Coffee Break: Why Ramon Griffin Left Law to Change School Discipline

As a youth in Ford Heights, Illinois, Ramon Griffin grew up asking hard questions. Why did his ZIP code have so many schools on the…

Detroit Charter Leader Chanavia Patterson Knew Her School Had Improved When She Was Ready to Enroll Her Own Kids

Chanavia Patterson always knew she would become a teacher, but she didn’t know she would become an outstanding mentor, coach and principal. In 2013, she…

Coffee Break: Tim Daly on How EdNavigator Helps Parents Make School Choice Work

Three years ago, Tim Daly and two colleagues left TNTP (The New Teacher Project) and launched a new effort called EdNavigator. The organization aims to…

Coffee Break: How Arthur VanderVeen Is Lighting a Spark Under PARCC

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, is a standardized test developed with federal funding to determine if students are meeting…

Coffee Break: North Carolina’s Wanda Legrand Knows Students Can’t Be Successful Unless They Feel Loved

“We’ve not done enough to make students feel valued for their differences,” says Wanda Legrand, the new chief schools support officer for Guilford County Schools…

Coffee Break: Oakland’s Lakisha Young Is Done Waiting for Superman and Ready for Parents to Take the Lead

Lakisha Young is executive director of The Oakland REACH. She has dedicated her career to promoting access to quality schools because she knows firsthand that…

Coffee Break: Yamuna Menon on Connecticut Choice and Cinnabon Coffee

It’s been a four-year dry spell for charter schools in Connecticut. Yamuna Menon is working to put an end to that. As Northeast Charter Schools…

Coffee Break: PowerMyLearning’s Elisabeth Stock on How Personalized Learning Involves the Whole Family

Elisabeth Stock has been at the education game for decades as the head of PowerMyLearning, a nonprofit focused on personalized learning. I recently chatted with…

Coffee Break: District Turnaround Expert Karen Hawley Miles Wants No Nonsense in Her Coffee and No Nonsense in Our Schools

Karen Hawley Miles is the president and executive director of Education Resource Strategies, Inc. (ERS), a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that helps turn around low-performing school districts.…

Coffee Break: Colorado’s Parents Are a Force to Be Reckoned With and This Organization Is Making Sure We Know It

If the founders of Transform Education Now (TEN) have their way, the parents of Colorado’s school kids will be the newest force to be reckoned with in…