OPINION COMMENTARY:

One driver of the wealth gap in America is that households of people of color are less likely to own stock. Anthony Mohr, a 2021 ALI Fellow, says we should give students real shares to cultivate their interest in investing and creating wealth.

Polarized politics have infected local school boards, which have historically been nonpartisan. With school boards now on the front lines of the culture wars, Andrea Gabor outlines steps to strengthen school boards to function effectively given the mounting pressures facing them.

TRANSFORMING CITIES SERIES:

Baltimore City Schools (BCS) has adopted an ambitious agenda to transform the city’s schools. Dr. Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Schools, discusses the pillars of BCS’s Blueprint for Success, her belief that excellence in urban education is possible at scale, and the importance of leadership for the adults and students in the school system and the community.

Thomas Toch, the director of FutureEd, discusses federal COVID-recovery relief for K-12 education, how states and districts can and should use the funds to address the needs of students effectively and equitably, and bold policy initiatives to address some of education’s most pressing problems.

A conversation with historian, teacher and activist, Professor Timothy Patrick McCarthy, on the importance of embracing an honest reckoning with history, battling the culture wars in schools, and liberation dreaming in order to realize our best aspirations and intentions for public education.

Students spend upwards of thirty-five hours a week in a classroom and yet, they are rarely consulted when it comes to improving our schools. Andrew Brennen and Sanaa Kahloon discuss how this is changing as education stakeholders around the country tap into the power of student voice as a means both to bolster student achievement and to disrupt long-standing inequities.

OPINION COMMENTARY:

Bob Levey provides a personal perspective on how individual institutions and organizations must also wrestle with the complex problem of homelessness within their own communities.

THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION SERIES:

A conversation with John B. King, former Secretary of Education and President and CEO of The Education Trust, on the Biden/Harris administration's first 100 days in the education domain.

A conversation with social entrepreneurs Rebecca Taber Staehelin and Connor Diemand-Yauman, the Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Merit America — who seek to change the workforce on-ramp.

A conversation with Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor Fernando M. Reimers on successful innovations and positive strategies employed by education leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reflecting on three decades of social impact work on the University of Maryland Baltimore Country campus and in the community, President Freeman Hrabowski, Peter Henderson, and Anthony Lane recognize the wide-ranging benefits of this engaged, solutions-oriented approach to education and community building.

COVID-19 RECOVERY SERIES:

While acknowledging the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people, educators, non-profit leaders, mental health experts, young people, and education researchers share stories of hope, strength, and resilience from the work children are doing to lead the way to recovery in communities around the world.

Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the path to economic opportunity in the United States has become less clear as workers’ careers have taken increasingly non-traditional routes. Mike Meotti and Drew Magliozzi paint a compelling portrait of how technology can carve new tracks and create new ways of working.

The crisis of COVID-19, the resulting economic downturn, and the racial reckoning the country is now experiencing have made the need for equitable, high-quality education even more urgent. Author Irvin Scott’s model for the Education Ecosystem illuminates news ways of working.

Harvard ALI Fellow, Julie Allen, argues in this OpEd that federal education aid for schools, without aid for state and local governments, would be ineffective given the three-level system of education funding in the U.S.

POST-ELECTION SERIES:

Paul Reville, Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education and former Secretary of Education for Massachusetts, discusses the education legacy of the Trump administration, potential policy changes under the Biden-Harris administration, and the need for equitable funding and strategic approaches to address the challenges facing the education system, promoting equity and opportunity for all students.

The majority of American colleges and universities are caught between two powerful and opposing forces: the compelling need to change and the structural resistance to change. Brian Rosenberg, President Emeritus of Macalester College, provides a compelling example of innovation in Africa and what the US education systems can learn.

We caught up with James Honan, Senior Lecturer on Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and faculty member with the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, for this installment of the Social Impact Review Spotlight.

A conversation with Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elizabeth A. Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who has had a distinguished career as an innovative educator and psychologist.

Despite numerous, well-intentioned efforts to close the K-12 education and healthcare gaps in America, we have barely seen any progress. Why is this? Tom Hedrick outlines the problems and gives his thoughts on what we should do.