As a state and as a country, we should focus on identifying and quantifying root causes of poor reading outcomes and be transparent about what the data reveal.

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. […]