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Making Learning Relevant With Case Studies

The open-ended problems presented in case studies give students work that feels connected to their lives.

To prepare students for jobs that haven’t been created yet, we need to teach them how to be great problem solvers so that they’ll be ready for anything. One way to do this is by teaching content and skills using real-world case studies, a learning model that’s focused on reflection during the problem-solving process. It’s similar to project-based learning, but PBL is more focused on students creating a product.

Case studies have been used for years by businesses, law and medical schools, physicians on rounds, and artists critiquing work. Like other forms of problem-based learning, case studies can be accessible for every age group, both in one subject and in interdisciplinary work.

You can get started with case studies by tackling relatable questions like these with your students:

• How can we limit food waste in the cafeteria?
• How can we get our school to recycle and compost waste? (Or, if you want to be more complex, how can our school reduce its carbon footprint?)
• How can we improve school attendance?
• How can we reduce the number of people who get sick at school during cold and flu season?

Addressing questions like these leads students to identify topics they need to learn more about. In researching the first question, for example, students may see that they need to research food chains and nutrition. Students often ask, reasonably, why they need to learn something, or when they’ll use their knowledge in the future. Learning is most successful for students when the content and skills they’re studying are relevant, and case studies offer one way to create that sense of relevance.

Teaching With Case Studies

Ultimately, a case study is simply an interesting problem with many correct answers. What does case study work look like in classrooms? Teachers generally start by having students read the case or watch a video that summarizes the case. Students then work in small groups or individually to solve the case study. Teachers set milestones defining what students should accomplish to help them manage their time.

During the case study learning process, student assessment of learning should be focused on reflection. Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick’s Learning and Leading With Habits of Mind gives several examples of what this reflection can look like in a classroom: 

Journaling: At the end of each work period, have students write an entry summarizing what they worked on, what worked well, what didn’t, and why. Sentence starters and clear rubrics or guidelines will help students be successful. At the end of a case study project, as Costa and Kallick write, it’s helpful to have students “select significant learnings, envision how they could apply these learnings to future situations, and commit to an action plan to consciously modify their behaviors.”

Interviews: While working on a case study, students can interview each other about their progress and learning. Teachers can interview students individually or in small groups to assess their learning process and their progress.

Student discussion: Discussions can be unstructured—students can talk about what they worked on that day in a think-pair-share or as a full class—or structured, using Socratic seminars or fishbowl discussions. If your class is tackling a case study in small groups, create a second set of small groups with a representative from each of the case study groups so that the groups can share their learning.

4 Tips for Setting Up a Case Study

1. Identify a problem to investigate: This should be something accessible and relevant to students’ lives. The problem should also be challenging and complex enough to yield multiple solutions with many layers.

2. Give context: Think of this step as a movie preview or book summary. Hook the learners to help them understand just enough about the problem to want to learn more.

3. Have a clear rubric: Giving structure to your definition of quality group work and products will lead to stronger end products. You may be able to have your learners help build these definitions.

4. Provide structures for presenting solutions: The amount of scaffolding you build in depends on your students’ skill level and development. A case study product can be something like several pieces of evidence of students collaborating to solve the case study, and ultimately presenting their solution with a detailed slide deck or an essay—you can scaffold this by providing specified headings for the sections of the essay.

Problem-Based Teaching Resources

There are many high-quality, peer-reviewed resources that are open source and easily accessible online.

• The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University at Buffalo built an online collection of more than 800 cases that cover topics ranging from biochemistry to economics. There are resources for middle and high school students.
• Models of Excellence , a project maintained by EL Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has examples of great problem- and project-based tasks—and corresponding exemplary student work—for grades pre-K to 12.
• The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning at Purdue University is an open-source journal that publishes examples of problem-based learning in K–12 and post-secondary classrooms.
• The Tech Edvocate has a list of websites and tools related to problem-based learning.

In their book Problems as Possibilities , Linda Torp and Sara Sage write that at the elementary school level, students particularly appreciate how they feel that they are taken seriously when solving case studies. At the middle school level, “researchers stress the importance of relating middle school curriculum to issues of student concern and interest.” And high schoolers, they write, find the case study method “beneficial in preparing them for their future.”

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A guide for experienced educators who are new to online case teaching.

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Key strategies and practical advice for engaging students using the case method.

Frequently Asked Questions

What support can I offer my students around analyzing cases and preparing for discussion?

Case discussions can be a big departure from the norm for students who are used to lecture-based classes. The Case Analysis Coach is an interactive tutorial on reading and analyzing a case study. The Case Study Handbook covers key skills students need to read, understand, discuss and write about cases. The Case Study Handbook is also available as individual chapters to help your students focus on specific skills.

How can I transfer my in-person case teaching plan to an online environment?

The case method can be used in an online environment without sacrificing its benefits. We have compiled a few resources to help you create transformative online learning experiences with the case method. Learn how HBS brought the case method online in this podcast , gather some quick guidance from the article " How to Teach Any Case Online ", review the Teaching Cases Online Guide for a deep dive, and check out our Teaching Online Resources Page for more insights and inspiration.

After 35 years as an academic, I have come to the conclusion that there is a magic in the way Harvard cases are written. Cases go from specific to general, to show students that business situations are amenable to hard headed analysis that then generalize to larger theoretical insights. The students love it! Akshay Rao Professor, General Mills Chair in Marketing at the University of Minnesota

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After graduating with a BA in Economics and English, Amanda worked for the Chilean Ministry of Education as an English teacher in Chile. While there, she volunteered for an urban development NGO that was carrying out 24 community projects and helped draft Frutillar, Chile’s successful application to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. During her career, she has worked with international youth on educational programs sponsored by the British Council and the U.S. Department of State. She is a former White House intern and an incoming Fulbright Scholar.

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Global Schools Case-Study Guide Showcasing sustainable development initiatives in school communities globally

The Global Schools guidebook, " Practicing Education for Sustainable Development: Case Study Guide for Educators, Volume 2," will launch at the 2024 ECOSOC Partnership Forum centered around the theme: “Accelerating the recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at all levels.” Serving as a testament to innovation, leadership, and collective action, the guidebook showcases how Global Schools Advocates throughout the world incorporate Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into their curriculum, school-wide practices, and communities. 

Stories on SDG projects and Classroom activities

Successful School-wide Strategies for ESD and GLobal Citizenship

Advice on overcoming challenges from Classroom TEACHERS

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The Global Schools guidebook: "Practicing Education for Sustainable Development: Case Study Guide for Educators" launches on International Education Day, January 24th, 2022, in support of the theme   "Changing Course, Transforming Education." The publication showcases the stories of Global Schools Advocates who are implementing sustainable development projects and initiatives in school communities globally. The purpose of this guide is to showcase best practices of educators around the world who have successfully incorporated Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in their lessons and activities. This case-study guide summarizes lessons learned for educators, teachers, school leadership, and policymakers. It also celebrates educators on International Education Day, while inspiring others to take up school-wide strategies for ESD.

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Case Study: How One Texas School District Is Repurposing Staff Development Time to Embrace the Science of Reading

Unleashing the power of professional learning communities through richer, curriculum-based learning in the aldine independent school district..

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This is the next installment in a series of articles by the Knowledge Matters Campaign to elevate stories of educators implementing high-quality instructional materials. Edna Cruz is a bilingual skills specialist and Alaura Mack is an instructional skills specialist working together at Reed Academy in the Aldine Independent School District, which includes parts of Houston and Harris County, Texas. As the first distrct in Texas to have adopted a high-quality, knowledge-based reading curriculum, the authors reflect on the importance of equipping teachers with curriculum-based professional learning to ensure long-lasting success for students. Follow the rest of the series and previous curriculum case studies here .  

In 2020, the Aldine Independent School District became the first district in Texas to adopt a high-quality, knowledge-based reading curriculum. It was a seismic change for teachers, who had been using a familiar balanced literacy program with skills-focused lessons and leveled readers for several years. But it was a necessary change for students — in 2018-19, just 30 percent of Aldine third graders were reading at or above grade level.  

Despite the challenges of COVID-19 and its effect on academic achievement, we have made strides by implementing the Amplify CKLA curriculum. Today, teachers lead highly structured, thematic units that focus on the same content over a period of weeks. All students work with the same knowledge-rich, grade-level texts, whether they read them independently or with support. That gives every student the opportunity to build vocabulary and a base of common knowledge, which boosts reading comprehension and fosters inclusive communities of learning. 

