Building a Learning Culture in America

by Kevin P. Chavous

Building a Learning Culture in America takes an incisive, no-holds-barred look at how America embraced and cultivated a culture of learning in the past, how that culture declined in the sixties and seventies, and what must be done to regain it. From political gridlock to systemic discrimination, Chavous details the many ways education today is off track, and cites specific examples of what Americans might do to reform it.

Part memoir and part manifesto, this is a frank, fascinating, and personal account of Chavous' experience as a politician working to enact school choice in Washington, DC, and throughout the United States. During the course of his political career, he has seen political skirmishes and party scuffles interfere with the United States' ability to improve its educational system. These conflicts did not cause the problem; they were merely a result. The true problem was more basic: the decline of America's learning culture.

This pivotal work calls for Americans to unite in making the changes needed to reestablish a learning culture as an inherent piece of the American national fabric, and tells us how to begin.

232 pages, Hardcover

Published August 30, 2016

About the author

Kevin P. Chavous is a noted attorney, author, and national education reform leader. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Mr. Chavous spent most of his professional career practicing law and engaged in public service in Washington, D.C. As a former member of the Council of the District of Columbia and its education committee chair, Mr. Chavous was at the forefront of promoting change within the District public school system and helped to shepherd the charter school movement and school choice into the nation's capital and around the country. At present, Mr. Chavous serves as President of Academics, Policy & Schools at K-12, Inc., the largest online education provider in the country.

A prolific writer and much sought after speaker, Mr. Chavous' opinion editorials have appeared in most major newspapers and he has given speeches on the topic of education in nearly every state. Former Indiana Governor and Purdue University president Mitch Daniels has called Mr. Chavous "the most effective advocate for children in America". Mr. Chavous has published three books of nonfiction: Serving Our Children: Charter Schools and the Reform of American Public Education, Voices of Determination: Children that Defy the Odds, and Building A Learning Culture in America.

Mr. Chavous loves reading political thrillers and wrote his first novel, The Plan in 2017. In 2019, he published, The Fund. In those books, he introduced the Jackson Lowery character. The Shipment is book three of the Jackson Lowery trilogy. Jackson Lowery happens to be his great-great-grandfather's name.