Podcasts about national assessment

The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known colloquially as the nation's report card, shows that reading scores dropped an average of two progress points for both 4th and 8th graders.But two states that are bucking this trend? Mississippi and Louisiana.How did two of the country's poorest states turn their literacy scores around in a matter of a few years? What can other states learn from those stories?Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Note: During the episode, Marshall discussed Mississippi's disadvantages in K-12 education. It must be noted that according to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results, Mississippi achieved nation-leading gains in reading and math scores.https://governorreeves.ms.gov/governor-reeves-statement-on-mississippis-nation-leading-naep-gains-record-achievement/REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/PURCHASE BOOKS AT OUR BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignmentEmail Us: realignmentpod@gmail.comJohn B. King, former Secretary of Education and author of Teacher By Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives, joins The Realignment. Marshall and John discuss President Trump's plan to abolish the Department of Education, balancing the role of states and the federal government's role in K-12 schooling, why the education debates of the 2000s and 2010s (charters, reform, NCLB) stalled, the case for and against accountability, and the post-COVID education cultural wars.

 If you read the latest edition of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as “The Nation's Report Card”, things are not going well in our nation's public schools.  Clearly, the long tail effects of the COVID pandemic are at play here. One respected educational researcher, Dan Goldhaber, did not want to sugarcoat the … Read More Read More

Michael Hartney, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and assistant professor of political science at Boston College, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss their new joint research, which finds that states that voted for Kamala Harris in the last presidential election saw more learning loss following the Covid-19 pandemic than those that voted for Donald Trump, according to the most recent results from the 2014 National Assessment of Education Progress. "Red States Have Seen Less Learning Loss," co-written by Hartney and Peterson, is available now. https://www.educationnext.org/red-states-have-seen-less-learning-loss-post-pandemic-scores-nations-report-card-naep/

Why Literacy Reform Keeps Failing and What Actually Works | Lindamood-Bell Description: For four decades, well-intentioned literacy reforms have promised to fix America's reading crisis—from A Nation at Risk in 1983 to the current Science of Reading movement. Yet, despite these efforts, scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) continue to fall. Why haven't these reforms worked? Paul Worthington, Director of Research and Development at Lindamood-Bell, explores why reading instruction—even approaches grounded in the Science of Reading—often misses the mark. This webinar will examine the root causes behind decades of stalled progress and reveal the essential, often-overlooked skills that truly drive reading success. We discuss: Why past reforms have failed to deliver results The cognitive processes most reading programs overlook How Lindamood-Bell helps students achieve real, measurable gains in literacy At Lindamood-Bell, we develop the imagery-language foundation for reading, spelling, language comprehension, math, memory, and critical thinking. Locations Worldwide       Online and In-Person (800) 233-1819      Connect with LINDAMOOD-BELL Visit our website: https://lindamoodbell.com/ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/lindamoodbell1 Download a Free Information Pack: https://lindamoodbell.com/learning-centers?info-pack Listen to our Podcast: https://lindamoodbell.com/radio-podcast Follow us on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/LindamoodBell Follow us on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@lindamoodbellofficial Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lindamoodbell Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindamoodbellofficial/ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lindamood-bell-learning-processes

 Is public education becoming unsustainable due to declining literacy and math scores? Education Secretary Linda McMahon suggested that the Department of Education might be dismantled, though core funding like Title I would remain intact. She also emphasized the importance of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for accountability and discussed potential changes in immigration policy and civil rights enforcement in schools. 

A recent report from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) summarizes results from the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — also known as the nation's report card. The test, given every two years, reports scores of our nation's children in reading and math at the fourth-grade and eighth-grade levels. AEI characterizes the most recent results as a “five-alarm fire.” I call it simply pathetic. In 2024, 40 percent of fourth graders scored below “basic level” in reading. This is 25 percent worse than 2013, when 32 percent scored below “basic level.” NAEP rates scores at three levels: basic,...Article Link