Our students have made rapid progress — within the first two years, 50 percent of third graders were reading at or above grade level. The percentage of third graders scoring “well below” benchmark dropped from 48 percent to 36 percent. These are heavy lifts in Aldine, where about 90 percent of students are economically disadvantaged and more than half are English language learners. 

Students’ academic achievement and development rely on their teachers’ understanding and execution of the Amplify CKLA curriculum. As instructional specialists, we have implemented robust curriculum-based professional learning to ensure Aldine teachers are prepared to deliver strong instruction that meets the needs of all students.  

Curriculum-based professional learning brings teachers and instructional leaders together to probe and practice individual lessons, which has helped our teachers implement new curriculum with fidelity. During these sessions, teachers internalize, annotate, collaborate, and rehearse lessons within units of study. They identify the most critical ideas and skills students should encounter, the most likely misconceptions students may experience, and the scaffolds or learning supports needed to grant access to the content to all learners.  

This sort of study doesn’t happen overnight. Here are three key aspects of this work that have shaped our progress: 

Closing the Research-Practice Gap 

Too often, research stands a world apart from the educators who work directly with students. 

Aldine provided resources and time to close that gap. Even before the new curriculum was announced, both teachers and instructional specialists like us read Natalie Wexler’s The Knowledge Gap and participated in related staff development sessions. Meanwhile, a literacy task force was studying curriculums and visiting out-of-state classrooms to make their recommendation. 

This shared reading assignment and attendant discussions helped teachers and specialists learn the science behind best practices and understand the role that building knowledge plays in literacy development. Both were critical when it came time for our teachers to trust that an unfamiliar and seemingly out-of-reach reading curriculum could be effective in Aldine classrooms. 

Revamping PLCs for Curriculum Study

In the past, meeting time for professional learning communities (PLCs) was spent on grade-level “business,” like planning field trips or sharing concerns from individual classroom observations. These are key issues, but they don’t necessarily translate into instructional innovation or academic progress. 

Even when meetings were focused on instruction, master teachers and teachers with outsized experience or confidence spoke up most often. As a result, meetings did not include the voices of all teachers, especially novices or those serving the most disadvantaged student groups. 

Our district revamped grade-level meetings to focus on in-depth curriculum study. Today, during Curriculum-based Professional Learning (CPLs), instructional specialists facilitate in-depth curriculum study sessions, which follow detailed discussion protocols. These one- and two-page discussion guides help teachers unpack and internalize the logic of each unit and lesson, identify opportunities to make cultural connections with and among students, and focus attention on the essential questions and tasks each lesson needs to ensure students master the learning goal.

This structure and guidance help ensure teachers’ time together is purposeful and driven by our common curriculum. In addition, by focusing attention on a shared resource, we’ve seen that more teachers speak up in CPLs, which gives a grade-level group a wider view of classroom practice and learning. 

Building Teachers’ Trust 

Changing curriculum means changing instructional practice and underlying beliefs. Teachers need to trust that a new curriculum will work with their students before they will teach it as intended.  

Often, teachers who work with struggling students are initially wary of high-quality, knowledge-based curriculum. In our district, second-grade teachers were concerned that students would not successfully engage with a unit based on grade-level texts about The War of 1812, for example.  

Ongoing curriculum-based professional learning with grade-level colleagues helped address these concerns. As teachers studied and practiced units and lessons together, they could see the logic and variety of ways students at all levels could access, understand, and make connections with rigorous content. And, as they experienced this new teaching in their classrooms, they could share challenges and evidence of growth. No one teacher was going it alone.  

Any change in curriculum requires strong leadership from the Central Office. But when it comes to changing what actually happens in classrooms and schools, teachers are the real decision-makers. By intentionally equipping teachers with curriculum-based professional learning, we are setting our schools up for long-lasting success. 

Edna Cruz is a bilingual skills specialist at Reed Academy in the Aldine Independent School District, which includes parts of Houston and Harris County, Tx. She is a member of the Curriculum Matters Professional Learning Network, which supports district leaders from around the country implementing high-quality instructional materials.  Alaura Mack is an instructional skills specialist for English Language Arts at Reed Academy and is also a member of the Curriculum Matters Professional Learning Network.

Edna Cruz is a bilingual skills specialist at Reed Academy in the Aldine Independent School District, which includes parts of Houston and Harris County, Tx. She is a member of the Curriculum Matters Professional Learning Network, which supports district leaders from around the country implementing high-quality instructional materials.

Alaura Mack is an instructional skills specialist for English Language Arts at Reed Academy in the Aldine Independent School District, which includes parts of Houston and Harris County, Tx. She is a member of the Curriculum Matters Professional Learning Network, which supports district leaders from around the country implementing high-quality instructional materials. 

We want our stories to be shared as widely as possible — for free.

Please view The 74's republishing terms.

By Edna Cruz & Alaura Mack

This story first appeared at The 74 , a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Case Study in Education Research

Introduction, general overview and foundational texts of the late 20th century.

• Conceptualisations and Definitions of Case Study
• Case Study and Theoretical Grounding
• Choosing Cases
• Methodology, Method, Genre, or Approach
• Case Study: Quality and Generalizability
• Multiple Case Studies
• Exemplary Case Studies and Example Case Studies
• Criticism, Defense, and Debate around Case Study

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Case Study in Education Research by Lorna Hamilton LAST REVIEWED: 21 April 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 27 June 2018 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0201

It is important to distinguish between case study as a teaching methodology and case study as an approach, genre, or method in educational research. The use of case study as teaching method highlights the ways in which the essential qualities of the case—richness of real-world data and lived experiences—can help learners gain insights into a different world and can bring learning to life. The use of case study in this way has been around for about a hundred years or more. Case study use in educational research, meanwhile, emerged particularly strongly in the 1970s and 1980s in the United Kingdom and the United States as a means of harnessing the richness and depth of understanding of individuals, groups, and institutions; their beliefs and perceptions; their interactions; and their challenges and issues. Writers, such as Lawrence Stenhouse, advocated the use of case study as a form that teacher-researchers could use as they focused on the richness and intensity of their own practices. In addition, academic writers and postgraduate students embraced case study as a means of providing structure and depth to educational projects. However, as educational research has developed, so has debate on the quality and usefulness of case study as well as the problems surrounding the lack of generalizability when dealing with single or even multiple cases. The question of how to define and support case study work has formed the basis for innumerable books and discursive articles, starting with Robert Yin’s original book on case study ( Yin 1984 , cited under General Overview and Foundational Texts of the Late 20th Century ) to the myriad authors who attempt to bring something new to the realm of case study in educational research in the 21st century.

This section briefly considers the ways in which case study research has developed over the last forty to fifty years in educational research usage and reflects on whether the field has finally come of age, respected by creators and consumers of research. Case study has its roots in anthropological studies in which a strong ethnographic approach to the study of peoples and culture encouraged researchers to identify and investigate key individuals and groups by trying to understand the lived world of such people from their points of view. Although ethnography has emphasized the role of researcher as immersive and engaged with the lived world of participants via participant observation, evolving approaches to case study in education has been about the richness and depth of understanding that can be gained through involvement in the case by drawing on diverse perspectives and diverse forms of data collection. Embracing case study as a means of entering these lived worlds in educational research projects, was encouraged in the 1970s and 1980s by researchers, such as Lawrence Stenhouse, who provided a helpful impetus for case study work in education ( Stenhouse 1980 ). Stenhouse wrestled with the use of case study as ethnography because ethnographers traditionally had been unfamiliar with the peoples they were investigating, whereas educational researchers often worked in situations that were inherently familiar. Stenhouse also emphasized the need for evidence of rigorous processes and decisions in order to encourage robust practice and accountability to the wider field by allowing others to judge the quality of work through transparency of processes. Yin 1984 , the first book focused wholly on case study in research, gave a brief and basic outline of case study and associated practices. Various authors followed this approach, striving to engage more deeply in the significance of case study in the social sciences. Key among these are Merriam 1988 and Stake 1995 , along with Yin 1984 , who established powerful groundings for case study work. Additionally, evidence of the increasing popularity of case study can be found in a broad range of generic research methods texts, but these often do not have much scope for the extensive discussion of case study found in case study–specific books. Yin’s books and numerous editions provide a developing or evolving notion of case study with more detailed accounts of the possible purposes of case study, followed by Merriam 1988 and Stake 1995 who wrestled with alternative ways of looking at purposes and the positioning of case study within potential disciplinary modes. The authors referenced in this section are often characterized as the foundational authors on this subject and may have published various editions of their work, cited elsewhere in this article, based on their shifting ideas or emphases.

