Carly Berwick

Integrated schools benefit all students. So how can districts do it?

Integration by income can be a powerful equalizer of opportunity for all students, yet schools are as segregated as they were in the early 1980s: I wrote about districts that are doing the work to create diverse schools for Edutopia.

How can data help teachers and students?

How can a sometimes-overwhelming flood of data help students? I wrote about the difference between collecting data and using it well for Edutopia. One solution: using behavioral inputs to improve academic outputs.

The most important person for college success may be the high school librarian

Librarians are an increasingly endangered species in high schools--which is problematic for reasons beyond having 17-year-olds know how to write a proper research paper. In many higher poverty schools, they serve as an unbiased, usually available college counselors and essay readers. I reported on the phenomenon of the college-prep high school librarian for School Library Journal.

How to really appreciate teachers

First step, don't tell them you appreciate them. Next, advocate for better school funding. I wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The best way to teach high school English learners?

I got to visit the inspiring Marble Hill High School in the Bronx while reporting this story on best practices in teaching ELLs in high school, particularly those who may have interrupted educations. There are many school models for multiple-language-learners--from fully bilingual classrooms to separate schools for newcomers in high school to full inclusion for English learners in the general education classroom, with some support. Marble Hill does a 50/50 model, where half of the incoming class is native speakers of English and half is learners. Within four years, the vast majority of students are fluent and on grade level. The ingredients for success seem to be: continuous focus on language and content together in a small school with a coherent and focused mission and excellent training and leadership.

Related articles

The elite private school model for poor city kids

How to include everyone meaningfully

Most organizations today know strength lies in diversity, but they often struggle to get there. It was so enlightening to speak with Reena Jana at Google for NBC's Better about her tips for making sure diverse voices are not only included, through hiring and vendor sourcing policies, but also heard in group settings. Simple yet effective: have a quick check-in from everyone in a meeting. As with students in a classroom, people often need to hear their voices aloud--and be heard--to remind the room that everyone is a valuable contributor.

The missing autistic girls

I wrote for Edutopia about girls with autism: they are diagnosed later than boys and in fewer numbers. Scientists are still unsure if this is because there are in fact fewer girls with autism or if they've been looking at autism spectrum disorder all wrong--based on studies of mostly boys. (Spoiler: probably some of both.) The piece received 10,000+ reposts through Edutopia, which has a formidable social media team.

I was moved by the stories of the women I spoke to, now adults, who had often felt unsure of their place growing up, and to read accounts of parents who found in it some record of their experiences with their girls. I was also fascinated to become engulfed in the heated, unresolved debate over terminology. Advocates argue forcefully both for people-first terminology--so girls with autism--and for identity-first language, so autistic girls, with families often saying they prefer people-first and self-advocacy groups lining up with identity-first (in general). Edutopia takes the editorial position of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network on this and uses identity-first language. 

Just doing it

I wrote for NBC's Better about the science- (and anecdote-) backed reasons to get outside and move before anything else.

Is the achievement gap in schools an equity gap?

The teaching force is three-quarters white, while American students are majority non-white. Some educators and researchers say these different life experiences have created obstacles to fairness and equity in the classroom. My article for Edutopia traces the quickest path to equity in the classroom. Glad to see it has been reshared more than 600 times in a week.

Hate speech on the rise, schools step up

Schools saw an increase in bias attacks after the election. I wrote about this for TheAtlantic.com on November 18. Since then the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented more than 800 incidents of hate speech against minorities and women--and those are just the ones that were voluntarily reported to SPLC. The best positive spin is that schools are stepping up to increase their usual emphasis on how to get along and talk to each other nicely.