Can you use Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) during the information-gathering phase of an improvement project? Yes! Join John Dues and host Andrew Stotz as they discuss how John's team used PDSA to learn more about chronic absenteeism, their surprising findings, and what they'll do next. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.8 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussion with John Dues, who is part of the new generation of educators striving to apply Dr. Deming's principles to unleash student joy in learning. The topic for today is powerful learning with the PDSA cycle. John, take it away.   0:00:25.5 John Dues: Yeah, Andrew. It's good to be back. For the past two episodes or so, we've been working towards defining the problem of our chronic absenteeism issue, of course, we have a problem with chronic absenteeism, but we're trying to narrow that down and get a more specific problem statement. Last time we talked about how our improvement team, basically, had come to the conclusion after a few weeks of study that we didn't have enough information to write that specific, precise problem statement. So what we decided to do, and we started looking at this last time, was we started to gather additional information through a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. So that's what we'll focus on today, is this first PDSA cycle, and I think it's good to know that you can use PDSAs to run an experiment to test a new idea, but you can also run a PDSA to gather more information. Those are both very worthwhile uses of the PDSA cycle. So I go to share my screen just so I have that model up so that people who can see it, for those that are viewing. Can you see that now?   0:01:33.8 Andrew Stotz: Coming up. Okay, we can see it.   0:01:36.6 John Dues: All right, great. So you remember, we've been working through this four-step process for those who are hopping in for the first time or as a review for those that have been following along. So we have these four steps: set the challenge or direction, grasp the current condition, establish your next target condition, and then an experiment to overcome obstacles. And remember, we've been working through this team, that's a combination of people working in the system, people who have the authority to actually change the system, and then the System of Profound Knowledge coach. So I think that's a pretty powerful combination of people, and that's our team here working on this chronic absenteeism problem. You also remember that we have this long-range goal that this challenge that is to improve our chronic absenteeism from right around 50% to down closer to 5%, and I don't know if you remember this, but a number of episodes ago, I showed you the data we had over time, and we just had three years of data. Since that time I showed you that first run chart, I've actually gone back and added chronic absenteeism rates for our schools going all the way back to the 2016 - '17 year, and I think it's worth it to just take another quick look at those rates over time in a process behavior chart.   0:03:00.2 Andrew Stotz: Exciting.   0:03:01.5 John Dues: So, yeah. This is our chart. So we add more days so why not display it in this way. So what this chart is, is again a process behavior chart, we have school years going back to the 2016-'17 school year, and then through last school year. And we have the blue dots displaying the chronic absenteeism rate for each of those school years across our school system, and then the green is... The green line is that central line, it's the average of all years, the red lines are those natural process limits that sort of tell us where we can expect our data to fall given that this is a predictable system. So you can see right off the bat, something that's pretty obvious is that the first four years of data are below that central line, and then the last four years of data are above that central line. And of course, it's not too hard to sort of recognize that the pandemic happened towards the end of the 2019-'20 school year, and then sort of... We were all remote heading into that 2021 school year, and then for a number of years after we were in remote or hybrid, and so you can see very clearly that while there was chronic absenteeism in our system prior to the pandemic, after the pandemic, it exploded and it has not subsided.   0:04:28.7 John Dues: So in a typical year prior to the pandemic, we were somewhere around that 25, about a quarter of the kids give or take, depending on the year, of the kids were chronically absent, and then after the pandemic, we can see it sort of... Or at the begining of the pandemic, explodes up and then has settled around this, right about 50% average.   0:04:51.1 Andrew Stotz: And the fact that it's remained at this much higher level of, let's say 50-55% tells you that there's like... It has had somewhat of a permanent impact, whereas some people may think that the COVID situation caused a spike in chronic absenteeism up to 70% or whatever that number was, and then it came back to normal. But it's far away from normal.   0:05:26.4 John Dues: Yeah, and I haven't done a deep analysis. But in addition to the chronic absenteeism, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is like the gold standard, the report card for the nation, a nationally known test given every couple of years, that data shows that the 4th and 8th graders that take that test across the country in ELA and math, the scores are down coming out of the pandemic as well and have not rebounded. So I think that data is important. I'm not necessarily saying one way or the other, what we should have done, but what I am saying is like when we make decisions like shutting down schools, it's not just a decision that has an impact in the moment, there are ramifications on an ongoing basis. And we should sort of take that calculus into consideration when we're deciding what to do in a situation like that.   0:06:20.0 Andrew Stotz: And this also shows that you're taking on a pretty serious challenge because...   0:06:23.8 John Dues: Very serious. Yeah.   0:06:25.0 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, it's serious for the students, but it's also serious in the sense that it's been lingering at this very high level of chronic absenteeism, so, okay.   0:06:37.0 John Dues: Yeah.   0:06:37.5 Andrew Stotz: Shocking.   0:06:38.1 John Dues: Yeah, it is pretty shocking.   0:06:38.7 Andrew Stotz: That's not happening in Asia.   0:06:40.6 John Dues: No, and it's... I think a number of places in the United States, the learning chronic absenteeism has bounced back, but in the places where you expect where there's, especially high concentrations of poverty and things like that. It's sort of remained a serious issue even depending how you mark the end of the pandemic, two or three years after the primary part of the pandemic anyway. The height of the pandemic, if you will. So, ongoing challenges for sure. So what I said was that the team was going to run this initial PDSA cycle to gather more information, of course, there were some initial thoughts on why kids were missing so much school. We've talked about these transportation, different expectations that have been set for when to stay home, family and instability, those types of things. But again, we want to further test those assumptions early on in the project. So the key question that we were looking at is, for this first PDSA cycle, at least was will the combination of a what we call an empathy interview, which is just like where we sit down with a student or the family and try to better understand what's going on, and then daily attendance tracking was the other part of this, will that lead to a modest increase in the students average daily attendance rate during the period of the intervention.   0:08:11.9 John Dues: So even though we weren't necessarily testing a change idea, there was this sort of like... We framed it as a modest intervention in terms of sitting down with the kids and then doing this daily tracking and showing them the data. And a key part of this plan phase is we had all of our team members predict what they thought would happen with the four students that we chose to have those interviews with and track the daily attendance of during Cycle 1. So we had everybody really think through, "Okay, what do we think will happen when we put this plan in place?" And that's going to be really important because when we actually run the test, we want to compare the predictions to what actually happens, and that's where a lot of the learning happens from a PDSA cycle.   0:09:02.9 Andrew Stotz: And just for the listeners or viewers out there, why is it important to do that? Some people would say just do it and find out what the result is.   0:09:12.3 John Dues: Well, if you don't take a stance basically before the intervention happens or before the plan is put in place, then there's no learning that can really happen because whatever happens happens. But you didn't sort of say, "Here's what I think's going happen." And a lot of times, we quantify that prediction, and then what you can see is the difference between those two things is not only the learning, but it's also an indication of how well you understand your system. So what I mean is, if we put an intervention in place and I say, "Okay, I think this is going to have a 15% increased impact on whatever it is, a test score or attendance in this case," and then it has no impact, then I don't have an understanding really of what's going to work to fix whatever I'm trying to fix. But if the prediction bears out and it's pretty close to what actually happens, then that means, oh, I have a pretty good grasp on what's going on in my system. Yeah, kind of makes you put a stake in the ground, and it makes you mentally when you're doing it, it makes you think.   0:10:19.0 John Dues: Look further ahead and say, "Okay, if I do this, do I actually think this is going to be effective?" And you can also see the team's thinking. Some people might think this is going to be very effective, and some people may think it's not. Some people might think it'll work with some students, but not other students, and it gives you that picture black and white before you actually run the test.   0:10:37.8 Andrew Stotz: And in academic studies, it's really important to identify your end point that you're testing for. Otherwise, you run the risk of switching your end point as you get through your research because you're grounded initially.   0:10:53.2 John Dues: Right, exactly. Right, yep, absolutely. So in this plan, what we did was, this... We had parent conferences coming up, so we just said, that's a natural time to sit down with these four students that we chose at parent conferences. So at the end of November, we did that, we reviewed the data, we sat with the family to discuss some of the causes of the attendance challenges. We explained the plan to track attendance for 15 days coming back from Thanksgiving break. And then part of the plan was collecting that quantitative data, like the actual attendance rates each day for each kid, but then it was qualitative too, because we were asking the family on the front end, what was the sort of overall cause of the problem. And then we were asking the actual student every day like, "Oh, on this particular day, why were you absent, or why were you late, why did you miss school?" And we were tracking that across 15 days, so it's a relatively short time period, 'cause we don't want to go off on some grand experiment and then find out three months from now that our intervention wasn't effective.   0:12:02.5 John Dues: So that was the plan. And then the next step in the PDSA cycle is the do and that's just like it sounds. So we ran the experiment for 15 days and then started gathering that data. So what we found was that in two of the cases, transportation challenges were in fact the primary issue, in the third case, it was sort of transportation, but that was exacerbated by a family that was homeless during this period, and then in the fourth cause, or in the fourth case, there was actually some sort of anxiety issues with coming to school. So you can see three very different causes just across four students. So again, if you don't have that picture, then it's very hard to sort of design the right type of interventions 'cause you don't really know what's going on. You have assumptions, right? So I don't think it's rocket science, but the team learn that there are so many layers to this attendance challenge, and even for a single student, there's often multiple factors rather than some single explanatory variable. And so you have to sort of uncover that, and I think the key thing was that holding these empathy interviews, just these four interviews allowed us to challenge some of our initial assumptions. Like maybe a family doesn't value attendance, that didn't seem to be the case, at least with any of these four students who are facing some serious challenges on the home front.   