Why the Marshall Memo?
The problem: front-line educators don't have enough time to read
Educators want to read the professional literature, but it's very difficult to stay on top of the best research and ideas. Work in schools is simply too demanding, and after hours people need to spend time with families and friends and recharge.
An additional problem is that the best educational ideas are widely scattered among many different publications; no single magazine, journal, or newspaper allows for one-stop shopping in the marketplace of educational ideas. There are several free online publications, including ASCD SmartBrief and Education Gadfly - but they deal mostly with policy issues.
So where does this leave an educator who is hungry for actionable, mind-stretching ideas?
The solution: a brief weekly summary of the best articles
The Marshall Memo was conceived to meet this need. Kim Marshall:
1. SELECTS the most helpful, practical articles from a wide variety of sources.
2. SUMMARIZES the essence of each article in clear, readable prose and presents it in a weekly publication that can be read in less than half an hour.
3. ORGANIZES all articles (more than 9,000 so far) in an online database that is searchable by topic, author, keyword, publication, and level.
4. CURATES the very best summaries in two Best of Marshall Memo books, all 22 chapters of which are now available on a free website: www.bestofmarshallmemo.org.
Readers over the last 19 years affirm that the Memo is the best way to stay current on the best ideas available.
Note that the Marshall Memo does not cover national policy news. Your best source for this is Education Week, which does an excellent job and also runs lively opinion pieces.
So if you want a good balance of news and ideas and have time for only two publications, you might consider Education Week - and the Marshall Memo.