Barbara Cervone  ·  Work & Publications  ·  Personal Writing  ·  Progressive Education

Work & Publications

Organizations

• What Kids Can Do, Inc. (2001–2016) — National nonprofit dedicated to documenting and broadcasting youth voice, focusing on young people marginalized by poverty, race, and language. Generated over 250 articles in local and national media and partnered with major foundations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, MetLife Foundation, and Nellie Mae Education Foundation. WKCD was also a founding member of Adobe Youth Voices, working with youth across the U.S. and six other countries.
• Next Generation Press — WKCD’s nonprofit publishing imprint. Published 17+ titles with youth as co-authors, with over 175,000 copies in print.
• How Youth Learn — Companion website to the “Students at the Center” research series, featuring papers on social-emotional learning, motivation, and personalization.
• In Our Global Village — An extension of the “In Our Village” photo essay series, inspiring 60+ student photo essay books created by teachers and students worldwide.
• Alternative High School Network (1970s) — Founded alternative schools in eight states across the United States.

Books with Major Publishers

These books, produced through What Kids Can Do, were published by major education presses and reached wide national audiences.

• Belonging and Becoming: The Power of Social and Emotional Learning in High Schools — Barbara Cervone and Kathleen Cushman. Harvard Education Press, 2015. (ISBN 978-1-61250-851-1)
• Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery — Kathleen Cushman. Jossey-Bass, 2010. (ISBN 978-0-470-64603-8)
• Fires in the Middle School Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from Middle Schoolers — Kathleen Cushman with Laura Rodgers. The New Press, 2008. (ISBN 978-1-59558-111-2)
• Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students — Kathleen Cushman. The New Press, 2003. Best-selling teacher education book for two consecutive years. (ISBN 978-1-56584-802-3)

Next Generation Press Books

First in the Family Series

Supported by the Lumina Foundation for Education, this series elevated the experiences of first-generation college students. The books sold over 200,000 copies combined and continue to be used by students entering institutions from community colleges to the Ivy League.

• First in the Family: Advice About College from First-Generation Students — Your High School Years — Kathleen Cushman. 2005. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-3-8)
• First in the Family: Advice About College from First-Generation Students — Your College Years — Kathleen Cushman. 2006. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-6-9)

Youth Voice and Student Life

• What We Can’t Tell You: Teenagers Talk to the Adults in Their Lives — Kathleen Cushman and the youth of WKCD. 2005. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-0-7)
• Sent to the Principal: Students Talk About Making High School Better — Kathleen Cushman and the students of WKCD. 2005. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-1-4)
• Hip Deep: Opinion, Essays, and Vision from American Teenagers — Edited by Abe Louise Young with the youth board of Next Generation Press. 2006. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-2-1)
• Forty-Cent Tip: Stories of New York City Immigrant Workers — Students of three New York public International High Schools. Introduction by Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco. 2006. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-4-5)
• Pass It On: Interviews by Youth with Mentors That Matter — Students of WKCD, edited by Kathleen Cushman. 2008. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-8-3)
• SAT Bronx: Do You Know What Bronx Kids Know? — Students from Bronx Leadership Academy 2, with Shannon O’Grady, Kristin Ferrales, and Kathleen Cushman. 2008. (ISBN 978-0-9815595-0-6)
• Queer Youth Advice for Educators: How to Respect and Protect Your Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students — Abe Louise Young and youth contributors. 2011.
• The Motivation Equation: Designing Lessons That Set Kids’ Minds on Fire — Kathleen Cushman with the students of WKCD. 2013. Enhanced multimedia e-book.

Photo Essay Books

These books grew out of international media projects in which young people documented and reflected on their communities through photography and writing.

• In Our Village: Kambi ya Simba Through the Eyes of Its Youth — Students at Awet Secondary School, Tanzania. Edited by Barbara Cervone. 2006. Sold over 7,500 copies. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-7-6)
• Perspectives of San Diego Bay: A Field Guide — Students of High Tech High. Foreword by Jane Goodall. 2006. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-5-2)
• India in a Time of Globalization: A Photo Essay by Indian Youth — A project of Adobe Youth Voices and WKCD. Edited by Barbara Cervone. 2008. (ISBN 978-0-9762706-9-0)
• Crisis and Hope: Youth Turn a Lens on the World — A project of Adobe Youth Voices and WKCD. Edited by Barbara Cervone. 2010. Youth photos from four continents and 16 countries. (ISBN 978-0-9815595-2-0)
• Art and Life in Rural Japan: Toho Village Through the Eyes of Its Youth — Edited by Cyrus Rolbin. Bilingual English/Japanese. (ISBN 978-0-9815595-3-7)
• Boto, Ethiopia Through the Eyes of Its Youth — Edited by Barbara Cervone.
• In Our Village: San Francisco’s Tenderloin Through the Eyes of Its Youth — Edited by Barbara Cervone, with youth at the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco. (ISBN 978-0-9815595-6-8)

