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 […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In Indianapolis, tobacco retail outlets are concentrated in areas with high poverty, low levels of education, and high levels of poor mental health. These are also the areas where smoking rates are higher, on average and among pregnant women specifically. These are the key findings from a report issued yesterday by The Polis Center at IUPUI entitled: “Unequal Access: Tobacco Retail in the Indianapolis Metro Area.” This is troubling news for a city where the adult smoking rate – at about 21% – is already well above the national average. Statewide, there are additional indicators of concern […]