Laura Cooper

Laura Cooper has worked as a teacher, school administrator, and district leader in urban and suburban districts in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Illinois. She helped create the Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN), a network of 27 multiracial districts working together and with researchers to eliminate achievement gaps that persist in schools. She served on the Leadership Team of the Strategic Education Research Partnership Institute (SERP) that created brings together researchers and practitioners to address the real problems of practice. More recently, Laura has served as a consultant to public, charter, and turnaround schools, teaching teachers and schools leaders in public and charter schools how to transform schools by providing a coherent focus on improving teaching and learning.  Laura has presented at numerous national education conferences and has written for The Harvard Ed Letter, ASCD Express, Journal of Education for Students Placed At-Risk, and Theory into Practice. Her work focuses on addressing inequities in student achievement by strengthening teachers’ and administrators’ capacity to ensure that all students are successful in school and by bringing together the wisdom of practice and the knowledge from research. Recently she has been teaching in the Brandeis University Teacher Leadership Program and actively working to increase funding and community support for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools where she now lives.