Deborah Kenny’s "Born to Rise" Tells Story of Harlem Village Academies
A．Deborah Kenny, CEO of the Harlem Village Academies, is frustrated with the nation’s current education system. Unlike most, though, she decided to do something about it, Part declaration part record, her book Born to Rise writes down her journey toward creating and running her own system of progressive charter schools in Harlem in New York City.
What is your educational philosophy
B．We want our students to receive the same high-quality education as students who are privileged to attend the best private schools in the country. Personally, I believe a progressive education is superior as long as it’s delivered by really smart, talented teachers who know how to execute well. It’s a sophisticated approach that really only works well in the hands of a really sophisticated educator. We’re dealing with a little bit of a challenge because students enter this school from the regular public system. And when they enter in fifth grade, they’re not yet well-trained in the basics-reading, writing, and math-which means that we have to catch them up on basic math skills, on the basics of writing. And many of them come in at a kindergarten-, first-, second-grade level in reading. So we have to accelerate their y of the basics, but we reject the idea that if you do that you can’t teach that at a high level. We push ourselves constantly to think about how we can make sure that our students will catch up while we teach at the highest possible level. It means asking difficult, delicate questions, not accepting an answer that is not backed up by evidence, the kinds of things that you would expect to see in the best private schools. We aim for a high level in rich discussions where the students are asked to yze a challenging text and where the teacher does not accept just any answer simply because the student is behaving.
What makes the Harlem Village Academies different
C．First of all, I have to say what we have in common with other charter schools because we have learned so much from them: creating an expectation that all students will attend college, naming classrooms after colleges, the longer school day, the longer school year. I feel it’s important to give credit where credit is due because I learned from them. In those early years when I opened the school, most of these other schools had been around for seven years, ten years, some of them even longer.
D．As far as what makes us different, I’ll tell you what the teachers say: teachers tell us that the level of professionalism and passion for teaching at a high level and teaching above the test, not to the test, and working in an environment, where everybody is trusted to do their job and continually learning—there’s this incredible culture of learning. There’s this incredible workplace culture where the s are continually becoming better and learning more about how to become a better teacher. The teachers get to make all of the decisions about their own professional development rather than being enforced to attend the training. They are treated like professional-grade doctors and lawyers at the highest level. They actually make the decisions not only about what books to use and what teaching method, but even about what their own professional development looks like. There’s a very clear set of standards for what the students need to know and be able to do at the end of each year and quarter, and we hold people accountable for that end goal. But we give them complete to decide how they’re going to achieve it, which is how all professionals are treated. Unfortunately, it’s not how most teachers are treated in this country. Most teachers are treated like factory workers, where there’s a big set of rules on how they have to do everything.
What does the curriculum look like at Harlem Village Academy schools
E．It looks like a classic liberal-arts curriculum, where math, reading, and writing are not the only subjects taught. Even if the state focuses its testing on those things, we do not let the state dictate our curriculum. We are interested in a rich curriculum that includes art and music and science and social studies and a wide variety of electives, and character education is integrated throughout.
How do you address the criticisms people have regarding charter schools
F．I’d say, that the main criticisms are stemming from the fact that in a charter system the teachers are not unionized, and they’re treated as professionals instead of as manual laborers. The charter movement is challenging the current situation, it’s coming along and saying we need to completely change the underlying premise (前提) of how we go about public education. Parents should be able to choose the school. We should give power to all parents, regardless of socioeconomic level, to choose where they send their child, and that creates market competition: if you have an amazing school with caring teachers and great results, parents are going to want to choose that school. The charter movement is putting the needs of children first and is holding teachers accountable. It challenges the notion of tenure (终身教职), where there’s no accountability at all.
What’s next for you and the Harlem Village Academies
G．We are going to triple (增至三倍) in size in the next two years. We will have a full K-12 system. We’re starting two new elementary schools, we will be serving 2000 children, but we are not eager to grow super-big. We want to use the platform of what we’ve learned and the results that we’ve produced—that our teachers have produced—to have a national influence on policy and on teaching methods. The laws that govern how schools run constrain the ability of the principal to run the school well. They’re not allowed to build a team. And building a team where teachers are trusted, happy and cooperative is really the foundation for an excellent school. So we want to find a way to get our message out nationally and continue to be part of the movement.
Deborah Kenny’s "Born to Rise" Tells Story of Harlem Village AcademiesWhat makes the Harlem Village Academies differentWhat does the curriculum look like at Harlem Village Academy schoolsHow do you address the criticisms people have regarding charter schoolsWhat’s next for you and the Harlem Village AcademiesStudents entering the Harlem Village Acadcmies are from the regular public system.