0:13:48.6 John Dues: But it wasn't like families didn't value school or having their kids attending school, there're just major obstacles. And so digging deeper allowed us to explore these various causes with the families. Another thing that was interesting is that as we talked with the team about... As the data came in and what they were doing, we also learned that we need a better, more systematic process for intervening with chronically absent students, that's everything from reviewing the data, identifying those chronically absent students early on in the school year, for those that we're required to do something like file truancy for those processes and then monitoring attendance, there's various requirements public schools have on that front. Every school is... They have a system in place, and they have a team in place, and they have a process in place for these different things, but they're all doing it differently, and so there's not a standardized process across our system. And another thing is, some parents didn't even realize that they may have a general idea that the attendance isn't great, but don't... Most parents don't actually realize what is the actual attendance rate of their child, how far off is it from what's considered exceptional or at least okay attendance.   0:15:17.6 John Dues: Almost nobody has that. Those numbers at the ready. Another thing that has happened as we studied the data was that there was a really wide variation in terms of the difference in student daily attendance between the period of the intervention and end of the school year up to that point. So there's basically a lot of learning going on with just a very simple four student experiment. So even though the predictions weren't perfect, and one thing with the predictions is, this is Cycle 1, so what should happen over time as we gain knowledge about our system, is that the predictions get closer and closer to what actually happens because we're learning with every PDSA cycle that we're running basically. So the last part is, then you act, so we've done the plan, we've done the do, the study, and the act, and the way I frame this is that you have three As that you can choose from in the Act segment. You can adopt that change that you've tested, you're going to adapt that into the next cycle, or you can say this is not working at all and you can abandon it and just do something else.   0:16:34.2 John Dues: Yeah, those are the three options. So what we've actually decided to do, what happens in a lot of early tests, is we're going to adapt Cycle 1 into Cycle 2, and in fact, Cycle 2 has actually already started. But the aim of Cycle 2 now is we're going to increase the extent to which we're involving students and families in the data collection process, and we're going to hold what we call like a... We call this a 5 Whys Empathy interview with each student that we've identified, and then use that to create a plan for a PDSA that's specific to that one student, basically. So it's going to be very hyper-focused and so we're going to collect this data for two weeks, we recognize that doing this intensive of a process with the entire school or the entire group of students that are chronic absent probably isn't possible, but what we're doing is learning so much from this, that seemed like we're going to take another step to learn more and work with the individual student to set up the next round of interventions.   0:17:49.4 Andrew Stotz: And what are you guys expecting for an outcome? You know, talking about prediction? I don't know. Should we think about where are you going to be in one year or two years, three years?   0:18:00.7 John Dues: Oh no. It's very closely tied with the PDSA. So if it's a two-week PDSA, then we're actually saying, what is that the average daily attendance going to be for that two-week period?   0:18:11.7 Andrew Stotz: Yep. Yep.   0:18:14.3 John Dues: I mean. It's very tightly closed. Yeah.   0:18:14.8 Andrew Stotz: What I'm saying though, let's just take the attendance levels that we've seen in the chart, let's just talk about annual and let's say, "Okay, one year from now, two years from now."   0:18:23.7 John Dues: Oh yeah. That's right. Oh I see.   0:18:26.7 Andrew Stotz: Are you... Is it right to make a prediction about where you think you would be or is that not the right way to do it?   0:18:32.0 John Dues: I think it's too early in the process to make... I see what you're saying now you're talking about the actual... That overall system measurement. Yeah, I think it's too early to make a prediction on that, if you were holding a gun to my head and making me put money down, my prediction would be right in line with what it is this year, basically. I would think it... Because it's a stable system. Those last four years, all bounce around 50-55%, like you said. So my bet would be on 50-55%. Because...   0:19:11.2 Andrew Stotz: And what would... How would things change for you or the school? Let's just imagine hypothetically... I'm going to push back a little bit here and just get some thinking, but from a hypothetical perspective, let's say a new school opened up and their number one focus was chronic absenteeism, and they decided that the most important thing for them is to solve that problem. And they had been doing it for a while in other locations, and now they've come in, now you're competing with them. They're an option for some people, and they're just the place for others, and let's just say that they have optimized for chronic absenteeism and it's down to 10% at their school. Does that change how you think about what you're doing? Again, it's hypothetical, but I'm just curious. How does that...   0:20:01.3 John Dues: No. Not me, because this is what our system produces right now, so... Yeah, I think I would say I don't have enough information to make a prediction about what the ultimate outcome measure will be.   0:20:19.4 Andrew Stotz: And I guess you could say this is what our system produces in this area based upon what we see as important, right? Like this is...   0:20:32.4 John Dues: Yeah. That's fair.   0:20:33.2 Andrew Stotz: And there may be another area that you think is very important in that those numbers in that area may be very, very different from that, but another... Go ahead.   0:20:43.7 John Dues: Yeah, well, I was going to say, so in this attendance team, there's... The empathy interview is going on with these four students, and then in the Act phase, we also said we're launching an effort to make the intervention process more consistent across all of our schools. And we're starting by understanding the process that's in place right now, but this team is not the only team pulling levers that ultimately could impact attendance. I think they're pulling important levers, but there are other improvement teams across the school system, for example, I think I mentioned this maybe a few episodes ago, transportation. Transportation did come up like we thought it would in three of the four interviews. So, and we have mentioned how poor the bussing has been in Columbus for the last several school years, but especially last year and this year. And so we're working to see can we do something significantly different next year on the transportation front.   0:22:00.1 John Dues: And I think if we can pull that lever, that also... But that would be a change to the system, like a very significant change. Now, if that went through, I would be much more confident about making a prediction about improvement on the attendance front next year, so.   0:22:17.9 Andrew Stotz: If I look...   0:22:19.2 John Dues: It's not going to solve our problems though. Yep.   0:22:21.2 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. If I look at my roasting business for coffee, if I replace my pretty much manual roasting machine with a fully automated high-tech one, it's going to have a massive improvement in variability. Invariability is going to reduce way beyond what our current system can produce and it will happen in a day, right? When that happens, it'll happen in a day.   0:22:47.4 John Dues: Yeah.   0:22:52.9 Andrew Stotz: And being late for class is a big bag-a-boo of teachers here in Thailand, particularly at universities where I go to, and it's a problem and nobody likes it and students come in late and all that. But I solved that problem with just the twist of my finger, one twist of my fingers, and I solved it. What was that twist? I locked the door. And then as the students were outside waiting to come inside, I would eventually go out and I'd say, "Look, it's important to me that you're on time. I'm going to lock this door. If you can't make it... You got to figure out how to make it." I know you got two hours of traffic and you're coming in from abroad, or you're coming in from outside of the city, I know that your parents don't have the money to pay for a car for you and you got to take the subway or you've got... I know. Everybody's got their circumstances, but you're making an effort to get here, I want you to get here on time.   0:23:52.4 Andrew Stotz: The next class that I have, everybody's on time. So one of the questions I have, and this is, again, push back is, some people may look at this and go, "Oh. Come on. All this work. Why don't we just massively prioritize and focus." Let's just say that... Let's just say, I don't know what the answer is, but let's just say that the principle of the school, all the teachers and all the students gather out in the front area at the time that you're supposed to be at school, and there's a band playing. Everybody's cheering. We're getting ready. Whatever that thing is. I remember a boss I had that used to have a stand-up meeting every single morning, and you didn't miss it. And so for some people who are listening, they may think, "Oh, come on, John, you're going through all this stuff and it's not going to improve. Why aren't you just taking more aggressive action right now."   0:24:48.9 John Dues: Well, I didn't say I was going to improve it, I just said I wasn't going to make a prediction.   0:24:51.9 Andrew Stotz: Yes. Yes. Sorry. I didn't mean...   0:24:53.8 John Dues: So yeah. What would I say? I think when you have... So the person that is in charge of this project, for example, I don't know that anybody's ever gotten better results while a principal of a school in Ohio with the challenges that he faced. So this is not people that aren't driven to get extraordinary results. This is a multi-faceted problem that is incredibly tough to improve, and when I have the view point of sitting down with the students and hearing what is... Keep the obstacles are... It is just a very hard thing, and I'd say one of the reasons we're pulling that transportation lever early, or at least attempting to is because that's such a big part. Again, that's not going to solve everything. But like I said, if we were able to pull that lever and it's a big if because we get no funding for transportation. All the funding flows through the school district, so that's a massive obstacle. Millions of dollars that we aren't allocated to do this service, someone else is. So right now we don't have control over it, and so those are the types of obstacles, we can't just buy buses, for example. Because...   0:26:36.1 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. And it's like you got 50 problems that you're trying to...   0:26:41.7 John Dues: 50 problems.   0:26:41.7 Andrew Stotz: And 50 more constraints that you're operating within.   0:26:45.9 John Dues: Yeah. And so we were attacking it from multiple angles, so we were attacking it on the attendance front with kids, at the State House with funding, with trying to see if we can set up our own transportation system even without that funding. So there's many, many levers being attempted, but they are not quick and easy, simple, so.   0:27:12.8 Andrew Stotz: And for a listener who's listening to this, who may not be the CEO of a company, let's say who's got resources he can allocate or she can allocate, they also may be in a situation like, "This is all I can impact. I can impact this area, but I have to be realistic about what resources I have."   0:27:33.6 John Dues: Yeah, and I think one of the things we're doing too, we don't have rose colored glasses on, we're saying, even if we did fix this transportation system, and that's a big if again. That doesn't mean that the chronic absenteeism problem is going to be solved. Maybe it's significantly better, maybe it goes down to 30%, 35%, if we had a good transportation system, but that still means... And even before transportation was such an issue, even before the pandemic, these rates were still... The quarter of the kids who are so chronically absent, that's way too high, that's way too high. So we recognize that, but these are very, very thorny problems to try to improve.   0:28:15.0 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. Well, and also you're trying to make lasting change too, so.   0:28:18.6 John Dues: Lasting change. Yeah.   0:28:19.6 Andrew Stotz: Yep.   0:28:19.7 John Dues: Yep. Yeah.   0:28:22.1 Andrew Stotz: Okay. Great. So I'm going to wrap it up there. And thanks...   0:28:23.3 John Dues: Yeah. Absolutely.   0:28:24.6 Andrew Stotz: And thank you for, on behalf of the Deming Institute, and I want to encourage all the listeners out there to follow what John's doing and what he's talking about, and of course, go to Deming.org to continue your journey. You can get his book, Win-Win, W. Edwards Deming, The System of Profound Knowledge and the Science of Improving Schools on amazon.com. And this is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, people are entitled to joy in work.

