The Best of the Marshall Memo

“For educators who genuinely desire to make a difference, this book will be an invaluable resource.” —Pedro Noguera, Professor of Education, UCLA

“I wish I had this resource when I was principal of a large urban high school, always trying to solve the seemingly unsolvable problem.” —Sue Szachowicz, former principal, Brockton High School/Brockton, MA

“In our efforts to help leaders grow and think critically, this collection of article summaries will be a source of great conversations.” —Curtis Jones, Superintendent, Bibb County Schools, Macon, GA, 2019 National Superintendent of the Year

For years, Kim Marshall and Jenn David-Lang have been “designated readers” for busy front-line educators, curating the best ideas and research from scores of magazines and books. In The Best of the Marshall Memo, they’ve identified the most thought-provoking and helpful article summaries from the Marshall Memo archive and added professional learning suggestions. The book aims to help principals, teachers, superintendents, consultants, and researchers address the most pressing issues they face every day.

The book features the work of 170 researchers and practitioners, including Elena Aguilar, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, Angela Duckworth, Jennifer Gonzalez, Tom Guskey, Jon Saphier, Pedro Noguera, Carol Dweck and Dylan Wiliam. Their writing come from a wide range of publications, from Phi Delta Kappan to The New York Times.

The Best of the Marshall Memo is organized in three broad categories: high-leverage practices, maximizing teachers’ impact, and classroom structures for successful learning. Each chapter focuses on a high-priority topic—for example, setting a school’s mission, time management for principals, interviewing and hiring, supervising and evaluating teachers, classroom discipline, and assessment for learning—followed by detailed professional learning suggestions.

Kim Marshall was a teacher, central-office administrator, and principal in the Boston Public Schools for more than 30 years. He now leads workshops and courses, coaches school leaders, consults with schools and districts, and produces the weekly Marshall Memo, summarizing ideas and research from over 60 publications. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Rethinking Teacher Supervision and Evaluation (Jossey-Bass, 2nd edition, 2013).

Jenn David-Lang has worked in education for more than 25 years as a teacher, administrator, and consultant. She now designs and provides workshops for principals and teachers, coaches leaders, and conducts school evaluations. Since 2007, Jenn has published The Main Idea, a service for busy school leaders that provides summaries of compelling education books, accompanied by suggestions for professional learning.