Merriam, S. B. 1988. Case study research in education: A qualitative approach . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

This is Merriam’s initial text on case study and is eminently accessible. The author establishes and reinforces various key features of case study; demonstrates support for positioning the case within a subject domain, e.g., psychology, sociology, etc.; and further shapes the case according to its purpose or intent.

Stake, R. E. 1995. The art of case study research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Stake is a very readable author, accessible and yet engaging with complex topics. The author establishes his key forms of case study: intrinsic, instrumental, and collective. Stake brings the reader through the process of conceptualizing the case, carrying it out, and analyzing the data. The author uses authentic examples to help readers understand and appreciate the nuances of an interpretive approach to case study.

Stenhouse, L. 1980. The study of samples and the study of cases. British Educational Research Journal 6:1–6.

DOI: 10.1080/0141192800060101

A key article in which Stenhouse sets out his stand on case study work. Those interested in the evolution of case study use in educational research should consider this article and the insights given.

Yin, R. K. 1984. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . Beverley Hills, CA: SAGE.

This preliminary text from Yin was very basic. However, it may be of interest in comparison with later books because Yin shows the ways in which case study as an approach or method in research has evolved in relation to detailed discussions of purpose, as well as the practicalities of working through the research process.

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The Case for Strong Family and Community Engagement in Schools

• Posted March 21, 2023
• By Elizabeth M. Ross
• Families and Community
• K-12 School Leadership

About 50 years of research has revealed the striking benefits of schools actively partnering with families to improve their children’s learning. For some educators though, it was not until COVID-19 blew the doors off their schools and the walls off their classrooms that the penny dropped, as Sonja Santelises, CEO the Baltimore public schools and Harvard Graduate School of Education alum, described in Education Week that first bleak winter of the pandemic.

“During the pandemic, educators realized that families knew a lot more about teaching and learning than they had given them credit for,” especially when it came to understanding the needs of their own children, explained Karen Mapp , a senior lecturer at HGSE. She recently shared some of Santelises’ insights and many of her own during a virtual event about effective family and community engagement, hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s EdRedesign Lab . “Now, a lot of educators want to know more about how to engage families because of the lessons that they learned during COVID,” Mapp added.

Mapp, a renowned family engagement specialist who said she has encountered a fair share of resistance to her ideas over the years, makes a strong case for them in the new book Everyone Wins! The Evidence for Family-School Partnerships & Implications for Practice . She and co-authors Anne Henderson, Stephany Cuevas, Martha Franco, and Suzanna Ewert dive into the latest research and drill down on the same question that senior citizen Clara Peller asked in the infamous 1984 Wendy’s commercial, as Mapp recalled with a chuckle, “Where’s the beef?” In other words, for any remaining skeptics, who benefits from effective family-school-community partnerships and what is the return on their investment?

As the title of Mapp’s book suggests, the answer is everyone:

• Students who enjoy higher grades, better engagement and attendance at school, greater self-esteem, and higher rates of graduation and college/ post-secondary enrollment.
• Educators who have increased job satisfaction, greater success in motivating and engaging with students from different backgrounds, more support from families, and an improved mindset about students and families.
• Families that enjoy stronger relationships with their children, better rapport with educators, and that can navigate their school systems, advocate for their children, and feel less isolated.
• Schools because of improved staff morale and school climate, greater retention of teachers, and more support from the broader community.
• School districts and communities , which become better places to live and raise children in, have students with fewer suspensions and high-risk behaviors, greater participation in afterschool programs, and expanded family and youth involvement in decision-making.

"This is love-work, [you must] love fully the families and the children and communities you serve."

Mapp, a former deputy superintendent for family and community engagement in the Boston Public Schools, shared the following strategies for putting effective partnership into practice:

•    Successful family engagement requires resources, infrastructure, and leadership.

Parent and community ties need to be an essential ingredient, not an add-on. “It’s real when I see it on your budget sheets,” Mapp explained in the webinar. Collaborate with your community to tap into outside resources as well.

•    Educators need to be intentional about building relationships based on mutual respect and trust.

Schools have not valued all families, especially those in historically underserved communities that have experienced “generational disrespect.” Listen to all parents and offer opportunities to them for leadership. Efforts should focus on students’ learning and development. Effective family engagement is never weaponized.

•    Educators must be trained and supported to work with families from all backgrounds.

“A lot of unlearning has to happen around family and community engagement,” according to Mapp who said some educators have adopted “bad and ineffective strategies” shaped by systemic racism. Context matters and engagement initiatives need to be designed to work at the local level. Home visits may not be appropriate in some communities, for example.

•    Begin reaching out to families when children are young.

Help families navigate the school system from the beginning and continue to engage with them up to college and career. Don’t forget middle and high school parents who need help supporting their students as well, albeit in different ways than younger children.

•    Communicate clearly and consistently.

Messages need to be accessible to everyone, including families who speak different languages.

•    Don’t forget equity.

Educators should be sensitive about the realities of busy family life, including parents’ work demands and childcare concerns. Immigrant families can also face unique challenges.

•    Show some love.

Student-centered schools focus on what is best for the children and the community, not just the educators. “This is love-work,” explained Mapp. You must “love fully the families and the children and communities you serve.”

Additional resources:

• The Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships
• A Family Engagement Framework for All, Usable Knowledge
• Supporting Success Through Authentic and Effective Family and Community Engagement, EdRedesign Lab
• Making Schools a Welcoming Place for Immigrant Students, Usable Knowledge

Usable Knowledge

Connecting education research to practice — with timely insights for educators, families, and communities

Related Articles

Leading Schools in Challenging Times, With Equity in Mind

What You Can Do

Bridging the Gap Between Home and School

Akanksha Foundation Schools

The Akanksha Foundation was founded in 1991 with the goal of delivering high-quality education to every child, regardless of the child’s background. Founder Shaheen Mistri, then an 18-year-old college student, realized how many thousands of children lacked access to a quality education. After volunteering to teach 15 students after school in a donated classroom, Mistri expanded the after-school initiative to improve learning and well-being outcomes for disadvantaged students to a network of 60 centers over the next 16 years (Akanksha Foundation, n.d.a). The idea was simple: leverage underutilized spaces and support students with professional social workers and community volunteers. Realizing the need to work with government schools to make an impact at scale, the Akanksha School Project was established in 2007. The project works in collaboration with the Municipal Corporations of Mumbai and Pune, which govern the civic needs and infrastructure in each city.

Both Mumbai and Pune are cities in the state of Maharashtra, which is India’s second-most populous state and home to 18.9 million primary- and secondary-level students enrolled in 113,526 public and private schools (Government of Maharashtra School Education and Sports Department, n.d.). Despite a poverty rate 4 percentage points lower than the national average and an enrollment rate 4 percentage points above the national average for students in classes 1-10 (N. Aayog, 2020), Maharashtra still has a significant problem with school dropout rates, which have risen by around half a percentage point for upper primary and upper secondary students from 2016 to 2018 (S. Murudkar, personal communication, July 20, 2021).

Rather than developing a one-time program, Akanksha has created a scalable school model within the government system that drives wider system reform. To this end, it has codified a school development plan focusing first on its core educational values of academic achievement, community engagement, and holistic youth development and well-being. These values are framed as social, emotional, and ethical learning. Each new school in the network begins with a goal-setting process to develop its own ethos in line with these values. Parent engagement, however, serves as a grounding mission across all schools.

Akanksha schools hold themselves accountable for four major community engagement goals: engaging parents as partners in learning, engaging parents as partners in student socio-emotional development, nurturing whole-family well-being, and building family economic resilience. Engagement takes a variety of forms, including representation in School Management Committees (SMCs), parent education programs, in-school partnership opportunities, and individual psychosocial support through dedicated social workers. Parents are invited to regularly participate in their child’s education through events such as quarterly home visits and annual goal-setting meetings that focus on nurturing children who can contribute positively to society. Families actively participate in the SMCs. Engaging parents as partners goes beyond specific programming; it is embedded into the community culture. Parents affectionately call teachers “big brother” or “big sister,” while families mill about in administrative offices to chat before school (Akanksha Foundation, n.d.b).

As of August 2021, there were 27 Akanksha schools in Mumbai and Pune, reaching over 9,800 students. Akanksha students outperform their state school peers in the class 10 state board examinations. They also have higher levels of completion, with 95 percent of the 2019-20 cohort passing class 12, as opposed to 91 percent in the state overall (Akanksha Foundation, n.d.b).