Dr. Andraé Townsel is the Superintendent Calvert County Public Schools who demonstrates commitment to educational excellence. Dr. Townsel has led impressive academic gains, including contributing to Maryland's meteoric rise in proficiency levels on the latest the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) from 40th to 20th in fourth grade reading nationally, driven by a district-wide commitment to the Science of Reading. 

In this bonus episode, Sarah Milligan and Cesar Roman discuss the Nation's Report Card, also known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). They explore its significance as a comprehensive measure of student performance across the U.S., particularly focusing on Indiana's recent educational outcomes in reading and math. The conversation highlights the importance of NAEP in providing data for policymakers and educators, as well as Indiana's ranking and performance trends over the years. Key Takeaways: The Nation's Report Card is a vital indicator of educational performance. NAEP provides a uniform assessment across states. Indiana has shown improvement in fourth and eighth grade reading. The test helps identify historical trends in education. Data from NAEP is crucial for policymakers and educators. Indiana's fourth graders ranked sixth in reading nationally. There is a slight dip in eighth grade math scores in Indiana. The test samples a representative population of students. Top performers continue to excel while low performers struggle. Understanding educational performance helps improve the system. Did you find this episode informative? Help us out! Leave a review Share it with your friends Give us a 5-Star rating on your podcatcher of choice For more information about school choice and the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, visit our website at https://www.i4qed.org

