Marshall Street Initiatives is a coalition of educators working to systematically improve opportunities for students across the country. We invite you to read the 2019-20 Marshall Street Impact Report and companion Marshall Street 1-Pager for an overview of our work, learnings, and impact in Year 1.

As Marshall Street closes our first year amidst unprecedented uncertainty in our beloved field of public education, we look back with deep gratitude and we look forward with great hope.

We’re thankful for the many people who believed in us when we were only an idea: the idea that sustaining and improving great schools requires dedicated knowledge, skill, and expertise. We’re thankful for those who encouraged and supported us when we were— and as we are—a growing but imperfect substantiation of that original idea. Thank you to our research partners, our funders, our thought partners from far and wide, our collaborators, our colleagues in higher education, in business, and in education nonprofits. We have learned so much from you. Thank you.

Read our Year 1 Impact Report here.

As a teacher, I always prided myself on my first-day-of-school lesson plans. Instead of reading aloud yet another syllabus, my 9th grade students spent the first day in conversation with one another, building connections with each other, with me, and with English Language Arts.

I take the same approach each July with the new cohort of teacher residents, who begin their year-long apprenticeship with a summer intensive. We carve out time getting to know each other as humans and as educators. We share our stories. We reflect on our identities. We engage in hard conversations about equity. We envision the future of education together.

This summer, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that we could not do any of these activities as usual. We would not hold our full-day sessions in person. We would not sit around the same table for lunch. We would not catch each other in the hallway for an informal conversation, where friendships blossomed and lifelong professional connections were formed.

Instead, we were 28 future teachers and 4 faculty, spread across 5 states and 3 time zones, gathered together in one Zoom room to build the foundation for our year together…

Read the story