Hardest Questions Aren't on the Test
ISBN: 9780807032893
Platform/Publisher: PQ ebrary / Beacon Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a time
Subjects: School improvement programs : Massachusetts : Boston : Case studies.;

The Boston Arts Academy comprises an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse student body, yet 94 percent of its graduates are accepted to college. Compare this with the average urban district rate of 50 percent. How do they do it? This remarkable success, writes Principal Linda Nathan, is in large part due to asking the right questions-questions all schools can consider, such as:

* How and why does a school develop a shared vision of what it stands for?
* What makes a great teacher, and how can a principal help good teachers improve?
* Why must schools talk openly about race and achievement, and what happens when they do?

With engaging honesty, Nathan gives readers a ring-side seat as faculty, parents, and the students themselves grapple with these questions, attempt to implement solutions, and evaluate the outcomes. Stories that are inspirational as well as heartbreaking reveal the missteps and failures-as well as the successes.

Nathan doesn't claim to have all the answers, but seeks to share her insights on schools that matter, teachers who inspire, and students who achieve.

Linda Nathan is the first Executive Director of the Center for Artistry and Scholarship and has taught at Harvard Graduate School of Education for fifteen years. Dr. Nathan served as founding headmaster of Boston Arts Academy, Boston's only public high school for the visual and performing arts. She also founded and directed the Center for Arts in Education, an arm of Boston Arts Academy that serves the outreach, professional development, and arts advocacy needs of the school. Dr. Nathan was the co-director of Fenway High School for 14 years and founded two not-for-profit organizations: El Pueblo Nuevo (arts and youth development) and the Center for Collaborative Education (school reform issues). She is co-founder of the Perrone Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership and also serves on numerous not-for-profit boards both locally and nationally and is the author of When Grit Isn't Enough.

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