Every discussion about the metacrisis ultimately highlights the broader public's lack of awareness about the world's interconnected complexity—and, inevitably, the failures of the education system. A recent study by the National Assessment for Education indicates that American students continue to lag behind in reading and math skills, suggesting that the public school system has not bounced back from pandemic-era disruptions. This is on top of a persistent crisis in recruiting and retaining quality teachers faced by the majority of American school districts. As further cuts to federal education funding loom, Radius of Reason welcomes former teacher and education advocate Connor Nowalk to take stock of this crisis in American public education, and to discuss potential solutions to this integral institution. GUEST INFO: Connor Nowalk

Welcome to a new week of Pencil Busting, Class! We begin where we left off last week, with the "Nation's Report Card", NAEP. The National Assessment of Educational Progress is a standardized test for students across the country in 4th and 8th grade. So why are we talking about yet another standardized test? Because it's part of the National Institute of Education Sciences that President Trump gutted last week. Don't worry, the test will continue. But the people who interpret the data and make it accessible to the public will be replaced with loyalists. What could *possibly* go wrong? BustED Pencils: Fully Leaded Education Talk is part of Civic Media. Subscribe to the podcast to be sure not to miss out on a single episode! To learn more about the show and all of the programming across the Civic Media network, head over to https://civicmedia.us/shows. Join the conversation by calling or texting us at 608-557-8577 to leave a message!

"We are in an undeclared state of emergency in US education." Welcome Tommy Shultz, the CEO for American Federation for Children. The AFC is the largest school choice advocacy group in the USA. Their mission is to bring better educational opportunities to mainly low income families by changing laws and becoming political aggressive so these children can escape the generational poverty and crime they are doomed into. The country currently employs a severely outdated educational system with pedagogies do not support educating children equally. Children born in less privileged counties or zip codes are right away put into a public school system with no resources or attention to individual needs. School choice, aka the AFC, are educating parents and creating more pathways where they can access state allocated money to help them offer children homeschooling, private school, private tutoring, relocating to a different school, commuter options ect. ⁠Forbes⁠ just commented in 2025 that, "The gloom overshadowing K-12 schools begins with declining test scores." We just saw the National Assessment of Educational Progress release, "Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020. This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics." Tune into this powerful conversation! We hope it encourages parents to turn their attention towards AFC's efforts, school choice in your state and to become active in this conversation.

The podcast Sold a Story explores how a generation of children has been taught to read based on a flawed idea. The consequences can be seen in the lives of millions of struggling students across the country. Over a third of Minnesota fourth graders cannot read at a basic level, according to scores released last month by the National Assessment of Education Progress. The Sold a Story series was one of the most-shared shows on Apple Podcasts when it came out in 2023 and one of Time magazine's top podcasts of the year. It spurred 25 states — including Minnesota — to pass new laws regarding reading instruction. The original 10 episodes explain the rise of this entrenched approach to reading instruction, who benefited from it and how it persisted despite cognitive science research that exposed its flaws. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with colleagues who worked on Sold a Story about its impact and new episodes coming out this month looking at solutions. Guests: Emily Hanford is a senior correspondent and producer at APM Reports and the host of Sold a Story. Her career in public radio began in college in Amherst, Massachusetts. She worked for Ira Glass when he was making the pilots for This American Life, was a reporter and host at WBEZ-Chicago and news director and senior editor at WUNC-Chapel Hill. She has been at American Public Media (APM) since 2008. She is based in Washington, D.C.Christopher Peak is an investigative reporter covering education and co-reporter of the Sold a Story series. He previously worked for the New Haven Independent, NationSwell and the Point Reyes Light, and he contributed research for the Peabody Award-winning podcast Uncivil. He is based in New York City.  Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.    Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Visit the Fordham Institute Website, www.FordhamInstitute.org Visit the NAEP Website, www.NCES.ED.Gov/NationsReportCard About The Author Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Executive Editor of Education Next, and research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. An award-winning writer, he is the author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma, editor of the book Education for Upward Mobility, and co-editor of How to Educate an American and Follow the Science to School. An expert on charter schools, school accountability, evidence-based practices, and trends in test scores and other student outcomes, Petrilli has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, and his Education Gadfly column and podcast at Fordham, and appears frequently on television and radio. Petrilli helped to create the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement and the Policy Innovators in Education Network, and serves on the board of the Association of American Educators Foundation. He lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland.

American students are still behind, but there is some hope. That's according to the latest National Assessment of Education Progress Report Card, which tracks the performance of fourth and eighth graders every two years. While there have been some areas of improvement, math and reading scores are still trending lower than before the pandemic. The Department of Education says the results are "heartbreaking," and students who are already behind won't be able to catch up. Education researcher at the American Institute for Research and the University of Washington, Dr. Da Goldhaber, joined host Lisa Brady on the FOX News Rundown this past week to discuss some of the report's "bright spots," but why so many American students continue to struggle and why it will be hard for them to recover fro pandemic learning loss. Goldhaber detailed actions that can be taken locally and by the new administration to improve test scores. He also argued that recruiting and retaining quality teachers is a key part of the solution. We often must cut interviews short during the week, but we thought you might like to hear the full interview. Today on Fox News Rundown Extra, we will share our entire interview with Dr. Dan Goldhaber, helping you better understand America's education crisis and how to remedy it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

American students are still behind, but there is some hope. That's according to the latest National Assessment of Education Progress Report Card, which tracks the performance of fourth and eighth graders every two years. While there have been some areas of improvement, math and reading scores are still trending lower than before the pandemic. The Department of Education says the results are "heartbreaking," and students who are already behind won't be able to catch up. Education researcher at the American Institute for Research and the University of Washington, Dr. Da Goldhaber, joined host Lisa Brady on the FOX News Rundown this past week to discuss some of the report's "bright spots," but why so many American students continue to struggle and why it will be hard for them to recover fro pandemic learning loss. Goldhaber detailed actions that can be taken locally and by the new administration to improve test scores. He also argued that recruiting and retaining quality teachers is a key part of the solution. We often must cut interviews short during the week, but we thought you might like to hear the full interview. Today on Fox News Rundown Extra, we will share our entire interview with Dr. Dan Goldhaber, helping you better understand America's education crisis and how to remedy it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

