A teacher pours her energy into an after-school ballet program even as she is dying from an autoimmune disease. A student wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day to get on a public bus in search of a good education. A gay teacher comes out of the closet during a social justice lesson. A young refugee from Burundi finds her strength and rhythm in music class.

These stories -- often lost in the national debate over how to fix American public schools -- can be found in this book.

The stories contained in this book, first published in the New Haven Independent and culled from hundreds of stories on New Haven’s school reform experiment, offer a human look at the complex challenges facing the effort to improve our nation’s schools — and a glimpse at some small triumphs along the way.

The national school reform debate has polarized the nation. Discussions about charter schools, Teach For America, and teachers unions often devolve into such profound disagreement that opposing sides seem to speak different languages — and lose sight of the experiences of the students and teachers they are arguing about.

This book aims to bring forward those students’ and teachers’ voices – voices from a city that is defying a national trend toward bitter public battles over how to educate poor and minority kids. As cities like Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. locked horns with teachers unions over attempted reforms, educators and policymakers in New Haven have moved ahead with a collaborative approach to improve city schools. The collaboration has gained national admirers across the ideological spectrum -- from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten -- and drawn glowing articles in national publications from The New York Times to the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek.

This book delves beyond the headlines of this nationally watched school-reform experiment. In these pages, you’ll sit at the table as a struggling rookie teacher undergoes a performance review. You’ll explore life at three turnaround schools, including one where — in defiance of a national trend toward taking power away from organized labor — the district let the teachers union take over management of a failing school. You’ll get an on-the-ground look at the impact that Teach For America, the national leadership development organization, has had on one low-performing school.

This book takes a look at some of the experiments New Haven has tried in the name of reform – and some of the more old-fashioned ways that people in New Haven have overcome setbacks dealt by poverty. Research says character skills like perseverance and self-control are more important than IQ or SAT scores in helping disadvantaged kids succeed in school and life. But those skills, which can be taught, not just inherited, are often overlooked amid a national focus on high-stakes tests.

These stories highlight students, teachers and parents who have shown exceptional perseverance in the face of obstacles — a lost car key, a lost home, a lost family — that stand to derail them from their dreams.