Selected Articles and Book Chapters

Journal Articles

• “A Conceptual Framework for Parent Involvement” — Barbara Tucker Cervone and Kathleen O’Leary. Educational Leadership, 1982.
• “Student Attitudes Toward Studying History” — Barbara T. Cervone. The Clearing House, 1983.
• “A.W. Tucker: Some Reminiscences” — Barbara T. Cervone, Bill Duren, J. J. Kohn, J. Laurie Snell, and Marjorie L. Stein. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 1995. A memorial tribute to her father, the Princeton mathematician Albert W. Tucker.
• “Moving Youth Participation into the Classroom: Students as Allies” — Barbara Cervone and Kathleen Cushman. New Directions for Youth Development, 2002.
• “Student Research for Action: Restoring Hope Where It’s All But Gone” — Barbara Cervone. National Civic Review, 2006.
• “Baltimore’s Urban Debates Prove the Word Is Mightier than the Sword” — Barbara Cervone. National Civic Review, 2006.
• “Powerful Learning with Public Purpose” — Barbara Cervone. New Directions for Youth Development, 2010.

Book Chapters

• “When Reach Exceeds Grasp: Taking the Annenberg Challenge to Scale” — in Reconnecting Education and Foundations: Turning Good Intentions into Educational Capital, edited by Ray Bacchetti and Thomas Ehrlich. Stanford University Press, 2007. (ISBN 978-0-7879-8818-0)

Reports and White Papers

• “Walter H. Annenberg’s Challenge to the Nation: A Progress Report” — Barbara T. Cervone and Lisa Rowley. Annenberg Institute for School Reform, 1996.
• “Walter H. Annenberg’s Challenge to the Nation: A Progress Report” (updated) — Barbara T. Cervone and Lisa Rowley. Annenberg Institute for School Reform, 1998.
• “Citizens Changing Their Schools: A Midterm Report of the Annenberg Challenge” — Kathleen Cushman and Barbara Cervone. Annenberg Institute for School Reform, 1999.
• “Youth Acts, Community Impacts: Stories of Youth Engagement with Real Results” — Joel Tolman, Karen Pittman, Barbara Cervone, et al. Forum for Youth Investment, 2001. Funded by the Ford Foundation.
• “Taking Democracy in Hand: Youth Action for Educational Change in the San Francisco Bay Area” — Barbara Cervone. What Kids Can Do, 2002.
• “A Future That Works: First Person Accounts of Community Colleges That Change Lives” — Kathleen Cushman, Barbara Cervone, Lisa Rowley. Jobs for the Future / MetLife Foundation, 2003.
• “Documenting Immigration Stories in Your Community: A Manual for Teachers and Students” — What Kids Can Do, 2008.
• “Teachers at Work: Six Exemplars of Everyday Practice” — Barbara Cervone and Kathleen Cushman. Students at the Center series, Jobs for the Future / Nellie Mae Education Foundation, 2012.
• “You’re Constantly Revising Yourself: The Dispositions of a Student-Centered Teacher” — Barbara Cervone and Kathleen Cushman. Students at the Center series, 2013.

Guides and Curriculum

• “First Ask, Then Listen: How to Get Your Students to Help You Teach Them Better” — What Kids Can Do, 2003. Companion to Fires in the Bathroom.
• “Students as Allies in Improving Their Schools” — With MetLife Foundation, 2004.
• “A Guide to Creating Teen-Adult Conversations in Your Community” — With MetLife Foundation, 2005.
• “Cultural Conversations Through Creative Writing: A Mini-Curriculum for Teachers” — What Kids Can Do, 2010.

Speaking & Media

• Purpose Prize acceptance — Civic Ventures / CoGenerate, 2008. Video profile recognizing her work elevating youth voice through What Kids Can Do.
• “Giving Voice to Youth” — Humankind on Public Radio, interview and feature segment.
• Psychology Today — Contributor page with Kathleen Cushman.
• Edutopia / George Lucas Educational Foundation — Quoted in “High School’s New Face” (2004).
• “This is my place”: middle schoolers on social and emotional learning — WKCD video produced for the Belonging and Becoming project.
• Boto Village, Ethiopia — WKCD video documenting the youth photo essay project in Ethiopia.
• Featured speaker and workshop presenter at education conferences throughout the United States on topics including youth engagement, school reform, student-centered learning, and first-generation college access.
• What Kids Can Do generated over 250 articles in local and national newspapers, from The New York Times to the Sacramento Bee, along with radio appearances across the country featuring youth collaborators.
• Next Generation Press books were reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, Teachers College Record, News Photographer, and other national publications.

Education

• Ed.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dissertation: Rounding up the children: compulsory education enforcement in Providence, Rhode Island, 1883–1935 (1983).
• M.A.T., Harvard Graduate School of Education
• B.A., summa cum laude, Radcliffe College