Boston EdTalks Podcast: Jeff Riley

One of the goals of the Boston Foundation’s Education to Career strategy is to uplift teacher voices in the conversation about improving our schools. It’s the rationale behind our Boston EdTalks series, and this year, we are expanding the EdTalks opportunity to include podcasts and video roundtables with some of the thoughtful practitioners who are sharing their ideas as part of the EdTalks.

We start with someone who is no longer in the classroom, but whose role in the daily work of teaching and learning is only growing. Today, Jeff Riley is getting ready to transition from his role as Superintendent and Receiver for the Lawrence Public Schools to a place as the Massachusetts Commissioner for Elementary and Secondary Education.

This past fall, as the search for a new commissioner to replace the late Mitchell Chester was just getting started, reporter Ethan Bronner of Bloomberg sat down with Superintendent Riley for the kickoff to our EdTalks podcast series. They discussed the approach Riley took to turnaround one of the state’s poorest-performing school districts in Lawrence, his relationship with unions and the community, the continued opportunity for Lawrence and even his own role as a public school parent of a child with special needs.

You can listen to the Jeff Riley podcast here and on Soundcloud, and subscribe to the whole Boston EdTalks series on iTunes. We plan on rolling out new conversations regularly between now and the 2018 Boston EdTalks event, May 10 at WGBH in Boston.