Welcome to the EdTalks podcast series, a series of conversations with some of the innovators from the classroom and the district level who joined us this past year for Boston EdTalks. Lawrence Massachusetts Superintendent and Receiver Jeff Riley joined the Lawrence Public Schools in the aftermath of the state's takeover of the system. In five years since, he improved test scores, lifted the district's graduation rate, and managed to do it in collaboration with district teachers.

Ethan Bronner of Bloomberg News talked with Superintendent Riley about his approach in Lawrence, and discussed his own story as a parent of a special-needs student in public school.

This podcast was recorded in 2017, before Superintendent Riley was under consideration to be hired as Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education.