Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. “My most important contribution to the [broadcasting] industry has been the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Network, because it was the biggest thing that ever happened in radio and because more people listened to it – all around the world.” – Dick Fairbanks, interviewed in In the Public Interest* For many Hoosiers, the month of May means only one thing: it’s race time. Throughout the month, lifelong Hoosiers and visitors from around the globe come to Indianapolis to celebrate the Greatest Spectacle in Racing – the Indianapolis 500. From the annual 500 Festival Mini-Marathon and the 500 Festival Parade downtown, […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. High-performing school leaders have a substantial impact on student achievement. Studies that aim to isolate the impact of leaders on student test scores find that moving from a low- to a high-quality principal can mean several additional months of learning. And the impacts are larger for low-income students. But can schools do anything to boost the quality of their school leaders? Or are the traits that lead to better leaders too difficult to predict or develop and the best leaders too hard to retain? To help answer these questions, the Wallace Foundation funded and provided […]