Ever since I completed my own formal education, I’ve been writing about schools, teaching, learning, and education. And when I’m not writing about schools, I am quite often thinking and talking about them.

To learn more about my work in education communications, please visit jillsdavidson.com. The organizations I’ve worked with and projects that I’ve worked on have offered amazing opportunities to research and write about a huge array of topics in K-12 education. I’ll be putting my professional expertise and national perspective to work here at School Decoder.

As the mother of three boys who are currently 11th, 8th, and 5th graders in the the Providence Public Schools, I also live the life of an intensely involved parent. My kids attend elementary, middle, and high schools in a sometimes extraordinary, sometimes challenged, always fascinating urban system. They go to school with young people from nearly every imaginable nationality, socioeconomic status, language background, ethnicity, religion, and all else that we often sum as as diversity. And I am incredibly lucky to be able to be in community with their friends’ families. Together, we figure out how best to advocate for and support not only our children but all children who attend public schools.

Even before my oldest son started school, I have been talking with other parents about their kids’ educations. Often, because of my work, I’m able to answer questions–sometimes basic, often complicated–about what happens in, with, to, and as a result of schools. So I’ll do that here on School Decoder. The core mission of this project is to offer clear though not necessarily simple explanations about everything that shapes our children’s educational experiences. I’ll share research and insight about the policies, politics, history, philosophy, language, curriculum, technology pedagogy, and other factors that contribute to (and sometimes obstruct) teaching and learning.

I believe that parents need to know as much as we can about everything that impacts our children’s formal education so that we can understand and advocate for teaching and learning that best serves our children and all young people. This means that we need to understand our own values and experience, our kids as learners, the philosophy and practices of their schools, and the policy environments of our towns, states, and nation.

A closing note: I believe two things at once:

  1. Not every school is the best fit for every kid and as parents, we can and should have the right and the resources to choose the best schools for our own particular kids
  2. At the same time, a strong public school system that gives every family access to at least one strong, thriving, educationally vibrant, warm, welcoming, and sustainable public school is an absolute necessity

This means that if you have the resources to choose among a variety of schools for your children, that is awesome, and even if you don’t choose public schools, School Decoder is for you. At the same time, you’re likely to feel at home here if you believe that strong public schools are the foundation of our democracy and critically important for all families, no matter what we earn, where we live, what we believe, how long we’ve been in this country, what language we speak, what our gender and sexual orientation happen to be, whether we have disabilities, and how we learn.

I hope you’ll stick around.