Molly Cole on Opening Brooke East Boston Charter School and Becoming One of the Top Schools in the State

Molly Cole, founding principal of Brooke East Boston Charter School, was honored this school year with the Ryan Award for exceptional school leadership, a national…

Here’s the One Thing We Just Can’t Agree on When It Comes to Schools

Ask any parent and they’ll tell you they want their child to go to a good school. But ask them what makes a good school,…

Chicago’s Students Are Standing Still on Test Scores But That’s Good News

Sometimes no progress represents real progress, especially when you’re talking about an urban school district roiled by financial woes and a national exam that has…

Does Standardized Testing Help Students?

Every state uses standardized tests to find out how students in public schools are doing. Federal law requires it. But why? And how do standardized…

This New Study Shows That Testing Isn’t Everything, But We Still Need It

Figuring out how students are doing in school is a lot harder than most of us realize. That’s what I’m taking away after digging into…

I’ve Taught in a School With Zero Accountability, It’s Terrible

By last December, the fall of my ninth year of teaching high school, I had been observed by teacher coaches, visitors from educational non-profit organizations,…

Your Neighborhood School May Not Make the Rankings But That Doesn’t Mean It Isn’t Right for Your Kid

When moving into my neighborhood, my husband and I never considered our neighborhood school a viable option for our children. It wasn’t “good” based on…

Could This Teacher and Leadership Program Be Part of the ‘Secret Sauce’ for Chicago Schools?

In most urban school districts, “turnaround” is a dirty word. Turnaround schools are first identified as failing and left to languish for some time in…

For This Chicago Public Schools Graduate, It’s the Teachers Who Made the Difference

This morning, academics and civic leaders gathered in Chicago to dig in on research that shows Chicago’s public schools have done a remarkable job of…

You Might Need to Check Your Assumptions on Teacher Turnover

Too often in education, policy wonks and researchers (like me) talk about an issue in ways that bear little resemblance to the way it plays…