Goal: Improve learning and development Student age: Primary, Lower Secondary Tech level: No Tech Lever: Providing Information, Building Relationships Place: School Family role: Supporting Parents shadowing students during Parent Week: Akanksha schools invite parents to week-long open houses, where parents can experience their child’s schooling firsthand. Teachers first speak with parents about the school’s teaching and learning model, as well as annual goals and pedagogical changes. This represents, for example, a switch to presenting students with the practical, real-life purpose of all lessons at the start of class. Parents then sit in on classes anywhere in the school. During and after class, parents are encouraged to provide general feedback on the curriculum and teaching methods. Rather than redesign the curriculum, parents give feedback about how practices could better align with the school’s shared goals. One father, for instance, noted that the teacher had forgotten to present the applicability of a math concept at the start of the lesson. He proceeded to share how he used this topic in his own construction work and prompted teachers to solicit real-world examples from parents for future lessons (S. Murudkar, personal communication, July 20, 2021). This practice of open dialogue and constructive feedback reportedly builds parent-school trust, showing families that they are welcome to share their thoughts and concerns. It further ensures parents feel they have a role in their child’s education and prepares them to confidently support learning at home.

Goal: Improve learning and development Student age: Primary, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary Tech level: No Tech Lever: Designing Place: School Family role: Supporting, Creating Parent skill-building team: Every Akanksha school has a team of volunteer parents tasked with identifying skill and knowledge gaps in the broader parent community. This volunteer team meets semimonthly with a school social worker, who helps the team members informally survey their peers and analyze emergent needs. Specifically, the team focuses on the gaps most preventing parents from supporting student development in the home. The school social worker then develops individually targeted and group training based on these needs. For example, if parents identify struggles with financial planning, social workers walk families through money management materials. Staff might note household issues around sanitation and nutrition and then invite parents to enroll in a weekend course on the topic.

Goal: Improve learning and development Student age: Early Childhood Tech level: No Tech Lever: Building Skills, Providing Resource Place: School Family role: Supporting English language workshops and materials for parents: Akanksha schools supply bilingual materials at the preprimary level to help parents reinforce their child’s learning of the English language at home, regardless of parents’ level of proficiency with the English language. As the majority of Akanksha students are first- or second-generation English speakers, these resources allow parents to support their child’s learning of the English language while also improving parents’ language skills. Many Akanksha schools also run optional spoken English workshops for parents to build their confidence in English and better support their child’s learning journey.

Goal: Improve learning and development Student age: Primary, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary Lever: Building Relationships Tech level: No Tech Place: Home Family role: Not Engaged Ongoing teacher home visits: Every Akanksha teacher, leader, and social worker is required to visit the home of each of their students at least once a quarter. Students who face more significant challenges at home receive additional visits each month. These regular check-ins allow teachers to understand the family’s unique routines and needs in order to better support their learning and well-being. With this direct communication channel, teachers can develop genuine connections with parents through conversations in an informal setting. For example, if a teacher realizes a student is not getting homework done on time because the student’s home environment is too loud, the teacher might strategize with the parents to implement “quiet hours” in the home or connect the student with another Akanksha student to study with. Home visits reportedly create significant improvements in communication and trust between schools and families.

Goal: Improve learning and development Student age: Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary Tech level: No Tech Lever: Building Relationships, Shifting Mindsets Place: School Family role: Supporting Workshops for student-parent relationship building: Given the strong correlation between parent engagement and improved learning outcomes, the Akanksha Foundation attempts to curtail the loss of meaningful relationships between parents and their children as their children age. In order to combat this, Akanksha schools hold annual in-school workshops to maintain and rebuild these connections. Workshops take place in a controlled classroom environment, facilitated by a teacher and a social worker. Parents and their children are asked to sit facing each other, look into each other’s eyes, hold hands, and have conversations through a series of scripted questions. These questions begin with lighthearted topics, such as favorite foods, and progress to deeper subjects, such as most embarrassing moments or life aspirations. Facilitators note marked changes, as parents who were initially embarrassed to look into their child’s eyes or sit close together become much more comfortable doing so by the end of the school year.

Goal: Improve learning and development Student age: Primary, Lower Secondary, Upper Secondary Tech level: No Tech Lever: Building Relationships, Building Skills Place: School Family role: Supporting, Creating Annual parent-student goal setting: Teachers meet annually with each parent and student to discuss aims and expectations for the year, with a focus on parents’ role in supporting their child’s development. Goals range from academic to social or even home-based engagement, such as developing stronger family ties. Goal setting is always framed as a positive development: Parents are not called in to discuss student problems. Teachers then bring in social workers to focus on improving parents’ skills in areas that support this goal, such as using a calculator to help students with their homework or creating a homework schedule to facilitate the child’s at-home studies.

• Teachers and school leaders cofacilitate School Management Committees through monthly meetings alongside parents.
• Social workers teach parents skills ranging from hygiene and nutritional awareness to effective parenting and financial organization, to build their knowledge and to support students’ well-being.
• Teachers invite parents to visit their child’s classrooms to increase their familiarity with the material and communicate with teachers.
• Parents represent their interests on SMCs to advise the school team on school improvement and take ownership of plan implementation.
• Parents volunteer in their child’s school and in workshops, theater productions, and other activities that address key issues such as women’s empowerment, substance abuse, and physical violence.
• Parents sit in on their child’s classrooms to better understand and contribute to school lesson plans and curricula to support their child’s learning.
• Parents participate in extracurricular activities, including theater productions. For example, parents and staff of one Akanksha school produced and performed “Theatre of the Oppressed,” an interactive play with the goal of raising awareness on the topic of the physical abuse of children.
• Parents reinforce their child’s English language learning at home through bilingual materials and the English parent literacy program.

Resources required

• Approximately nine central office staff
• At least one trained social worker at each Akanksha school
• Akanksha model schools may be newly built or designed in existing school structures.
• Government municipal corporations provide Akanksha with school buildings and student essentials. Nongovernment funders support the Akanksha Foundation by funding the operational costs of the school and programs.

How do they do it?

In order to achieve vision alignment within Akanksha schools, parents are guided through an exploration of their personal goals for their children. Often, students are first-generation learners, so their parents tend to first express their aspirations around academic and professional outcomes, such as learning English or getting into university. The Akanksha team probes deeper aspirations in line with its vision of developing value-driven citizens by asking how parents want their students to be as people. Through ongoing conversations, Akanksha has determined that the greatest point of alignment between schools and parents is the desire for children to be people who contribute positively to society. With this reflection, Akanksha unlocks shared goals around cultivating good people. The schools further cement this shared vision, which discounts neither academic achievement nor holistic development, by inviting successful Akanksha alumni, such as those who have started nongovernmental organizations, to share their stories.

A codified but flexible school model enables Akanksha schools to support student achievement, youth development, and community engagement. This model, implemented in all Akanksha schools, includes values such as excellent educators, progressive pedagogy, maximizing resources, parents as partners, and accountability to learning. No one individual leads parent engagement; instead, this value is ingrained in every member of the staff. Engaging parents as partners is a core pillar of all network schools. Adaptable measurements, procedures, and strategies are centrally documented to ensure all schools are striving toward the same core educational vision.

Collaborative goal setting is understood as an ongoing process. Formal events are held throughout the year, including a series of value discussions with new families and annual parent-student goal meetings. But these are enabled by the idea that the school is a family, where teachers are referred to as “big brother” or “big sister” and invite parents to sit and share with students and staff at any time.

The cultural partnership and respect between schools and parents, stemming from family and student needs, allows parents to be actively involved and supportive of their child’s education and development through various hands-on, in-school strategies for parents, directly guided by school staff. Furthermore, the focus on holistic well-being through progressive pedagogy extends not only to students but also to parents and community members. This established focus on 21st-century skills, socio-emotional learning, and social awareness equips parents with the tools they need to productively and confidently engage with the school community and society as a whole.

Resources and testimonials

Participant voices from independent CUE-led parent focus group discussions

• “My younger son Tanishk is in Akanksha. His teachers teach with the help of games, so my younger son attends the classes happily. But for my elder son [who is not in an Akanksha school], his teachers only give lectures and keep on talking one-sided, so he gets bored. Younger son joins classes happily, not the elder one.” – Maharashtra parent 1 (personal communication, December 2020)
• “The teachers of Akanksha Foundation, who think so much about the children, we also like it that these people also think so much about our children.” – Maharashtra parent 2 (personal communication, December 2020)

Voices from the foundation

• “Instead of referring to their teachers as sir or ma’am, students and parents alike address teachers as ‘didi’ or ‘bhaiya’: big bro or big sis. If a student fails to complete their homework regularly, instead of punishment, the student’s parents will be brought into the school to have a planning meeting with the student and teacher, where they will collaboratively implement a working plan to support the child both at school and at home.” – S. Murudkar, director of Akanksha Foundation schools (personal communication, June 10, 2021)

Akanksha Foundation. (n.d.a). About . https://www.akanksha.org/the-school-project/the-model/

Akanksha Foundation. (n.d.b). Our impact . https://www.akanksha.org/our-impact/

Government of Maharashtra School Education and Sports Department. (n.d.). School dashboard . https://education.maharashtra.gov.in/edudashboard/

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Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four.  Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls,  Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

• Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
• Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
• The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
• Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
• A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
• Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
• The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1.   Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2.   Coffee 2016

3.   Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4.   Glory, Glory Man United!