American students are still behind, but there is some hope. That's according to the latest National Assessment of Education Progress Report Card, which tracks the performance of fourth and eighth graders every two years. While there have been some areas of improvement, math and reading scores are still trending lower than before the pandemic. The Department of Education says the results are "heartbreaking," and students who are already behind won't be able to catch up. Education researcher at the American Institute for Research and the University of Washington, Dr. Da Goldhaber, joined host Lisa Brady on the FOX News Rundown this past week to discuss some of the report's "bright spots," but why so many American students continue to struggle and why it will be hard for them to recover fro pandemic learning loss. Goldhaber detailed actions that can be taken locally and by the new administration to improve test scores. He also argued that recruiting and retaining quality teachers is a key part of the solution. We often must cut interviews short during the week, but we thought you might like to hear the full interview. Today on Fox News Rundown Extra, we will share our entire interview with Dr. Dan Goldhaber, helping you better understand America's education crisis and how to remedy it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of the Celebrate Kids podcast, host Dr. Kathy addresses the concerning trends in student literacy and academic progress revealed by the National Assessment of Education Progress. With recent data highlighting that many children are struggling to read and learn effectively, Dr. Kathy explores the emotional impact this has on parents and students alike. She emphasizes the importance of parental engagement in education, especially when faced with discouraging statistics. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their roles and find ways to be involved in their children's learning journey, even when it feels challenging. Tune in as Dr. Kathy provides insights and strategies for fostering a positive learning environment at home.

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Marty West and Mark Schneider about 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results in 4th and 8th grade reading and math. Nat, Marty, and Mark discuss why math scores went up or stayed flat while reading scores declined; potential bright spots in the […]

Rainy Day Rundown is your weekly update on the latest happenings related to Seattle Public Schools. In this episode:Special School Board Meeting: The School Board listens to public testimony on the proposed Goals and Guardrails  before discussing, amending, and adopting the new Goals and Guardrails for 2025-2030.National Assessment of Educational Progress : We mention the recently released  results of national test scores from the Department of Education. Community Notes: We share what our community is talking about including the controversial school levy on the next ballot and our experiences at the Billion Dollar Bake Sale. See our Show NotesSupport the showContact us at hello@rainydayrecess.org.Rainy Day Recess music by Lester Mayo, logo by Cheryl Jenrow.

Professor Nicholas Giordano, from Campus Reform and Suffolk Community College (NY), joins us to talk about the Department of Education doling out over $200M to universities to inject DEI into counseling courses. Point Of View: Students cannot read or write at grade level, know little about American history, and are unable to pass a basic citizenship exam, yet the Department of Education has prioritized spending over $200 million taxpayer dollars, since 2021, to fund counseling programs for antiracism, microaggressions, white privilege, and whiteness at 48 universities. In fact, the Department of Education has spent over a billion dollars in grants to fund DEI initiatives throughout our education system, from kindergarten through college. The Department of Education is not the only culprit. The Leadership Institute’s Campus Reform has reported how the National Science Foundation has increased its granted funded DEI projects to higher education institutions increased from .29% in 2021 to 27% in 2024. Other agencies have also funneled money to our higher education institutions to promote the DEI industrial complex. This isn’t an investment in our students’ future, it is a racket to fund a far-left political agenda. As a parent and a professor, I would prefer (and demand) that our tax dollars go to a real education that prioritizes academic excellence, critical thinking, and a genuine understanding of history and civics, rather than ideological indoctrination.When my semester began a week ago, only a handful of students were able to pass a citizenship exam. Just days ago, I asked my class, "What is the primary purpose of government," only to be met with silence and blank stares. This is the devastating reality of our education system. It should come as no surprise that 60% of students entering two-year colleges and 40% of those entering four-year institutions have to take at least one remedial course for content they should have learned and mastered in high school. So, they may not be able to read, write, or do math at the college level, but if they are attending Michigan State University, at least students can earn credit for MSU’s racial constructs and racism in healthcare program. Given last week’s news from the National Assessment for Educational Progress that America has once again hit historic lows in student proficiency, it is time for the Trump administration and Congress to take bold action. Campus Reform is reporting that the Trump administration has begun drafting an executive order that will begin to pare down the Department of Education and encourage Congress to pass legislation that eliminates the Department of Education. Critics argue that the closure of the Department of Education will lead to a student body unable to read and write. I hate to break it to them, but that’s the current reality, and comes as the Department of Education’s budget has increased over 200% since 1990. Congress must also reevaluate the use of grant funding to our higher education institutions. Federal tax dollars should not be used to indoctrinate students or compel our higher education institutions to develop tools to silence and censor Americans. Instead, every grant provided to higher education should be based on improving student outcomes that can be measured. Any institution that prioritizes activism over academics should lose any federal funding they receive until they get back to the core mission of academia. Taxpayers should not subsidize any political party, ideology, or agenda. The time for half-measures is over, and if we are serious about fixing our broken education system, we can no longer tolerate the waste, fraud, and abuse, that has left an entire generation thoroughly unprepared for the real world. More info on Campus Reform here: https://www.campusreform.org/ (https://www.campusreform.org/profile/5457422) (@PasReport) Check out his podcast "The PAS Report Podcast" here: https://pasreport.com/biography-nicholas-giordano-political-commentator/ NewsTalkSTL website: https://newstalkstl.com/ Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsTalkSTL Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NewstalkSTL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewsTalkSTL Livestream 24/7: bit.ly/NEWSTALKSTLSTREAMSSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

