learning outcomes” (p. 46-67). 

These stories can be a reminder and example of what is needed to ensure equitable outcomes for each student in our school’s communities for district and school leaders. 

“Kids can get smarter.
We can all get smarter.
We just have to muster the will to do so.”

(p. 152)

We can all improve by continually seeking out each other’s areas of strength and asking what Chenoweth refers to as the most powerful question in education.

 

“Your kids are doing better than mine; what are you doing?”