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Kim Marshall bio, publications
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Kim Marshall bio, publications

Kim Marshall began his career in 1969 teaching sixth graders in a Boston middle school. He used "learning stations" with some success, wrote curriculum materials for his students, gave workshops for teachers in the Boston area, and began to write articles on classroom and school innovation (see list below).

During Boston's desegregation crisis in the mid-1970's, Kim became increasingly involved in schoolwide change efforts, delved into the new research on effective urban schools, and eventually went to graduate school for a year to prepare to become a principal.

But a 1980 Massachusetts tax-cutting referendum closed 27 Boston schools, and Kim found himself in the district's central office, first as a policy advisor and speechwriter for Superintendent Robert Spillane, then leading a team that wrote new curriculum objectives for the district, and finally serving as director of curriculum and planning.

In 1987, Kim finally got his wish and was made a principal. As leader of the Mather Elementary School for the next 15 years, Kim and his colleagues brought about significant improvements in student achievement, teacher effectiveness, and the quality of the curriculum.

Kim now works for New Leaders for New Schools (www.nlns.org), a non-profit that recruits, trains, and supports urban principals. Kim coaches new principals in New York City and Washington, D.C., with a special focus on the effective implementation of interim assessments. He also gives workshops and courses to aspiring and practicing school leaders in a number of venues.

Kim and his wife, Rhoda Schneider, have two children - a daughter in her fourth year teaching English in a Boston high school and a son in his first year teaching history in a high school in Hawaii.

Below is a list of Kim's publications. Articles that are underlined can be downloaded by clicking on the underlined portion. Other articles can be requested by e-mail.

Articles

• "Is Supervising the Heck Out of Teachers the Answer?" Education Week, May 7, 2008

• "The Big Rocks: Priority Management for Principals" Principal Leadership, March 2008

• "Principal Evaluation Rubrics" March 2008

• "Teacher Evaluation Rubrics" January 2008

• "What's a Principal To Do?" Education Week, September 20, 2006

• "Teacher Evaluation Rubrics: The Why and the How" January 25, 2006, EDge Magazine, September/October 2006

• "Interim Assessments: Keys to Successful Implementation" April 12, 2006, a report for New Leaders for New Schools

• "It's Time to Rethink Teacher Supervision and Evaluation" Phi Delta Kappan, June 2005

• "Let's Clarify the Way We Use the Word 'Curriculum'" Education Week, September 1, 2004

• Book Review: No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning by Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom Boston Globe, November 2, 2003

• "Test Prep - The Junk Food of Education" Education Week, October 1, 2003

• Book Review: Losing My Faculties: A Teacher's Story by Brendan Halpin Boston Globe, August 31, 2003

• "Recovering from H.S.P.S. (Hyperactive Superficial Principal Syndrome): A Progress Report" Phi Delta Kappan, May 2003

• "A Principal Looks Back: Standards Matter" Phi Delta Kappan, October 2003 (also published as a chapter in A Nation Reformed, Harvard Education Press, 2003)

• "MCAS Has the Potential to Change Education for the Better" Boston Globe, Nov. 15, 1999

• "No Surprises, No Excuses: Tests Our Kids Can Study For" Boston Globe, August 31, 1997

• "No One Ever Said It Would Be Easy: A Response to Parish and Aquila" Phi Delta Kappan, December 1996

• "How I Confronted H.S.P.S. (Hyperactive Superficial Principals' Syndrome) and Began to Deal with the Heart of the Matter" Phi Delta Kappan, January 1996

• "Teachers and Schools: What Makes a Difference" Daedalus, Winter 1993

• "Reading Recovery" East Zone Journal, June 1991

• "Reading Recovery" Reading Journal, Boston Public Schools, Spring 1990

• Book Review: Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution by Tom Peters Wisdom in Practice, Harvard School of Education, Summer 1989

• Book review: Illiterate America by Jonathan Kozol Harvard, July/August 1985

• "Social Studies Curriculum Revision K-8: The Boston Experience" Social Education, April 1985

• "Race or Class?" Boston Observer September 1984

• "The Reading Problem: Some Sensible Solutions" Learning, April/May 1983

• "Who Should Make Curriculum Decisions? The Boston Experience" The Harvard Principals' Center Newsletter, January 1983

• Book Review: Leadership and Learning; Personal Change in a Professional Setting by Barry Jentz and Joan Wofford. Harvard Educational Review, February 1982

• "'Teachers, Always Use Your Judgment' - An Interview with Jeanne Chall" Learning, November 1981

• "Making Marking Meaningful" Learning, September 1981

• "Sex Education in Action - Rated PG" Learning, October 1980

• "How Effective Is Our School?" Harvard Graduate School of Education Alumni Journal, September 1980 (from Larsen Day speech at Harvard Graduate School of Education in May 1980)

• Book Review: Hucksters in the Classroom by Sheila Harty, Learning, July/August 1980

• "Busing: Is it Curing or Poisoning Public School System?" Boston Globe, February 15, 1980

• Book Review: America Revised by Frances FitzGerald, Learning, February 1980

• Book Review: Acting Out by Roland Betts, Boston University Journal of Education, Summer 1979

• "Minicourses: A Way to Add Spice to the Basics" Learning, April 1979

• "Uniformity in Textbooks the Wrong Approach" Boston Globe, October 20, 1978

• "The Making of a Magnet School" Boston University Journal of Education, May 1978

• "You Can Turn Around the Failing Student" Learning, October 1977

• Book Review: Instead of Education by John Holt, Learning, December 1976

• "The Desegregation of a Boston Classroom" Learning, September 1975

• "The Magnet School with No Magnetism" Boston Globe, August 8, 1975

• Book Review: Teacher Effectiveness Training by Thomas Gordon, Learning, May 1975

• "Class Warfare in the Boston Schools" Harvard, February 1975 (reprinted in the Boston Globe March 7, 1975)

• "Tracking: An Indictment" The Teacher Paper, December 1974

• "Getting Your Fair Share of the School Dollar" Learning, May 1974

• "Who's Afraid of Christopher Jencks?" Learning, January 1974

• "The Learning Station Way" Learning, January 1974

• "Love, Hate, Change and Hope in Grade 6-G" Harvard Bulletin, September 1971

• "Law and Order in Grade 6-E" Harvard Bulletin, September 1970

Curriculum Materials (The Kim Marshall Series)

• English: 36 Cumulative Units in Writing, Usage, and Grammar (Educators Publishing Service, 1980)

• Vocabulary: 36 Units in Spelling and Word Meaning (Educators Publishing Service, 1981)

• Math: 35 Cumulative Units in Concepts and Skills (Educators Publishing Service, 1982)

• Reading: 185 Gripping Stories with Comprehension Questions (Educators Publishing Service, 1982)

Books (alas, out of print)

• The Story of Life: From the Big Bang to You (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980)

• Opening Your Class With Learning Stations (Education Today Company, 1975)

• Law and Order in Grade 6-E: A Story of Chaos and Innovation in a Ghetto School (Little, Brown and Company, 1972; paperback 1973)