The Best of the Marshall Memo

For years, Kim Marshall and Jenn David-Lang have been considered “designated readers,” curating ideas and research for busy frontline educators. Kim’s weekly Marshall Memo summarizes the best articles from more than sixty magazines and journals. In The Main Idea, Jenn writes a detailed synopsis of a carefully selected education book each month, accompanied by professional development suggestions. 

In The Best of the Marshall Memo, both Book One and Book Two, they have combed through more than eight thousand article summaries in the Marshall Memo archive and compiled a “best of” collection of the most thought-provoking and helpful ones, organized by topic, with accompanying professional learning suggestions to help school leaders address the most pressing problems in schools today.

Each chapter of each book covers one of eleven crucial “must know” education topics and is a jackpot for the busy school leader—access to a curated set of top articles, thoughtfully organized, easily read in under an hour, and accompanied by suggestions for action. This is a welcome resource for school leaders who don’t have the time to forage for school-improvement ideas while tackling the day-to-day challenges of effectively running their schools.

You may read this book from cover to cover, or focus on chapters for support in a specific area, such as:

• A principal helping staff better understand and interrupt racism and implicit bias in the school


• A department head planning a school-wide initiative to teach effective literacy skills across every grade and subject


• An instructional coach expanding their toolkit of effective pedagogical strategies


• A math department rethinking inequitable grading practices


• A district leader planning to roll out new teacher leader positions