Celebrating 10 Years of Blogging!

On this day, 10 years ago, I published my first post. To be quite honest, I'm not sure why I specifically started this blog in April 2011 but I do remember becoming more interested in education and educational justice as I reflected on my time at Wellesley College and as a Lynn public school graduate. Namely, I considered the ways in which divestment, the overemphasis on standardized testing and an opportunity gap factored into my experience at an elite, predominantly white liberal arts college (located in Wellesley, MA). 

So in that contemplation, An Education was born. 

Since that time I have had the opportunity to interact with so many wonderful individuals, some I only know through Twitter and others I have been fortunate enough to meet in real life (shout out to Tracy Novick and Jennifer Berkshire for being early supporters of my blog and also providing much needed guidance at times). I have worked with Lynn Parents Organizing for a Better Education. Moderated a few Lynn School Committee debates. Grilled local and municipal candidates for office. Given presentations on the Massachusetts public school funding formula (my favorite topic). Hosted a book club with the authors of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door. Gotten a book signed by Diane Ravitch. 

While life circumstances have gotten in the way in last few years and I have not been able to blog as much as I would like lately - I'm still celebrating ::shrugs:: 

To celebrate the last decade, here are some of my favorite posts: 

• Community Schools: Supporting Children, Families and Neighborhoods (August 2011) 
• Thinking about School Choice in the Context of Lynn Public School System (December 2011
• Parental Involvement & Lynn: Is it Apathy, Barriers or are Parents Simply Involved in Less Visible Ways? (March 2012)
• Thoughts on the Lynn City Council Net School Spending Vote (July 2014)
• New Metric Fails to Capture Large Number of Lynn's Low Income Student Population (July 2016)
• Lynn Rolls Out New Attendance Initiative - A Look at the Data (October 2018)
• A Deeper Look at Lynn Public School District Enrollment (February 2019)
• Over 2 Dozen MA Schools Reported Suspension Rates of Black Students over 20% in 2018-19 (June 2020)
• Compared to Surrounding Communities, Lynn Public School District Enrolls Higher Percentages of Non-White, ELL and Economically Disadvantaged Student Populations (January 2021)