The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an exploratory study of the early implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards in New York City by a sample of charter management organizations (CMOs) and Children First Networks (CFNs). Using the existing literature on policy implementation-specifically the concepts of boundary spanners and mutual adaptation-this research investigated the role of networks as they facilitated the implementation of the new standards. We conducted in-depth interviews with leaders in both types of networks. The interviews focused on the strategies used to implement the Common Core and the challenges faced in the process. Our findings included evidence of varying capacity among CFNs and CMOs. More decentralized networks expressed greater difficulties with the transition, and the existence of a distinct network-level department with exclusively instructional responsibilities facilitated the adoption of the standards.

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Through an exegesis of the dramatic elements of Plato's Laches, Brandon Buck and Rachel Longa argue that it is an especially valuable text to read with practicing and preservice teachers. Buck and Longa show how the dialogue illustrates three essential aspects of what education means and involves. First, they show how the dialogue foregrounds the often‐obscured role of philosophical inquiry in addressing educational questions. Second, they show how the depiction of aporia in the Laches underscores the importance of uncertainty for the persistence of humanistic conversation, and thus for substantial engagement with core educational questions. Finally, they interpret Socrates to suggest that participation in humanistic conversation is not merely an incidental aspect of education as a profession, but rather precisely what it means to be an educator. In sum, Buck and Longa argue that the Laches illustrates the core idea that in order to educate at all, we must be deeply involved in the very questions that characterize humanistic conversation.

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