Now for your five books. Your first choice, A Hope in the Unseen, is based on a series of articles which won the writer a Pulitzer prize. It is subtitled An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League. Tell us about this bestseller.

A Hope in the Unseen is an amazing first-hand account of the struggles a poor African-American student with tremendous ability and potential went through while growing up and going to schools in Washington, DC, where I was chancellor. The book walks through the challenges this young man had to overcome during his schooling and his transition to higher education. It’s a great book for people who believe that the circumstances of your upbringing don’t need to circumscribe how far you can go in life.

The hero of this book, Cedric Jennings, is raised by a single mother who is mired in debt and he is the son of a man who was incarcerated for drug crimes throughout much of Cedric’s youth. But Cedric doesn’t use his circumstances as an excuse for failure. How can public schools make sure they meet the needs of students like Cedric?

One of the biggest lessons that people should take from this story is that there are so many Cedrics out there. People shouldn’t assume that a kid from a certain school or a certain neighbourhood can’t achieve at the highest levels. Kids like Cedric prove those assumptions wrong.

Suskind describes how Cedric was harassed and threatened with violence by his peers simply for succeeding in class. Suskind says educators call it the crab-bucket syndrome: “When one crab tries to climb from the bucket, the others pull it back down.” What can educators do to combat that anti-achievement ethos?

This is an important point and one that educators think about a lot. We need to find ways, within the culture of schools, to celebrate academic achievers as much as we celebrate athletic achievement. Even in low-performing schools people come out for a basketball game or a homecoming game. That’s why athletes are revered – the entire community rallies around them. We have to do the same kind of thing for the kids that are succeeding academically.

How do you do that in an urban environment?

It can’t just be that we give them a plaque at an awards ceremony. We have to create an ongoing culture where the entire community is saying that these kids are making us proud.

Your next choice argues that educators too often see disadvantaged students like Cedric as damaged caricatures. Other People’s Children is a collection of essays by MacArthur Fellowship-winning education scholar Lisa Delpit. Tell us about it.

Other People’s Children is one of the books that all educators should read because it really gives a different perspective on teaching children who may not be of the same race or socioeconomic background. I think it’s always important for teachers to understand the cultural norms and expectations that prevail in the school environment where they work. Teachers need to be cognisant, not complacent, about teaching across difference. Other People’s Children helps educators ask themselves the right questions and gives them a lens through which they can view and think about how cultural dynamics play out in the classroom.

Delpit also argues that elements of progressive education are failing minority students and that it is necessary to focus on teaching kids the fundamental academic skills they need to be successful participants in society – skills they are unlikely to get at home or in unstructured environments. Do you agree with that perspective?

I think that her perspective is worth considering. When I was training to teach, I was taught a lot about cooperative learning and giving students autonomy. But once I got in the classroom, I found that what my kids really craved was structure. A number of them had very chaotic home lives, so when they came to school having the freedom to explore wasn’t what they wanted. What they wanted was to know step-by-step what to expect and what was expected of them. They responded well to structure, so that’s what I gave them. I learned to adapt my methods to their needs. Adjusting your approach to fit the cultural dynamics of a classroom – without lowering your expectations for kids’ achievement – is what Delpit really advocates, and I agree.