Ted Sizer, the noted education thinker who died last month, was known nationally as founder of the Essential Schools movement, but made his biggest mark here in Massachusetts. His ideas helped give rise to he Boston pilot school movement, and with his wife, Nancy, he founded the Francis W. Parker Charter School in Devens — all of this after Sizer had served stints as headmaster of Phillips Academy, chairman of the education department at Brown, and dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  In 2000, then-CommonWealth editor Bob Keough sat down with Ted and Nancy Sizer. Click here to read the Sizer views on all things school-related.

Michael Jonas works with Laura in overseeing CommonWealth Beacon coverage and editing the work of reporters. His own reporting has a particular focus on politics, education, and criminal justice reform.