1st Post Full + Grid
Coffee Break: Santa on Reading Beyond Kids’ Wish Lists
Going way back to the days that all of us were kids, one man has been the star of our winter breaks. And he still is that for kids everywhere today. The prospect of Santa coming on Christmas Eve and...
Coffee Break: Priscilla Agbeo on Loving Her ‘Blackness’ From Chicago to Stanford
By Katelyn Silva Priscilla Agbeo is a junior at Stanford University, where she is focused on African and African American studies. She is also a woman of color—an African immigrant from the South Side of Chicago with a low-income background....
Coffee Break: NCTQ’s Kate Walsh on How the ‘Tide is Turning’ on Teacher Quality
By Peter Cunningham Since 2003, Kate Walsh has been working hard to improve the teaching force in our schools—an undisputed key to better academic performance. She’s served as the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) during that time,...
Coffee Break: Lori Barden on What Works Best for Schools and Why More Parents Should Run for Office
By Katelyn Silva Lori Barden is a parent of two school-aged boys, Tanner (7) and Will (12), who attend an intentionally diverse public charter school in Rhode Island. She just completed a run to become District 59 State Representative in...
A Can’t-Miss Episode of “As the Charters Turn”
How many episodes of “As the Charters Turn” have you seen on the TV news. I’ve lost track. It’s a required part of doing comms for a charter-friendly school district. But they get to be hard to take…kind of the...
On the Wire…Trump’s Ed Pick, New DC Chancellor, ESSA Help for Districts
Trump’s Ed Pick Elevates a Troubling School-Choice Model Betsy DeVos was officially announced last week as the nominee for US Secretary of Education in the upcoming Trump Administration. She makes perfect sense from a policy and politics standpoint: strong proponent...
The Comms’ Challenge of Charters Twisting in the Wind on Their Own
I’ve been having a hard time making sense of the thumping that charter schools suffered in Massachusetts on election day. Generally speaking, charters have strong support among families. Specifically speaking, Bay State charters are producing among the best results for...
The Power of Student Voice and Trusting the Messenger
By Brendan Lowe This year, our back-to-school communications plan survived for four days. Indeed, our talk of increased transportation access and new supports to allow schools to focus more on instruction didn’t even make it through a week. Before...
Coffee Break: Phyllis Lockett on What’s Going to Change the Game for Every Student Across America
When school reform first came to Chicago in the mid-1990s, with Mayor Richard M. Daley taking control of the city’s public schools, it hinged on an ambitious plan to open dozens of new schools throughout the city. One of the...
On the Wire….Election Fallout Edition
It’s been a really rough last couple of weeks in city schools, following the election of Donald Trump. But as they usually do, students are showing how strong and thoughtful they are. Like these students in New York City, and...