(6:05am) MORNING NEWS DUMP Several St. Louis County department leaders don't want you to vote on changing the County Charter in April. Six of them filed a lawsuit to block Proposition B. Stephen Miller comments on the USAID financial fiasco. Missouri now has its own web version of DOGE. Trump takes action to prevent men from participating in women's sports, girls' sports, or being able to access their locker rooms. BIG win for women. Promises made, promises kept. The Left scrambled to put together protests in all 50 states yesterday because...you know...their shenanigans are being exposed every day. Netanyahu comments on Trump's ideas about the future of Gaza. Wrong suspect locked up in St. Louis! Chris Gatlin spent 17 months in jail for a crime that an artificial intelligence program said he committed, only to be freed after the prosecutor learned there was no real evidence! Story here: https://fox2now.com/news/fox-files/jailed-over-police-ai-program-then-freed-17-months-after-victim-raised-doubts/ Blues host the Florida Panthers tonight at Enterprise Center at 7pm. (6:20am) Trump signs EO to get men out of women's sports and locker rooms. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the signing and noted that the EO would signal "the end of a disgusting betrayal of women and girls.” Promises made...promises kept. Sanity restored...biology confirmed. Story here: https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2025/02/05/trump-signs-eo-protecting-womens-sports-n2185259 (6:35am) Professor Nicholas Giordano, from Campus Reform and Suffolk Community College (NY), joins us to talk about the Department of Education doling out over $200M to universities to inject DEI into counseling courses. Point Of View: Students cannot read or write at grade level, know little about American history, and are unable to pass a basic citizenship exam, yet the Department of Education has prioritized spending over $200 million taxpayer dollars, since 2021, to fund counseling programs for antiracism, microaggressions, white privilege, and whiteness at 48 universities. In fact, the Department of Education has spent over a billion dollars in grants to fund DEI initiatives throughout our education system, from kindergarten through college. The Department of Education is not the only culprit. The Leadership Institute’s Campus Reform has reported how the National Science Foundation has increased its granted funded DEI projects to higher education institutions increased from .29% in 2021 to 27% in 2024. Other agencies have also funneled money to our higher education institutions to promote the DEI industrial complex. This isn’t an investment in our students’ future, it is a racket to fund a far-left political agenda. As a parent and a professor, I would prefer (and demand) that our tax dollars go to a real education that prioritizes academic excellence, critical thinking, and a genuine understanding of history and civics, rather than ideological indoctrination.When my semester began a week ago, only a handful of students were able to pass a citizenship exam. Just days ago, I asked my class, "What is the primary purpose of government," only to be met with silence and blank stares. This is the devastating reality of our education system. It should come as no surprise that 60% of students entering two-year colleges and 40% of those entering four-year institutions have to take at least one remedial course for content they should have learned and mastered in high school. So, they may not be able to read, write, or do math at the college level, but if they are attending Michigan State University, at least students can earn credit for MSU’s racial constructs and racism in healthcare program. Given last week’s news from the National Assessment for Educational Progress that America has once again hit historic lows in student proficiency, it is time for the Trump administration and Congress to take bold action. Campus Reform is reporting that the Trump administration has begun drafting an executive order that will begin to pare down the Department of Education and encourage Congress to pass legislation that eliminates the Department of Education. Critics argue that the closure of the Department of Education will lead to a student body unable to read and write. I hate to break it to them, but that’s the current reality, and comes as the Department of Education’s budget has increased over 200% since 1990. Congress must also reevaluate the use of grant funding to our higher education institutions. Federal tax dollars should not be used to indoctrinate students or compel our higher education institutions to develop tools to silence and censor Americans. Instead, every grant provided to higher education should be based on improving student outcomes that can be measured. Any institution that prioritizes activism over academics should lose any federal funding they receive until they get back to the core mission of academia. Taxpayers should not subsidize any political party, ideology, or agenda. The time for half-measures is over, and if we are serious about fixing our broken education system, we can no longer tolerate the waste, fraud, and abuse, that has left an entire generation thoroughly unprepared for the real world. More info on Campus Reform here: https://www.campusreform.org/ (https://www.campusreform.org/profile/5457422) (@PasReport) Check out his podcast "The PAS Report Podcast" here: https://pasreport.com/biography-nicholas-giordano-political-commentator/ (6:50am) MORNING NEWS DUMP Several St. Louis County department leaders don't want you to vote on changing the County Charter in April. Six of them filed a lawsuit to block Proposition B. Stephen Miller comments on the USAID financial fiasco. Missouri now has its own web version of DOGE. Trump takes action to prevent men from participating in women's sports, girls' sports, or being able to access their locker rooms. BIG win for women. Promises made, promises kept. The Left scrambled to put together protests in all 50 states yesterday because...you know...their shenanigans are being exposed every day. Netanyahu comments on Trump's ideas about the future of Gaza. Wrong suspect locked up in St. Louis! Chris Gatlin spent 17 months in jail for a crime that an artificial intelligence program said he committed, only to be freed after the prosecutor learned there was no real evidence! Story here: https://fox2now.com/news/fox-files/jailed-over-police-ai-program-then-freed-17-months-after-victim-raised-doubts/ Blues host the Florida Panthers tonight at Enterprise Center at 7pm. NewsTalkSTL website: https://newstalkstl.com/ Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsTalkSTL Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NewstalkSTL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewsTalkSTL Livestream 24/7: bit.ly/NEWSTALKSTLSTREAMSSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Marty West and Mark Schneider about 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results in 4th and 8th grade reading and math. Nat, Marty, and Mark discuss why math scores went up or stayed flat while reading scores declined; potential bright spots in the 2024 results; whether recent score declines should be attributed to factors external to schooling; what makes NAEP the gold standard assessment of US students; what the Florida Commissioner of Education's recent critique of NAEP gets wrong (and right); how NAEP compares to state assessments; NAEP Proficiency and the increasing number of students performing Below Basic; potential lessons from 2024 NAEP results; and more.Martin West is the vice chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees NAEP. He is also the academic dean and Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the editor-in-chief of Education Next, and a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.Mark Schneider is a nonresident Senior Fellow at AEI. Previously, he was commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which administers NAEP, and was later the director of the Institute of Education Sciences, which houses NCES.Show Notes:NAEP Math ResultsNAEP Reading ResultsStates' Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational ProgressMake the National Assessment of Educational Progress Great Again

A judge has ruled that MLG overreached in attempting to force districts to adopt 5 day school weeks.  Paul and Wally discuss the latest from the Roundhouse.  National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores came out last week. New Mexico again brings up the rear.  Tennessee becomes 13th state in US to adopt universal school choice. According to the latest EV sales numbers New Mexico is nowhere near the mark.  SB 139 introduced this session would overturn the Gov.'s EV mandates. Surprisingly New Mexico is not ranked very highly as a retirement destination. Ilya Shapiro will be speaking at an RGF event on Feb. 21.

President Trump's threat to impose tariffs on foreign adversaries has become a reality. Last week, his cabinet nominees faced challenges during their confirmation hearings. Republican strategist and co-founder of South and Hill Strategies Colin Reed joins the Rundown to discuss the early actions of the Trump Administration. He implies that President Trump's deportation plan appeals to voters; however, they elected him to fix the economy and expect results. Later, Colin suggests potential challenges in the first 100 days of his presidency that could derail his goals, highlighting the importance of securing an early win for the Republican Party with tax cuts.  The National Assessment of Education Progress is given to fourth and eighth graders every two years. The results are dubbed the nation's report card, and math and reading scores trend lower than pre-pandemic levels. The Department of Education says the results are "heartbreaking," and students who are already behind won't be able to catch up. Education researcher at the American Institute for Research and the University of Washington, Dan Goldhaber, joins to discuss what states are the "bright spots," why it's hard for students to recover from pandemic learning loss, and the importance of quality teachers.   Plus, commentary from the host of “Tomi Lahren is Fearless on Outkick,” Tomi Lahren. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Martin R. West, the editor-in-chief of Education Next and member of the National Assessment Governing Board, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the latest release of National Assessment of Educational Progress data.

