Starting Up

Starting Up is a collection of first-person accounts by some of the best-known founders of new schools in America. Providing the kind of knowledge that only experience can teach, it is an invaluable resource for anyone in the process of or thinking about opening a new school, as well as those interested in the politics of today’s era of new school development. The authors share how they worked to make their educational aspirations a reality while wrestling with social and economic obstacles, such as the distressed state of the communities in which these schools operated and the constant competition for resources. Starting Up tells real stories that capture the rich sense of possibility that currently exists for urban education.

Book Features:

• Behind the scenes accounts from the founders of innovative K–12 schools created to better serve primarily poor communities across the country.


• Lessons learned from school leaders, including both the rewards and challenges associated with starting a new school.


• An introduction by Pedro Noguera that situates start ups within current economic and political realities.

Lisa Arrastía is the middle school principal at United Nations International School in New York. Her work in the classroom is the focus of the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Making the Grade. Marvin Hoffman is the founding director of The University of Chicago Charter School, North Kenwood/Oakland campus and the associate director of the University’s Urban Teacher Education Program.

“These are educators who recognize that although urban public schools are often deeply flawed and dysfunctional, they don’t have to be, and they are educators who act on the belief that it is possible to create schools that nurture and support the hopes and aspirations of those they serve.”

—From the Foreword by Pedro Noguera, New York University

“How might we reimagine our schools? This book offers a guide from those who have experienced firsthand the trials and tribulations of trying to create a school from the bottom up. It asks all the right questions, both the practical and the pedagogical. It feels like essential reading as we reconsider how our urban schools should look and function.” 

—Alex Kotlowitz, bestselling author of There Are No Children Here and The Other Side of the River

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