5.   Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6.   The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7.   Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8.   Prodigy Finance

9.   Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

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Methodology

• What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on May 8, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

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When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyze the case, other interesting articles.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

TipIf your research is more practical in nature and aims to simultaneously investigate an issue as you solve it, consider conducting action research instead.

Unlike quantitative or experimental research , a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

Example of an outlying case studyIn the 1960s the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was discovered to have extremely low rates of heart disease compared to the US average. It became an important case study for understanding previously neglected causes of heart disease.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience or phenomenon.

Example of a representative case studyIn the 1920s, two sociologists used Muncie, Indiana as a case study of a typical American city that supposedly exemplified the changing culture of the US at the time.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews , observations , and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data.

Example of a mixed methods case studyFor a case study of a wind farm development in a rural area, you could collect quantitative data on employment rates and business revenue, collect qualitative data on local people’s perceptions and experiences, and analyze local and national media coverage of the development.

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

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In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis , with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Degrees of freedom
• Null hypothesis
• Discourse analysis
• Control groups
• Mixed methods research
• Non-probability sampling
• Quantitative research
• Ecological validity

Research bias

• Rosenthal effect
• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Selection bias
• Negativity bias
• Status quo bias

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Snezana’s story: from being bullied to ending conflicts at school, peer mediators in kosovo (scr 1244) help keep school safe for everyone.

MITROVICA, Kosovo (SCR 1244), 6 September, 2018 - Sixteen-year-old Snezana Dzogovic vividly remembers when her classmates started to bully her. She was in sixth grade at her school in Mitrovica, northern Kosovo (SCR 1244).

“I went ‘into’ myself and did not talk to anyone about it.  I started avoiding school.  My grades fell because I did not go to school. I could not study at home,” she says.

Snezana says the bullying started when she began listening to rock music and dressing differently than the other girls. She liked bands like Nirvana and Guns n’ Roses and she cut her hair short.

Verbal and physical abuse followed. Her classmates would damage her belongings when she wasn’t looking.

One day Snezana came home with her backpack and books ripped and her mother asked her what had happened.

“When I started to talk, my mother felt shocked and embarrassed that I had not shared it before. My mother went to school and spoke to the class teacher, but she (the teacher) avoided resolving the issue,” says Snezana.

Violence, an everyday lesson for millions

According to a new report released by UNICEF today, Violence in Schools: An Everyday Lesson , peer violence, defined as the number of children who report having been bullied in the last month or having been involved in a physical fight in the last year – is a pervasive part of young people’s education around the world.

The report finds that approximately half of all students aged 13 to 15 – 150 million girls and boys – experience peer-violence. This violence exists in every region of the world and in every community.

The report explains that the effects of peer to peer violence are unacceptably high on individual young people as well as society as a whole. Violence decreases self-esteem, reduces attendance, lowers grades and leads many children to drop out of school completely.

From being bullied to mediating conflicts

Snezana explains that during the time she was being bullied, a new group of peer mediators were brought into her school. She had never heard about the group and was admittedly skeptical.

“At first I did not feel comfortable.  I thought it was yet another group that would bully me,” she said.

But this group was different.

The group is organized by UNICEF and partner organization in Kosovo (SCR 1244) DOMOVIK as part of a school-based violence prevention programme. The peer mediators are student volunteers who are trained to resolve conflict at school – often cases of bullying and psychological abuse. They are also trained to refer more serious cases of violence to appropriate officials, including social welfare authorities and the police.

The peer mediators work with school administrators, teachers, the student council as well as psychologists and education specialists.

Snezana decided to join the group. During the first year of being a peer mediator the bullying she was experiencing stopped. She also brought positive changes into other student’s lives. 

“When I joined, I found it to be a wonderful group and started to work on myself,” she says.  “I now put in extra effort when I see a child being bullied, and also suggest the child to join the peer mediation team.”

Over the last five years Snezana has helped end approximately 50 school-based conflicts or cases of bullying. She recalls one particular instance when she convinced two boys who had been fighting that physical conflict would not help.  She explains that she approached the situation as a friend, wanting to listen to both of the boys. 

“That is how it was resolved,” she says.

Another important part of Snezana and the other peer mediator’s work is visiting neighbouring schools and re-enacting cases of bullying. During the reenactments, students learn how to identify bullying and resolve conflict. 

So far, the peer mediation programme has benefitted at least 15,000 students in Kosovo (SCR 1244).

Snezana will never forget the pain of being targeted by bullies, but she says she has moved on.

“I decided to let them know that I was equal to them,” she says about the kids who used to bully her.  “At the end of the day I forgive them because they were children.”

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School of Planning and Public Affairs

Sppa students win grand prize in ui 2024 global health case competition.

We are proud to announce that our students have received first place and the grand prize in the 2024 Global Health Case Competition for their project, “Improving Sustainability Outcomes in Homa Bay, Kenya.” In addition to receiving the first place monetary awards, they were selected by Dave Okech Okech , CEO of a Kenyan nonprofit, AquaRech Ltd, to implement a portion or all of their plan in that country! The competition is offered through the UI Institute of Public Health Research and Policy.

Their team included three School of Planning and Public Affairs (SPPA) masters students, Farnaz Fatahi Moghadam, Jovana Kolasinac, and Sanzida Rahman Setu, plus UI students Joe Maxwell (undergraduate in political science with an urban planning minor) and Sanya Sami (graduate student in public health). They competed against eight other teams representing a total of nine colleges to capture the win.

The aim of the contest is to train “the next generation of leaders through a unique competition experience built upon a real‐world challenge.” This year’s global health case study was “Sustainable Communities and Nutrition Concerns in Homa Bay, Kenya.” There were numerous aspects the students had to consider, including declining supply of fish as a primary protein source, supply chain issues, cultural implications, food insecurity, health concerns, and climate change. Additionally, they had to take into account complicating factors that were present, such as gender-based issues, economic and environmental impacts, and strategic alliance for policy implications to ensure the sustainability of their proposal. The team spent two months working on their project, incorporating many aspects of urban planning from their graduate classes.

The students’ winning proposal is available for viewing .  

Blog The Education Hub

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/26/how-were-upgrading-school-buildings-across-england/

How we're upgrading school buildings across England

We’ve allocated over £17 billion since 2015 for keeping schools all over the country in good condition. That includes £1.8 billion for the 2024-25 financial year.

Most of the funds are given to local authorities, large multi-academy trusts, and large voluntary aided school groups, to invest in maintaining and improving the condition of their schools.

Other funding is targeted on essential maintenance projects at small and stand-alone academy trusts, other voluntary aided schools, and sixth-form colleges.

Schools and sixth form colleges are also allocated their own capital funding to spend on smaller projects, or improvements to facilities, such as ICT.

We regularly monitor the condition of school buildings across England, and our recent condition survey shows that over 95% of the grades given to the different elements of buildings assessed were As and Bs – meaning they’re in a good or satisfactory condition.

What are you doing to keep school buildings safe?

We have allocated over £17 billion since 2015 for keeping schools in good working order, including £1.8 billion committed for 2024-25.

Included in this funding for 2024-25 is £1.15 billion in School Condition Allocations (SCA). This is funding for local authorities, large multi-academy trusts, dioceses, and other large voluntary aided school groups, to invest in maintaining and improving the condition of their schools.

Almost £450 million has also been made available for the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) programme this year. This includes support for over 850 essential maintenance projects at small and stand-alone academy trusts, voluntary aided schools, and sixth-form colleges.

The fund also provides Urgent Capital Support for these schools where there are serious issues that threaten immediate school closure.

Also included in the funding this year is over £200 million that has been allocated directly for schools to spend on projects to meet their own capital priorities. This is called Devolved Formula Capital (DFC).

We are also investing in new and refurbished buildings at over 500 schools through our   School Rebuilding Programme .

Our approach with this investment is working - over 95% of school building elements surveyed as part of the Condition Data Collection (CDC) between 2017 and 2019 were in good or satisfactory condition (condition grade A or B).

