Like every school across the country, Holyoke High School, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, struggled during remote learning: Teachers had to adjust to new technologies, and many students felt disconnected from the school environment. Despite these pandemic-induced challenges, Holyoke school leaders and staff kept student engagement at the forefront of…

In partnership with the Barr Foundation, the Center on Reinventing Public Education conducted longitudinal interviews with ten teachers and seven parents across four school systems in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts between January and June of 2021. Our interviews expose how ill-equipped New England schools were to address…

In summer 2020, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), with support from the Barr Foundation, began observing and learning from students, parents, and educators in New England high schools as they navigated the uncertainty of the pandemic. The authors wanted to see what challenges and opportunities they faced, the ways in which they…

Despite decades of research that points to the importance of family and staff engagement, the average school district in the United States is not designed to empower families and teachers to shape school improvement. The COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to change that. Pandemic-fueled disruption helped seed ideas with families and educators…

For many students, conforming to the traditional K-12 education system is not always compatible with their life circumstances. Map Academy in Plymouth, Massachusetts, now in its second year of operation, aims to provide an education that adapts to the needs and interests of its students while maintaining high expectations. This profile of Map…