Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 371.010974 KEN | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Deborah Kenny was a young mother of three small children seeking to make sense of her life amid the despair of her husband's untimely death when she decided to devote herself to radically reinventing public education. Born to Rise recounts a journey that led Kenny to risk her life savings to open schools in Harlem while proving that all children, regardless of socioeconomic circumstances, can learn at high levels. Students enter Harlem Village Academies several years behind grade level, but in just a few years they are transformed, ranking among the highest in the nation--with 99 percent of eighth graders meeting proficiency standards in math, science, and social studies.
How do they do it
For the first time, Kenny shares the groundbreaking strategy that took ten years to develop. She reveals the secret to creating a powerful workplace culture that attracts the most talented people and brings out their passion and highest performance--a culture that produces stunning student achievement and teachers who regularly use words like magical to describe the workplace environment.
Born to Rise is the moving and strikingly candid account of Kenny's deeply personal dream: to pursue social justice for our nation's most vulnerable children. Part memoir, part manifesto, it is a hopeful and practical exposition of what it takes to transform schools and create organizations where the staff lights up with entrepreneurial drive. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about children and the future of this country, as well as for leaders who want to motivate and inspire fierce dedication in their employees.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
One woman's tragedy turns into triumph for hundreds of Harlem schoolchildren in Kenny's personal and professional memoir of founding the Harlem Village Academies, a successful group of charter schools that serve some of New York City's neediest students. After losing her husband, an exemplary man she considered to be "born to a higher purpose," to leukemia, Kenny sought-and found-her own purpose by creating a set of phenomenal inner-city schools where teachers could be treated like true professionals, banking on her belief that "a focus on talent is the one thing that will fix public education in America." Inspired by educators and reformers such as Jonathan Kozol and Geoffrey Canada, Kenny wanted to create schools that would give all students access to the sorts of educational privileges she and her own children had known. Though the pace slows as Kenny flounders to discern her vision and spends long months working on planning and funding for the schools, the anecdotes of successful teachers (Kenny's "rock stars") at work and students whose lives were truly turned around by her work prove persuasive and uplifting. Agent: Robert Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Inspirational account of a woman beating the odds to open quality schools for low-income families in Harlem. In 2001, Kenny, who has a doctorate in comparative international education, created what would become Harlem Village Academies--even though the venture made no sense to her family and friends. A young widow with three children at home, the author had no charter school experience, no building to use for classrooms, no specific plan and little money. She did know enough to realize that without fundraising success, she would never obtain charters from education regulators. However, raising money was extremely difficult without a state charter in hand. Nonetheless, Kenny felt compelled to proceed for reasons she didn't fully understood. The book is partly memoir; the story of the charter school doesn't appear until approximately 50 pages in. The author begins with a chronicle of her husband's death from cancer, followed by the story of her innovative thinking as a business executive, including her stint as group president of Sesame Street Publishing. Kenny shares the development of her thinking about her hoped-for charter school, with its emphasis on building a faculty of the best teachers available in the K-12 range. The parents of the children completed applications, and the spots were filled by an independently run lottery. Although many of the students are lagging below the norm in reading and other subjects, a high percentage of them have shown marked improvement as Kenny's charter schools have refined teaching and learning techniques. A mostly upbeat book that explains many of the obstacles to success while often glossing over those obstacles and the negative outcomes accompanying the admirable successes.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Kenny has been a freethinker since adolescence, when she eschewed the regular path to success of a career in law or medicine. She was more intrigued by a search for ideals. When her husband died of leukemia, she was left to raise their three children, but she took the risk of leaving her corporate job and its security to invest in creating a charter school in Harlem. The idea was to offer children from disadvantaged backgrounds the same quality of education as privileged children in the suburbs. Kenny offers an inspiring account of the long, hard journey to develop the Harlem Village Academies, whose students are among the highest-achieving in the nation. She chronicles the 10 years it took to fully develop the school, from the early machinations to secure charters from the state of New York to the search for dedicated staff and parents looking for the best opportunities for their children to finding funders interested in investing in a model to redesign the U.S. school system. This inspiring book is part memoir and part blueprint for education reform.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2010 Booklist
Table of Contents
| 1 Searching | p. 1 |
| 2 What Life Expects | p. 17 |
| 3 People, Not Product | p. 39 |
| 4 Providence | p. 51 |
| 5 A School for My Children | p. 73 |
| 6 Down to the Wire | p. 85 |
| 7 Startup | p. 103 |
| 8 Rock Stars | p. 113 |
| 9 The Path to Justice | p. 133 |
| 10 Drowning | p. 141 |
| 11 My Child Is a Child Again | p. 155 |
| 12 I Used to Throw My Books Away | p. 177 |
| 13 People and Culture | p. 187 |
| 14 Scenes from a Revolution | p. 209 |
| 15 Be the Culture | p. 219 |
| 16 Born to Rise | p. 227 |
| Epilogue: The Education Manifesto | p. 235 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 241 |
