Type Of Content: Podcast

A small, kindergarten-through-8th-grade district in rural Oklahoma, Lane was identified by Sean Reardon, Professor of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University, as one of the few districts in the country that “grow” its students almost six academic years in five calendar years.

To kick off Season 2 of ExtraOrdinary Districts, we brought together an all-star panel to discuss school district improvement. Janice Jackson, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Harvard University’s Ronald F. Ferguson, and University of Michigan’s Nell Duke.

In season two we travel to two rural districts and one suburban district to talk with thoughtful educators about the hard work they have put in to develop systems and ways of operating to continuously improve the learning of students.

To mark the 65th anniversary of the Brown versus Board of Education ruling, Ed Trust created a special edition of ExtraOrdinary Districts.

One of the key lessons that emerged in Education Trust’s podcast, “ExtraOrdinary Districts,” is that improvement requires leadership at the school level.

One of the districts that surprised Sean Reardon the most is Chicago – the nation’s third largest district with about 400,000 students.

What are they doing in Steubenville do be so high performing in elementary school? And how are they addressing the fact that their students don’t continue to perform at the top of the country as they move into secondary grades?

In Episode 2 of Extra-Ordinary Districts, we go to Lexington to find out how it became so high-performing.

Across the nation, many school districts are asking themselves, “What can we do to better serve our students of color and those from low-income communities?”