Only a very small percentage - 0.3% - of building components needed replacing straight away (Grade D).

As a department we are most concerned by the grade Ds - which refer to materials that are due to be replaced – for core elements of buildings.

Early indications in our successor survey, Condition Data Collection 2, (CDC2), alongside feedback from responsible bodies, shows that in almost every case where a Grade D component was identified in the first survey has now been addressed.

What is the School Rebuilding Programme?

Over this decade, our  School Rebuilding Programme is transforming over 500 schools in the most need of renovation.

Schools are selected for the programme according to their condition.

A  list of confirmed projects  is available, including information on when each was announced.

How are you supporting schools where there is RAAC?

Last year, to ensure schools continue to be safe for staff and pupils, we changed our approach to managing a building material found in some school buildings and other education settings, known as Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) .

The new guidance advises education settings to vacate areas that are known to contain RAAC, unless or until suitable mitigations are in place.

We’ve supported schools with confirmed RAAC with additional funding for mitigation work where needed, such as propping and temporary accommodation on site.

We are also working to permanently remove RAAC from school and college buildings across England.

This is being funded either through grants or the School Rebuilding Programme.

Schools and colleges where removing RAAC will typically be on a smaller scale, will receive grant funding, while those where works to remove RAAC are more extensive or complex will be funded through the School Rebuilding Programme.

It’s important to remember that only around 1% of schools and colleges in England have confirmed RAAC in some areas of their buildings.

What about schools where there is asbestos?

Asbestos management in schools is regulated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and we follow their expert advice.

The HSE advises that, as long as materials are in good condition, well protected, and unlikely to be damaged or disturbed, it is usually safer to manage them in place.

However, if the asbestos is found to be at a significant risk of disturbance or accidental damage and it’s not safe to leave where it is, it is the duty holder’s responsibility to make sure it is removed by a trained specialist.

We’re working with the sector to promote best practice and  guidance  so that schools are aware of their duties to keep children and teachers safe.

We previously run an Asbestos Management Assurance Process (AMAP) - a voluntary survey we launched in March 2018 to understand the steps schools and those responsible for their estate were taking to manage asbestos.

Over 20,600 schools in England responded and it showed that most schools continue to follow core statutory duties.

We are now collecting Information from schools on how they are managing asbestos through our Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2), which started in 2021 and will complete in 2026. It is expected to cover all state funded schools.

Whose responsibility is it to maintain school buildings?

It is the responsibility of those who run our schools – typically academy trusts, local authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies – who work with their schools’ day-to-day to manage the safety and maintenance of their schools. They should alert us if there is a serious concern with a building they cannot manage.

We provide access to funding, targeted towards where it is most needed, to help them carry out these responsibilities, alongside a package of other guidance and support.

We provide additional support on a case-by-case basis if we are alerted to a serious safety issue.

What about the old schools that were built in the 1960s, will these be replaced?

31% of the floor area of the school estate is modern – having been built since 2000. The age of a building does not mean it is at the end of its life.

While schools can expect reasonable wear and tear, buildings that are well kept can be fit for purpose beyond their original design.

To support schools that do need buildings replaced, our School Rebuilding Programme will transform buildings at over 500 schools over the next decade, prioritising schools in poor condition and with evidence of potential safety issues.

What are you doing to ensure the sustainability of schools?

As part of our climate change and sustainability strategy, we are assessing emissions and the risk posed to schools by the impact of climate change, like flooding.

This will allow us to set targets and act efficiently, cost-effectively and with the least disruption.

Any new or refurbished school delivered centrally by the DfE will be designed to be Net Zero in operation and include a wide set of adaptive measures to respond to climate change.

We have also published guidance for settings on how to become more sustainable and worked closely with other departments to support access to government funding for schools and colleges to help reduce or eliminate their carbon dioxide emissions.

From May 2025, all schools will be able to access a new Sustainability Leadership digital hub and support service.

You may also be interested in:

• List of schools affected by RAAC and what you need to know about the new guidance
• What is the School Rebuilding Programme and how is it benefitting pupils?
• School funding: Everything you need to know

Tags: Asbestos in schools , funding for school buildings , RAAC , RAAC in schools , school buildings , school rebuilding programme , Schools affected by RAAC , What is RAAC?

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Creating a Corporate Social Responsibility Program with Real Impact

• Emilio Marti,
• David Risi,
• Eva Schlindwein,
• Andromachi Athanasopoulou

Lessons from multinational companies that adapted their CSR practices based on local feedback and knowledge.

Exploring the critical role of experimentation in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), research on four multinational companies reveals a stark difference in CSR effectiveness. Successful companies integrate an experimental approach, constantly adapting their CSR practices based on local feedback and knowledge. This strategy fosters genuine community engagement and responsive initiatives, as seen in a mining company’s impactful HIV/AIDS program. Conversely, companies that rely on standardized, inflexible CSR methods often fail to achieve their goals, demonstrated by a failed partnership due to local corruption in another mining company. The study recommends encouraging broad employee participation in CSR and fostering a culture that values CSR’s long-term business benefits. It also suggests that sustainable investors and ESG rating agencies should focus on assessing companies’ experimental approaches to CSR, going beyond current practices to examine the involvement of diverse employees in both developing and adapting CSR initiatives. Overall, embracing a dynamic, data-driven approach to CSR is essential for meaningful social and environmental impact.

By now, almost all large companies are engaged in corporate social responsibility (CSR): they have CSR policies, employ CSR staff, engage in activities that aim to have a positive impact on the environment and society, and write CSR reports. However, the evolution of CSR has brought forth new challenges. A stark contrast to two decades ago, when the primary concern was the sheer neglect of CSR, the current issue lies in the ineffective execution of these practices. Why do some companies implement CSR in ways that create a positive impact on the environment and society, while others fail to do so? Our research reveals that experimentation is critical for impactful CSR, which has implications for both companies that implement CSR and companies that externally monitor these CSR activities, such as sustainable investors and ESG rating agencies.

• EM Emilio Marti is an associate professor at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. His research focuses on corporate sustainability with a specific focus on sustainable investing.
• DR David Risi is a professor at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and a habilitated lecturer at the University of St. Gallen. His research focuses on how companies organize CSR and sustainability.
• ES Eva Schlindwein is a professor at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on how organizations navigate tensions between business and society.
• AA Andromachi Athanasopoulou is an associate professor at Queen Mary University of London and an associate fellow at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on how individuals manage their leadership careers and make ethically charged decisions.

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Urban Greening as a Response to Societal Challenges. Toward Biophilic Megacities (Case Studies of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, Russia)

• First Online: 17 March 2023

Cite this chapter

• Diana Dushkova 8 ,
• Maria Ignatieva 9 &
• Irina Melnichuk 10  

Part of the book series: Cities and Nature ((CITIES))

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The population density in megacities is continuously increasing, resulting in a reduction of green spaces and a deterioration in the urban environment quality. Urban green is often being replaced by parking places, shopping centers, and service enterprises. This chapter examines the efforts of two megacities in Russia—Moscow and Saint Petersburg—to organize sustainable greening solutions for their residential areas using new achievements in landscape design theory and practice, such as the concept of the biophilic city. The chapter analyzes the history of greening strategies and discusses the concept of urban green infrastructure and its implementation in both Russian megacities. The chapter presents an assessment of the current state of urban green spaces and the most recent master plans and how these cities are facing and responding to modern societal challenges. The results of an analytical review of the most successful urban greening projects in Moscow and Saint Petersburg are presented as well. The economic and climatic features of the urban green areas and their architectural and planning features are considered, along with strategies for further development of the urban green spaces in both cities, aiming to address the new principles of biophilic cities.

• Urban green spaces
• Greening strategies
• Biophilic cities
• Societal challenges
• Saint Petersburg

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) project “Mathematical-cartographic assessment of medico-ecological situation in cities of European Russia for their integrated ecological characteristics” (2018–2020) under Grant number No 18-05-406 00236/18 and by the Horizon 2020 Framework Program of the European Union project “Connecting Nature” under Grant Agreement No 730222.

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Dushkova, D., Ignatieva, M., Melnichuk, I. (2023). Urban Greening as a Response to Societal Challenges. Toward Biophilic Megacities (Case Studies of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, Russia). In: Breuste, J., Artmann, M., Ioja, C., Qureshi, S. (eds) Making Green Cities. Cities and Nature. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73089-5_25

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The Damage Caused by Trans ‘Inclusion’ In Female Athletics: a Massachusetts Case Study

A single biologically male high-school student has invaded female categories in at least four different sports—negatively affecting hundreds of girls and women in the process.

