Teaching literacy skills through high-quality trade books that provide diverse cultural perspectives is increasingly difficult due to challenges to teachers' book selections. To meet their professional responsibilities, teachers must select literature they judge effective for developing students' awareness and understanding of others'…

Providing professional development to busy principals is an ongoing challenge for many school districts. Lynn Public Schools in Massachusetts and the nonprofit Center for Artistry and Scholarship (CAS) in Boston partnered to provide professional development to 16 principals in the district. Linda F. Nathan, Taarini Goyal, and Evonne Alvarez…

Americans' ratings of their community's public schools reached a new high dating back 48 years in this year's PDK Poll of Public Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, while fewer than ever express interest in having their child work as a public school teacher. Results of the 54th annual PDK poll tell a tale of conflicted views of public schools --…

Currently, research surrounding transition programs for students entering high school focuses on academic achievement outcomes. However, the prevalence of school shootings in predominantly white, suburban communities shows that students in these often academically competitive schools may need support to help them become more connected to the…

Middle school brings rapid developmental changes for adolescents, and parent engagement is as essential as ever. However, what worked for parent-teacher partnerships in elementary school doesn't fit so well in middle school. Adolescents are building their autonomy, and teachers must help empower parents' efforts to bolster students as independent…

When parents push back against educators' comments or recommendations about their children, those parents may actually be reacting to a long history of negative interactions with schools. This is especially true when Black parents are interacting with white educators. Research has shown that teachers, who are predominately white, tend to…

The COVID-19 pandemic, societal racial reckonings, and pressure from parents and the media have put education leaders in a crisis. Carole Learned-Miller of the Leadership Academy in New York spoke with school and education organization leaders who saw their organizations through a variety of challenges, including the pandemic, racial inequities, a…

Recent headlines describing the national drop in public school enrollment suggest that this is a shocking crisis brought on or worsened by the pandemic. However, Abbie Cohen argues that the current enrollment decline should not be a surprise. The underlying causes have festered for decades. Among these causes is the tension between the different…

Portland Public Schools serves nearly 50,000 students in 90 schools averaging 77 years of age. Building age combined with decades of deferred maintenance created serious health and safety issues, numerous unfavorable media reports, and an irate public. In response, PPS Board of Directors commissioned an independent evaluation of various…

Research has shown that traditional ways of promoting family involvement in school are often ineffective, especially among families whose approach does not align with the middle-class child-rearing practices embraced in many U.S. schools. To encourage greater family involvement, a Colorado school district is piloting a program in which educators…

Teachers have historically been at the margins of educational improvement, and they are just beginning to drive improvements in the profession. Networked improvement communities (NICs) are one approach for collective reprofessionalization of teaching, where practice is defined and managed by practitioners. Edit Khachatryan and Emma Parkerson offer…

Among educational researchers and practitioners, parent involvement tends to be described as a wholly positive experience, benefitting parents, teachers, and children alike. However, the author--a university professor originally from South Korea--explains that her early interactions with her son's teachers have been one-sided and fraught with…

The author outlines steps for professional development via coaching and emphasizes the role of building and maintaining trust between coach and teacher. Four guideposts must be followed in coaching: Let the teacher drive the PD; adopt a curious, problem-solving stance; walk the walk; and communicate clearly and transparently. The article is…

Everyone with a stake in education--especially parents--should understand the value of data and how they can benefit their children's education. But most people aren't hearing from their schools, districts, and states about how those data are being used and how their children's and family's privacy is being protected. Communicating clearly about…

In the past decade, research-practice partnerships (RPPs) have grown in number and reputation. Stephanie Brown and Annie Allen describe the varied ways partnerships facilitate more sustained and productive relationships between researchers and practitioners. They share key findings from a comparative case study of three different types of RPPs…