Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education released 2017 results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card. NAEP, which has been administered nationally on a biannual basis since 1969, assesses 4th, 8th and 12th grade student proficiency in math, reading, science and other subjects. Participation in NAEP is voluntary, except that states that receive federal Title I funds are required to administer NAEP to students in 4th and 8th grade in both reading and math. The latest results show good news for Indiana’s students. 4th and 8th grade […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Most of us would agree that leadership matters — whether we’re talking about the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the mayor of a city, or the coach of a football team. Leadership certainly matters when it comes to student academic achievement in K-12 schools. A rigorous 2013 study found that “highly effective principals raise the achievement of a typical student in their schools by between two and seven months of learning in a single school year; ineffective principals lower achievement by the same amount.” One of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation’s strategies in our Education focus […]