“A 6’ Tall, Bearded Trans Basketballer Arrogantly Slams a Young Girl to the Ground—She Collapses in Agony,” was how Britain’s Daily Mail headlined the latest transgender sports scandal. Some may roll their eyes at the Mail ’s sensationalist (and uniquely verbose) headline style. But in this case, at least, no one can accuse the newspaper’s copy editors of getting the facts wrong.

The author of that article was one Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimming star who now helps lead the campaign to protect women’s sport from transgender-identified males. It’s a cause I happen to support. As this Massachusetts high-school basketball controversy attests , male participation in female sports categories isn’t just unfair to girls and women. It’s often dangerous, as well.

Trans-identified male player for Kipp Academy in MA injured 3 girls before half time causing Lowell Collegiate Charter School to forfeit. A man hitting a woman used to be called domestic abuse. Now it's called brave. Who watches this & actually thinks this is "compassionate,… pic.twitter.com/ZLlqYH6iAs — Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) February 19, 2024

One argument that’s commonly invoked in support of male-bodied “inclusion” in female sports categories is that, as Minnesota-based activist group Gender Justice asserts , “trans women are very much underrepresented in sport,” and “professional trans women athletes are extremely rare.” The idea here is that, no matter the obvious advantages that men have over women in athletics, few female athletes will be negatively affected by the handful of trans-identified males who choose to compete in categories that align with their gender identity.

And, to give these activists their due, it is quite true that most elite male athletes, even those afflicted with gender dysphoria, understand that they don’t belong in protected female spaces. It requires either a blinding sense of arrogance , or perhaps social cluelessness , for a man competing as a woman to fail to understand how disdained (and, in some cases, reviled) he will become if he insists on persistently invading female athletics—notwithstanding the forced displays of camaraderie and acceptance that affected women typically feel obligated to put on for the cameras.

So yes, in this narrow arithmetic sense, I will agree with Gender Justice and similarly mandated activist groups that in most sports, the number of biologically male athletes imposing themselves on female spaces is relatively low. One online catalog of “men and boys who have competed in women’s or girls’ sports” names 317 athletes competing in 57 different sports. While Gaines (and I) would argue that’s 317 too many, it’s a small fraction of the total number of the world’s high-level female athletes.

But those numbers don’t tell the whole story—since male athletic advantages are so enormous that just one or two men can destroy the competitive balance in a female league or tournament. At one recent cycling race in Illinois, for instance, men stole both the gold- and silver-medal podium positions from female competitors, turning the whole event into a joke (albeit one that no one is supposed to laugh at).

And it’s not just a question of who gets to go home with the medals. As demonstrated by the case of the aforementioned “bearded trans basketballer”—Massachusetts high-school senior Lazuli Clark —just a single male athlete who chooses to invade protected female athletic spaces can antagonize, intimidate, or endanger dozens, or even hundreds, of female co-competitors.

Male athlete Lazuli Clark of KIPP Academy excels as a 3-sport athlete in girls' sports: 🏀 Girls' basketball: playoff bound 🏐 Girls' volleyball: League All-Star led the team in kills, aces & digs 👟 Girls' track & field: set meet records in 400m hurdles & shot put at the Lynn… https://t.co/hgA7HG1SrI pic.twitter.com/5QaSBXXSzf — ICONS (@icons_women) February 22, 2024

Thanks in large part to The Independent Council on Women’s Sport , an American-based advocacy group, almost 9-million people have seen the infamous video clip of Clark injuring a female opponent during a February 8 high-school basketball game. Clark, a student at KIPP Academy in Lynn, MA, also reportedly hurt two other girls during that same game. Following the third injury, the coach of the opposing team, Collegiate Charter of Lowell, MA, chose to forfeit the game rather than risk losing more players.

In light of the (predictably negative) fallout, KIPP Academy then chose to forfeit its own last regular-season game. It also withdrew from its Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) playoff bracket, despite having already qualified for the post-season.

And so, all in all, approximately 30 female basketball players on two separate teams suffered negative consequences because a single male player wanted to present to the world as a female athlete. And that tally doesn’t include the female players on other teams that KIPP competed against during the regular season.

Basketball isn’t Clark’s only sporting pursuit. By my count, Clark has opted into female categories in at least four separate sports. (I am making a deliberate attempt to avoid describing Clark with pronouns, as it isn’t clear which ones apply. While many public news accounts of Clark’s exploits use “she” and “her” descriptors, a Saugus, MA-based Tae Kwon Do studio recently appears to have described Clark, who is apparently a “ black belt student ,” as “them,” suggesting a non-binary identity.)

These include volleyball, a sport in which the high-school senior was named a Commonwealth Atlantic Conference “all-star.” According to KIPP Academy Lynn statistics, Clark scored more kills during the 2023-24 volleyball season (171) than the rest of the team (131) combined. (A kill is defined as “an attack by a player that is not returnable by the receiving player on the opposing team and leads directly to a point or loss of rally.”) Clark also led the team in aces and blocked shots , and was tied for the team lead in total sets played , at 68. That makes 68 sets during which one of Clark’s female teammates was warming the bench while this biologically male athlete was racking up kills during KIPP’s 22-game schedule.

Overall, Clark’s volleyball team went 13-and-9 during its 2023-24 season. How many of those 13 victories were owed to the inclusion of a male athlete on KIPP’s roster? We don’t know, in large part because MIAA rules require that students generally “shall not be excluded from participation on a gender-specific sports team that is consistent with the student’s bona fide gender identity.” In light of this policy, many female athletes—as well as coaches and parents—are presumably concerned that voicing their frustrations and fears will earn them accusations of bigotry.

On May 30, 2023, Clark competed —as a female—in Lynn, MA’s All-City Track Championship, setting the all-time meet record (for females) in the 400-meter hurdles and shot put. Clark’s average shot-put distance of 41 feet, 2 inches was more than six feet longer than any female participant achieved at the 2023 state championship in the corresponding division. In both track categories, Clark’s female competitors were bumped down in the rankings as a result. That would include the female athletes who deserved to take first place in hurdles and shot put, but who instead had to console themselves with second.

It’s unclear whether Clark has turned 18 yet. And while I generally think twice before naming a minor in an article of this type, Clark has already gone public as “a transgender female student,” and has been identified by name in promotional materials associated with “all-star” Massachusetts high-school sports events. On September 13, 2023, Clark, then listed as 17 years old, was profiled by a research organization called the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), which referred to Clark as “a rising senior at KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate in Massachusetts, where she projected to be the valedictorian [sic]. In the future, she hopes to become a professional opera singer.” Like all the above-cited details regarding Clark’s participation in female basketball, volleyball, and track competitions, this CRPE report is publicly available information.

But there’s also a fourth sport that Clark has chosen to take up under a female identity.

Recently, Quillette received a leaked copy of an October 12, 2022 letter sent to the United States Rowing Association (commonly known as USRowing), the sport’s national governing body, in which 15 parents of elite female Massachusetts-resident rowers detailed their concerns about Clark.

In an interview with Quillette , one of the signatories reported that Clark joined the female rowing club in 2021, after placing poorly (“near the bottom,” by this parent’s account) with the club’s corresponding male team. Clark reportedly didn’t bother to shave or otherwise maintain the outward aesthetic pretenses of female gender identification, and even continued to wear the male club’s uniform.

In one documented 2022 incident, it is alleged, Clark walked into the girls’ changing room, spotted a female rower who was topless, and made a lewd comment about her breasts (“Oooh, titties”). As a result, documents reviewed by Quillette indicate, Clark was reported by team officials to the U.S. Center for SafeSport , a congressionally mandated body dedicated to “ending sexual, physical, and emotional abuse on behalf of athletes everywhere.” After SafeSport took action in late 2022, Clark never rowed for the club again—in either gender category. (Efforts to contact Clark or adult members of Clark’s family about these allegations, as well as other events described in this article, were unsuccessful.)

The above-described allegations have become part of the public record thanks to the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which is investigating the effects of recent changes to federal law that have served to undermine female athletics. In a March 20, 2024 report sent to committee members, it was noted that

during the course of this investigation, Committee staff discovered a direct case of harassment involving Massachusetts youth in a private, free-standing rowing league whose policies are governed by [USRowing]. In Massachusetts and New England, competitive rowing occurs mainly via private leagues, as it is too expensive for high schools to offer. According to a parent who spoke with Committee staff, a male athlete was allowed to join the women’s varsity crew team, which caused many issues for the female athletes. The male athlete was also allowed to use the women’s locker room in accordance with [USRowing] policy. [As a result, many] female athletes avoided using the locker room, but nonetheless a few months later, the male athlete was caught staring openly at one of the female athletes while she changed her clothes in the women’s locker room, and remarked, [REDACTED]. When a female athlete nearby asked if it was the first time he had seen female breasts, the male responded, “uhh yeah” with a laugh. The male athlete was suspended for this incident.

