Change Agents: Transforming Schools From the Ground Up | Justin Cohen

“This book shows how improvement science can help educators achieve equity for all students. It draws on successful examples of real schools and educators to give helpful advice on how to make meaningful and systemic change through building educators’ capacity.” — Michelle Bowman, senior vice president, networks & continuous improvement

How a City Learned to Improve its Schools | Anthony Bryk, Sharon Greenberg, Albert Bertani, Penny Sebring, Steven E. Tozer, and Timothy Knowles

“This book tells the story of the turnaround in Chicago Public Schools — a story that’s close to my heart because I worked with CPS in the early 2000s. I’ve watched the district improve so much over the years and see many lessons educators can apply in their own contexts.” — Frederick Brown, president and CEO

I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids  |   Kyle Schwartz

“This has been one of my favorite education books since I heard the author speak at the Learning Forward Annual Conference in 2020. I’m inspired by her straightforward way of connecting with students by giving them a chance to open up.” — Melinda George, chief policy officer

Reading for Their Life: (Re)Building the Textual Lineages of African American Adolescent Males  |  Alfred W. Tatum

“I credit Alfred Tatum and this book for helping me understand the transformative power of texts that reflect and uplift the identities of Black and Brown boys (and girls). I run into former students who still thank me for introducing them to the first novels they were willing to read independently because they connected with them.” — Machel Mills-Miles, vice president, standards implementation and outreach

Sold a Story podcast  |  American Public Media

“Emily Hanford’s investigation into literacy instruction in America details how balanced literacy instructional methods persisted despite being proven ineffective by cognitive scientists. As a balanced literacy teacher for much of my classroom career, I found the podcast both wrenching and affirming.” — Jefna Cohen, associate editor

Spark & Sustain: How All the World’s School Systems Can Improve Learning at Scale  |  McKinsey & Company

“This report is clear-eyed about how school systems succeed when they ground system strategy in better classroom instruction for improved student outcomes. Systems like Singapore’s that beat the odds in producing meaningful gains use similar levers, described in the report.”— Gail Paul, content marketing specialist

Unpacking the “Science of Reading”  |  Kim Austin from the Regional Educational Laboratory Program’s blog

“This Q&A with literacy expert Tim Shanahan provides an easy-to-read overview of what the science of reading is — and isn’t. It dispels common myths, shares research evidence, and provides helpful implementation resources.”
— Elizabeth Foster, senior vice president, research and strategy