Geoffrey Canada, the founder and leader of the Harlem Children’s Zone, is one of education reform’s best known and most respected heroes. A child of the streets of the South Bronx, he created what might be the most intense, most integrated effort ever to combat poverty in one of the nation’s poorest communities. In Whatever it Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America, New York Times Magazine editor Paul Tough takes readers into the heart of the Children’s Zone—and into the passion and logic of Geoffrey Canada. We talk with Paul about Canada’s vision, the role that the Promise Academy Charter school is playing, and the evidence about whether the Zone is working to transform Harlem and the children who live there. Join us for today’s edition of The Education Next Book Club.

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