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Article selection criteria

These are the questions that Kim Marshall bears in mind each week when he decides which articles to summarize:

• Is the article potentially helpful for principals and other school people?
• Is it practical and constructive? Does it make sense?
• If it describes best practices, is there solid evidence that they work?
• Does it contain intriguing new ideas (not necessarily ones with which Kim agrees) that school people should know about?
• Does it contain "old" ideas and insights that need to be reaffirmed?
• Does it contain useful warnings and reminders about common pitfalls and ineffective practices?
• If it's on a topic that has been covered in earlier Marshall Memos, is the article particularly well-written - or does it have a new spin?
• Is it understandable? (Some of the academic articles are written in rather dense language!)
• Finally, does it have one or more memorable quotes?