I joined the staff of the Learning First Alliance (LFA) in September 2007. LFA is a partnership of 16 education organizations representing more than 10 million members dedicated to improving student learning in America's public schools. We share examples of success, encourage collaboration at every level, and work toward the continual and long-term improvement of public education based on solid research.
I come to this work from a classroom perspective. I taught high school physical science, biology and remedial math in Reserve, Louisiana, for two years as a Teach For America corps member. I've also worked on both school- and community-based mentoring programs.
Blog Posts
We all know that the demographics of America's public school population are shifting. In 2011, nearly a quarter -- 23.9 percent -- of pre-K-12 students was Hispanic, many either immigrants or the children of immigrants who speak another language at home. And that proportion is projected to grow...
Read More.We all know that leadership is important in education. Without strong leadership, education initiatives tend to crash and burn. Consider professional learning. Leadership is one of Learning Forward's seven Standards for...
Read More.We hear so many negative things about public education in America -- most notably, that our schools are failing. And the reasons often cited involve educator shortcomings, for example, that colleges of education are doing a terrible job of preparing new teachers, or that the students in those...
Read More.It is easy to ignore the noise from Washington, DC, about the upcoming fiscal cliff. The tone from the Capitol hardly seems changed from the pre-election rhetoric that made many of us tune out what politicians have to say.
Read More.This time of year, many people are reflecting on what is truly important in life and all they have to be grateful for. The most common item of the top of these lists: family.
Read More.According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, just over 20 percent of households with children under 18 experienced food insecurity in 2011. This means that at some point during the...
Read More.Parent trigger laws have been attracting a lot of attention of lately. At least 18 states (some say 20) have considered legislation including parent trigger language over the past two years, with seven states enacting some version of a parent trigger. And a major motion picture set to release on...
Read More.Our nation is on the right track when it comes to high school graduation. The graduation rate is the highest it has ever been (75.5% for the class of 2009), and between 1990 and 2010, the...
Read More.Our national obsession with assessment continues. Despite their rhetoric expressing concern about the role that standardized tests play in our education system, politicians persist in valuing these tests almost exclusively when it comes to accountability -- not only for schools, as has been the...
Read More.Summer learning loss is a well-documented phenomenon, with students losing between...
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