On Wednesday, I'll be publishing the 2018 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, so I want to take a few moments today to explain the purpose of those rankings.

As we wade into 2018, I thought I'd give my not-so-famed prognostication skills a spin. Here's my best guess at eight education stories we just may be reading in the year ahead.

In 2018, I resolve to speak my mind while recognizing that plenty of smart, thoughtful, informed people are inevitably going to see things differently.

With 2017 about to go in the books, it seems a propitious time to take a moment and reflect on the "best" of RHSU from the past year.

In the spirit of the holidays, I reminded Santa that one of the nice things about education is that precious few people really are "against the kids." And that's nice.

I keep thinking just how good and healthy impostor syndrome can actually be for those of us in the world of academe, research, and policy. And I say that as someone who has lived with impostor syndrome throughout my professional life.

I'm often struck by just how massive the divide between educators and education reformers has become. I think both sides bear some of the blame for this, and that both can do much more to bridge it.

If SEL boosters want to avoid morphing into another case study of how easy-to-like ideas turn into "who could have seen THAT coming?" quagmires, I think they have some work ahead.

Adam Edgerton recently shared with me a thoughtful take on practical challenges states confront when it comes to accountability. In particular, he flags the challenge of striking a Goldilocks balance of being more "supportive" without simply being squishy.

Accountability is a good thing, especially when it means asking professionals to be responsible for doing their job and doing it well. But when it involves public officials worrying about the opinion of armchair quarterbacks, that's not accountability. It's an exercise in unaccountable play-acting.