While expressing gratitude for SafeSport’s response, the parent interviewed by Quillette remains concerned that USRowing, which allows men to opt into most women’s categories as a matter of policy , had ignored the concerns that the signatories had begun expressing about Clark since Spring 2022, months before SafeSport took action.

During Zoom calls organized by USRowing to discuss the issue of male inclusion in female categories, the parent told me, the organization’s leadership platformed activists who urged that everyone “affirm” transgender athletes. To do otherwise, these activists argued, would risk discouraging trans athletes from participating in sports, and thereby negatively affect their mental health.

 The October 12, 2022 letter to USRowing reads, in part, as follows:

Our daughters have stayed quiet because they are afraid. We tried to speak up for them, and we were shut down. We tried to speak to leadership at all levels. [But] name-calling and the threat of mental health is being used as emotional blackmail to keep us all quiet while women are harmed and devalued…Our daughters also faced a locker room situation where they were uncomfortable…They stopped changing in the locker room and began to hide away. These young girls should never have been put through being told they had to face a male body everyday as they undressed…It was a constant thought, a constant threat to submit and a constant awareness. Yet they dared not say anything (except privately to their parents). The rowing team also required the male athlete to room with them on trips. The girls spoke to us about quitting rowing because of the intimidation of being forced to be in a hotel room alone with a male.

As with Clark’s participation in high-school basketball and volleyball, it’s impossible to know precisely how many female rowers were negatively affected by this one male interloper before SafeSport acted. Given that there were about 40 members of Clark’s rowing team—on top of the female members of other rowing clubs who were forced to compete against this male opponent—the number of affected female rowers was substantial. And this doesn’t include the parents who spent months fruitlessly petitioning USRowing, nor the coaches and staff who had to manage the associated complaints.

How have such travesties been allowed to play out in so many sports? This Massachusetts case study provides a few answers. 

“These girls have all been rowing for years, and for many, the main goal is to get recruited to top universities with rowing teams,” the letter signatory told me. “As soon as you express concerns about men rowing as women, you risk getting called out as a ‘transphobe.’ No one wants to risk that. These are girls who’ve been training for three hours a day, six days a week, 50 weeks a year. So when you’re told that the team is going out of town, and someone needs to share a hotel room with a [male] rower, they just look around, and it’s basically like, ‘okay, who wants to take one for the team.’”

(The parent emphasized that the club’s coaching staff were simply following rules set down by USRowing and the state of Massachusetts, and were mindful of how difficult the situation was for the female rowers—an impression that’s well-supported by the internal documents reviewed by Quillette .)

This isn’t the first time I’ve had a parent of a female athlete explain to me how this political dynamic works. Earlier this year, the international media reported on the shocking case of one “ Melody Wiseheart ”—also known as Nicholas Cepeda—a 50-year-old male psychology professor at Canada’s York University who identifies as female and enters swimming competitions against teenage girls as young as 13 years old. When I spoke with a mother of an affected female swimmer, she told me that none of the parents wanted to be known as political “troublemakers,” lest it negatively affect their daughters’ chances of progressing within the sport. As a result, many simply looked on helplessly as a middle-aged man shared a locker room and pool deck with terrified female children one quarter his age.

A second reason such farces are tolerated is that male athletes who invade female athletic spaces have become experts at reciting the same activist talking points that USRowing and other sports organizations have used to gaslight concerned parents. A common rhetorical strategy here is to suggest that any expression of concern for the integrity of female sports categories (or the emotional well-being of girls) serves to channel a form of conservative political extremism, which in turn nullifies the very “existence” of trans-identified individuals.

A 2023 media profile of Clark, for instance, has the high school senior lamenting (in the words of a The74 reporter) “how difficult it can be to focus on school when some policymakers are passing laws against her identity.” According to Clark,

going to school is the least of people’s concerns at this point for a lot of people. There are days where I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I have to worry about my [Advanced Placement] U.S. history project, and yesterday another state basically made it so that I can never exist in that state.’ And it’s like, how’s anyone supposed to think about anything at all when there’s all of that going on?

Another common factor one observes is the ideological capture of sports oversight bodies by small groups of activist administrators. In my 2022 Quillette reporting on biological males seeking to compete in disc golf, for instance, I found that one of the directors on the sport’s international oversight body is a 6’4”-tall trans-identified male named Laura Nagtegaal—someone who has not only advocated for male inclusion in women’s categories, but has even won PDGA Masters events that were (at least nominally) reserved for female athletes.

When it comes to USRowing, several of the concerned parents and activists I’ve interviewed mentioned endocrinologist Kathryn Ackerman, a former elite rower who now serves as chair of USRowing’s medical committee. These critics also have pointedly noted Dr. Ackerman’s role as medical director of the Female Athlete Program in the Division of Sports Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). In recent years, BCH became infamous for performing mastectomies on teens as young as 15, and for offering vaginoplasties to teens as young as 17.

Moreover, at least one of Dr. Ackerman’s co-authored academic papers—titled, Improving inclusion and well-being of trans and gender nonconforming collegiate student-athletes —can be taken to suggest that she is sympathetic to the demands of trans-identified athletes. In that paper, Dr. Ackerman and her co-authors repeatedly urged National Collegiate Athletic Association officials to challenge “myths” associated with “trans and gender nonconforming” individuals. The nature of those “myths” is never spelled out, but that word often is used as political code to suggest that male athletic advantages over women are imaginary.  

And yet, as I learned during my research, Dr. Ackerman’s views on the subject of male-female sex differences are highly informed. In a recent online lecture entitled The Care of Transgender Athletes , for instance, she systematically stepped fellow doctors through the many decisive advantages that male athletes possess over their female counterparts. Yes, her lecture began with dubious slogans to the effect that biological sex is a mere “construct” that doctors “assign” based on “various anatomical and physiological traits” (as well as inflated statistics on the prevalence of differences of sexual development ). But she then quickly got into the real science:

Women…have about 30 percent lower max cardiac output. So that means they would typically have less capacity to move blood and have a decreased work capacity. They have about 25 to 50 percent lower VO2 max—so less work capacity. They have lower blood volume, so less oxygen-carrying capacity. And about 45 percent less lean body mass. So that would suggest that women are 40 to 60 percent weaker in their upper-body strength, and 25 percent weaker in their lower-body strength.

Dr. Ackerman’s presentation was highly detailed; and I won’t summarize all of it. But suffice it to say that she is, as her glittering résumé attests, a true expert in the field of sports medicine, especially as it relates to girls and women. She is also a former member of the U.S. Women’s national rowing team. If there is anyone in the entire country better situated to understand the enormous gulf that separates male and female rowing capabilities (with the possible exception of Quillette contributor and former U.S. Olympic rower Mary O’Connor ), I’m not sure who it would be.

“As [a journalist] who’s become familiar with the science in this area, I was struck by your deep knowledge, and your frank appreciation of the very real differences between men and women when it comes to sports performance,” I wrote in a March 21 email to Dr. Ackerman. “So I am at a loss to explain to readers how an organization with you at the helm of its medical committee can maintain a policy that, with few exceptions, allows men to row as women. If there’s any light you can shed on this question, either on or off the record, I’d be much obliged.”

If and when Dr. Ackerman responds, I’ll update this article to let readers know.

As female athletes and their parents find their political voice, the tide is beginning to turn on this issue—even in progressive parts of the United States, such as New York City . And spectacles such as that of “a 6’ Tall, Bearded Trans Basketballer” throwing girls around like rag-dolls will only accelerate the process.

Once the ideological movement to undermine the reality of sexual dimorphism has run its course, and it’s (once again) become settled policy across the sporting world that turning “he” into “she” should not be a magic ticket into female leagues (or locker rooms), the question will become: How did we allow this to happen?

For my own part, I’m not particularly interested in laying blame on the likes of Clark—young, confused, gender dysphoric males whose actions are being encouraged by others. What’s more interesting is why people who should know better—adult politicians, educators, administrators, scientists, and doctors such as Dr. Ackerman—have lent their names and reputations to this movement. One hopes that, at least in their private thoughts, they’ve begun to understand the disastrous effect of policies that prioritize the sanctity of male delusions over female safety.

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