Susan Moore Johnson

Susan Moore Johnson is the Jerome T. Murphy Professor in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The failure of many urban schools to effectively and consistently serve their high-poverty students continues to be one of the most stubborn problems in U.S. public education. Such schools typically enroll large numbers of minority students, many of whom are English language learners or are identified as having special learning needs. Their families often live in poverty, contend with racism, and encounter danger in their neighborhoods, all conditions that pose extra challenges to these students’ success in school. Moreover, many of the schools have a long history of failure, marked by disorder and a lack of discipline, frequent turnover by administrators, a preponderance of inexperienced teachers who get little meaningful help, a patchwork curriculum, and mismatched professional development.