Whatever It TakesJanuary 6, 2009 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Everyone should read this book. I suggest listening to the 30 minute radio story before reading. Search for "This American Life" series from National Public Radio. The episode that contains this story is "Going Big" which aired late September, 2008.
Compelling readingDecember 1, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For anyone interested in improving education in our inner cities, this book is hard to put down. Paul Tough reports on Geoffrey Canada's impressive quest to change the lives of low-income kids in Harlem through intensive programs that begin at birth or even before. Tough highlights the successes and failures of the Promise Academy charter school and nothing is sugar-coated for the reader. The end of the book feels like just the beginning of the story and I would love to read a follow-up in a few years.
The start of an important debateDecember 1, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Whatever It Takes" is a very good book with some significant limitations that prevent it from becoming a great book.
The book's strengths include the following:
*** It provides some profiles of the challenges facing individuals in poverty in Harlem. *** It provides an in-depth description of the workings of the Harlem Children's Zone, focusing in particular on its parenting programs and middle school programs. *** It provides an interesting profile of Geoffrey Canada, the creator and director of the Harlem Children's Zone, who is certainly a fascinating man who deserves the spotlight. *** It provides a good and user-friendly summary of the research literatures on the influence of parenting practices on how children do in the short-run and long-run, the disparities in parental environment across socioeconomic classes in the U.S., and how quality preschool programs affect how children fare as adults. It also includes some brief but interesting discussions of the KIPP charter school program.
What are the book's limitations?
*** It never provides a real summary of what Geoffrey Canada's vision would cost if implemented on a large scale. What would it really cost for the nation to provide parenting classes, high quality preschool, longer and high quality school years, and high quality after school programs, for all parents and children who need these services? This omission of cost estimates prevents the debate over the merits of Geoffrey Canada's vision from being fully joined in this book. *** Geoffrey Canada's vision is that there are large synergies between all these different services: that is, the social return to implementing parenting classes for at risk families, for example, are affected by whether their children also have high quality schools to go to, or high quality preschool. The book does not in any serious way critique the vision of the visionary it is discussing. Yet there is no real evidence either for or against such synergies. Geoffrey Canada might well be right, but he might be wrong. For example, as mentioned in the book, there appear to be high social returns to high-quality preschool even if the children subsequently go to a lousy public school. Do we need to undertake all these programs together, or can they be pursued separately? If they must be pursued together, then this creates much larger logistical and cost barriers to seriously pursuing anti-poverty policies. *** The book does not include much in-depth description of the pre-K component of the Harlem Children's Zone. The elementary school also receives less attention than the parenting program and the middle school program. However, at least as judged from the book's evidence, the pre-K program and the elementary program components of the Harlem Children's Zone may be more successful than the HCZ's middle school program and parenting program.
Overall, this book is essential reading for anyone who is interesting in anti-poverty policy or urban policy in the U.S. Comprehensive and concentrated anti-poverty policy in urban neighborhoods is certainly an important policy option to consider, and I know of no book that considers this option in as much depth. While one wishes the book had included additional information, what it does provide is a very useful start.
Whatever it takes; Geoffrey Canada's quest to change Harlem and AmericaNovember 30, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Amazing story. Thank God for the Geoffrey Canada's of this world. I wish we could duplicate the Harlem Children's Zone all over the world. Thank you Paul for telling the story. Thank you Geoffrey for being the story. Best wishes to all at the HCZ
Whatever It TakesNovember 16, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is both an important and an excellent book. Canada's own book staked his claims in a forceful, eloquent and caring way. Paul Tough's WHATEVER IT TAKES attempts to present objectively some of the performance outcome data of Canada's concept, both in a quantitative and anecdotal way. It also reports on President-elect Obama's take on the concept and his hopes for a Federal pilot study in the immediate near term. This concept is as of yet, formative and untested; this book attempts to take a first hard look at Canada's great hopes, and it points to a more objective look at educational policy outcomes by the new administration.
