We are inspired by the dozens of schools around the country in which students of low socio-economic status are achieving to extremely high standards. They demonstrate convincingly that high expectations, excellent teachers and enabling leaders can trump even the most challenging aspects of what a typical urban student brings to class every day.

In 2007, Karin Chenoweth, an education writer and former Washington Post columnist, and Achievement Alliance published “It’s Being Done”: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools. Using a strict set of criteria, the author found and wrote about 15 neighborhood public schools that “demonstrate that all children can learn.”

The book takes readers into schools where educators believe — and prove — that all children, even those considered “hard-to-teach,” can learn to high standards. Their teachers and principals refuse to write them off and instead show how thoughtful instruction, high expectations, stubborn commitment and careful consideration of each child’s needs can result in remarkable improvements in student achievement.

The common characteristics among these schools whose students attain academic achievement in a variety of challenging circumstances include data-driven instruction, the wise use of school time, ongoing professional development of teachers, and comprehensive leadership teams made up of principals, teachers, parents and community members.

For years, The Education Trust, an education advocacy organization, has identified schools where poor children and children of color do better than their peers in other schools. In its 2006 publication, Yes We Can, the Trust affirms that “Across this country — every single day — children of color who are being taught to high levels are achieving at high levels.

“The schools and school districts that are changing the life opportunities for children of color aren’t performing magic, and these high-achieving students aren’t the product of ‘creaming schemes’ that teach only the best and brightest. These schools and districts are simply engaged every day in the hard work of teaching all children to high standards. They are giving their students the tools for success — clear goals, high expectations, rigorous coursework, extra instructional help when needed, and strong teachers who know their subject matter and how to teach it.”

These schools also signal the fundamental reinvention that must occur in American public education. The current system of public schooling was not designed to create high levels of learning for all students, but rather to permit wide variance in student achievement, with student outcomes distributed along a “bell” curve. Unfortunately, this variance has all-too-often been mapped directly onto historical social inequalities. Evidence of success in unlikely places proves that neither race nor class need determine the academic and life options of urban students.