My takeaway from the NHJ discourse is that America continues to be unreasonably polarized between people who think the only thing that matters is the other students and the only thing that matters is funding.
Managing the school is important!
slowboring.com/p/why-i-send-…
I spent 18 years finding and learning from high-performing and improving schools and districts that serve children of color and children from low-income homes. Lots of individual lessons to learn from them, but the biggest: school leadership is key.hep.gse.harvard.edu/97816825…
Sep 22, 2026 · 2:18 PM UTC
My understanding is that good schools (including good management) are downstream of parental involvement. Did you find many examples of well-run schools with minimal parental oversight?
Thank you for this work. Parents did not need to wait for HNJ or @mattyglesias to write about their experiences to understand the importance of accountability for student results. Work like yours was already showing the way.
And district leadership.
hep.gse.harvard.edu/97816825…
What I found is not really controversial--tons of research supports my finding, from Ronald Edmonds and Sir Michael Rutter in the 1970s to the UChicago Consortium on School Research in the 2010s. To the Wallace Foundation today.
