Make-or-break Year

Emily Krone Phillips is the communications director at the Spencer Foundation. She worked previously as an educator reporter and as the communications director at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, where the Freshman OnTrack research originated and inspired her to write The Make-or-Break Year (The New Press). She lives in Chicago.

Praise for The Make-or-Break Year:“A remarkable book.”—Washington Post“A revealing and honest look at an intervention that's making a difference.”—Booklist“Phillips makes it clear that changing outcomes is reason enough to keep the [Freshman OnTrack] program alive—and to see it replicated elsewhere. A good case, if one largely of interest to educational policymakers and activists.”—Kirkus Reviews“A remarkable, even astonishing book. Detailed and compelling. . . . How a book about educational philosophy can also be a page-turner, I don't know, but that's what Krone Phillips has given us. Every educator in America needs to read The Make-or-Break Year—now.”—Amy Ellis Nutt, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and co-author of The Teenage Brain “In ninth grade, nothing matters more than belonging. With profound respect for both youth and their educators, this superb book sets out all the factors that make school a place where freshmen feel they belong.”—Kathleen Cushman, author of Fires in the Bathroom “I highly recommend this book for educators who seek to do more to advance equity and increase student success.”—Pedro Noguera, director of the Center for the Transformation of Schools at UCLA “A decisive, urgent case for intervening in the ninth grade . . . clear-eyed and hopeful, this book is required reading for anybody interested in addressing the dropout crisis.”—Michelle Kuo, author of Reading with Patrick “Refreshing and expertly reported . . . essential reading for anyone who cares about student success. It will profoundly change the way we see high school in America.”—Peg Tyre, author of The Trouble with Boys