FutureEd Senior Fellow Lynn Olson worked in the K-12 program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2008 to 2017, serving as a senior program officer, senior adviser to the director, and deputy director for knowledge management and strategic alliances. Prior to joining the foundation, Olson was an award-winning writer and editor for over two decades at the national newspaper Education Week, and earlier in her career she was a writer, editor, and policy analyst at the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of Yale University.

Work by Lynn Olson

Invisible Students: The Information Crisis in Early Education
Lynn Olson Jan 12, 2022No part of the nation’s education infrastructure has been more disrupted by the pandemic…

A New Bipartisan Education Agenda
Bruno V. Manno Lynn Olson Dec 11, 2021After nearly four decades, the bipartisan coalition that pushed higher standards, tests, and accountability systems…

How D.C. Public Schools Improved Teacher Quality, Diversity
Lynn Olson Thomas Toch Dec 11, 2021This commentary was published in The 74. Many states and school districts are working…

Changing the Narrative: The Push for New Equity Measures in Education
Lynn Olson Thomas Toch Nov 07, 2021A wide range of organizations are working to gauge students’ needs and public…

In Demand: The Real Teacher Shortages and How to Solve Them
Sandi Jacobs Lynn Olson Oct 14, 2021Are there widespread teacher shortages in U.S. public education? Recent headlines suggest…

Right From the Start: D.C.’s Groundbreaking Teacher Hiring Strategy
Lynn Olson Sep 13, 2021The District of Columbia Public Schools is well-known for its comprehensive teacher-evaluation and performance-…

Teaching Innovation: New School Staffing Strategies Inspired by the Pandemic
Lynn Olson Aug 03, 2021Amid the profound disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, some schools and districts have responded…

How the Pandemic is Reshaping Teaching
Thomas Toch Lynn Olson Apr 20, 2021This commentary was published in The Hill. The pandemic relief package that…

Tough Test: The Nation’s Troubled Early Learning Assessment Landscape
Lynn Olson Brooke LePage Mar 01, 2021At a time when the nation is investing significantly more resources into early learning,…

Blueprint for Testing: How Schools Should Assess Students During Covid
Lynn Olson Dec 08, 2020As schools reopen this fall, educators will need to…

The Big Test: The Future of Statewide Standardized Assessments
Lynn Olson Craig Jerald Apr 19, 2020Standardized testing has been a cornerstone of school reform for two decades. But a…

The New Testing Landscape: State Assessments Under ESSA
Lynn Olson Sep 08, 2019State testing systems are in transition. Buffeted by anti-testing sentiment on the left…

Teacher Mindsets: How Educators’ Perspectives Shape Student Success
Craig Wacker Lynn Olson Jun 04, 2019Research increasingly points to the importance of social and emotional learning to student…

Tennessee Puts Teacher Prep on Its To-Do List
Lynn Olson Jan 22, 2019Improving teaching quality starts with how teachers are trained, but often that’s the last stop…

Scaling Reform: Tennessee’s Statewide Teacher Transformation
Lynn Olson Oct 03, 2018The federal Every Student Succeeds Act has placed authority for improving education squarely in states’…