Black History Month/ Storm a Brewin': Forecasters say there's a growing chance that rain will return to Southern California next week as a cold front moves through the region, bringing the second storm of the winter season. Hellfire: A social media campaign has been launched by members of the Historic Core Business Improvement District to get people searching for housing to consider moving into one of L.A.'s oldest neighborhoods, where century-old office and retail buildings on blocks south of City Hall have been converted to apartments. LA Law: The Law Makers, Law Breakers and times that there oughta be a law. Dumb Kids: Like most of the nation, California students were stuck in low gear again in 2024. On the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), they performed significantly below their pre-pandemic scores in math and reading.

President Trump's threat to impose tariffs on foreign adversaries has become a reality. Last week, his cabinet nominees faced challenges during their confirmation hearings. Republican strategist and co-founder of South and Hill Strategies Colin Reed joins the Rundown to discuss the early actions of the Trump Administration. He implies that President Trump's deportation plan appeals to voters; however, they elected him to fix the economy and expect results. Later, Colin suggests potential challenges in the first 100 days of his presidency that could derail his goals, highlighting the importance of securing an early win for the Republican Party with tax cuts.  The National Assessment of Education Progress is given to fourth and eighth graders every two years. The results are dubbed the nation's report card, and math and reading scores trend lower than pre-pandemic levels. The Department of Education says the results are "heartbreaking," and students who are already behind won't be able to catch up. Education researcher at the American Institute for Research and the University of Washington, Dan Goldhaber, joins to discuss what states are the "bright spots," why it's hard for students to recover from pandemic learning loss, and the importance of quality teachers.   Plus, commentary from the host of “Tomi Lahren is Fearless on Outkick,” Tomi Lahren. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Trump's threat to impose tariffs on foreign adversaries has become a reality. Last week, his cabinet nominees faced challenges during their confirmation hearings. Republican strategist and co-founder of South and Hill Strategies Colin Reed joins the Rundown to discuss the early actions of the Trump Administration. He implies that President Trump's deportation plan appeals to voters; however, they elected him to fix the economy and expect results. Later, Colin suggests potential challenges in the first 100 days of his presidency that could derail his goals, highlighting the importance of securing an early win for the Republican Party with tax cuts.  The National Assessment of Education Progress is given to fourth and eighth graders every two years. The results are dubbed the nation's report card, and math and reading scores trend lower than pre-pandemic levels. The Department of Education says the results are "heartbreaking," and students who are already behind won't be able to catch up. Education researcher at the American Institute for Research and the University of Washington, Dan Goldhaber, joins to discuss what states are the "bright spots," why it's hard for students to recover from pandemic learning loss, and the importance of quality teachers.   Plus, commentary from the host of “Tomi Lahren is Fearless on Outkick,” Tomi Lahren. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DC Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker and Ward 5 State Board of Education Representative Robert Henderson connect over the tragic plan crash at DCA that occurred Wednesday, January 29, 2025. They also discuss recent National Assessment for Educational Progress scores for DC students showing significant growth. Representative Henderson welcomes thoughts and feedback at robert.henderson@dc.gov. Communications Director Melissa Littlepage gives an overview of highlights in this week's edition of the Ward 5 Weekly Newsletter. Read at ward5.us/news and subscribe at ward5.us/newsletter.

January 31, 2025 ~ According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Michigan students are struggling to keep up with their peers nationwide. Guy, Lloyd, and Jamie talk with West Michigan Policy Forum policy consultant Jase Bolger about why students are lacking reading skills, and Governor Whitmer's plans to boost funding.

The policies coming out of Washington, D.C. have the potential to affect Americans who have not even been born yet, whether for good or bad.    The latest National Report Card from the National Assessment of Educational Progress pains an abysmal picture of education across the U.S.   The report card is published every two years and assesses the average reading and math scores for fourth and eighth graders. The report showed significant declines for students when it was published in 2022, but the decline was somewhat expected in the wake of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the assessment completed in 2024 and published Wednesday show little to no improvement for student's math and reading proficiency.  In 2024, 39% percent of fourth grade students performed at or above the proficient math level that is set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This is 3% higher compared to 2022, but 2 percentage points lower than in 2019.  Eighth grade math scores are at 28% proficiency, which is about the same as 2022 scores, but eight points lower compared to 2019.  Reading scores showed an even greater decline than math.    In 2024, 31% of fourth grade students performed at or above the proficient level on the reading assessment. This is a 2 percentage point decline compared to 2022 and 4 percentage points lower than 2019, according to the report card.    And 30% of eighth grade students performed at or above the proficient level in 2024, which was not significantly different from 2022, but lower compared to 2019.   But not all the news coming out of the government is negative for our kids right now. Take the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.   Kennedy, who President Donald Trump has tapped to head the Department of Health and Human Services, testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday. He argued that the U.S. healthcare and food system needs to do a better job of keeping American's healthy, and this can begin by taking practical steps to remove processed foods from school lunch programs.    Or take the executive order Trump signed Tuesday to ban the use of federal dollars to fund or support irreversible transgender medical interventions for children.    On this week's edition of "Problematic Women," Madison Marino Doan, co-author of "Slacking: A Guide to Ivy League Miseducation," joins the show as we breakdown the ways the biggest pieces of news coming out of Washington could affect the next generation for years to come.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New results from the Nation's report card show Minnesota students are still struggling in math and reading after the pandemic.  Average scores in fourth and eighth grade reading and math for Minnesota were not significantly different in 2024 than the last time students took the National Assessment of Education Progress tests in 2022. Republicans in the Minnesota House are supporting a legislative package to strengthen public safety measures in the state.And the St. Paul-based Center for Victims of Torture says it has cut staff by 75 percent because of President Donald Trump's executive orders. This is an MPR News morning update, hosted by Phil Picardi. Music by Gary Meister.Find these headlines and more at mprnews.org.Minnesota reading, math scores stagnant five years after the pandemicCenter for Victims of Torture dramatically slashes workforce after Trump administration ordersRead the latest edition of the Minnesota Today newsletter.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or RSS.

4:20 pm: Senator Brady Brammer is running a bill that would ban Utah residents from registering vehicles in the state of Montana to avoid paying state sales taxes, and he joins the program to discuss his reasons for sponsoring the bill.4:38 pm: Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies joins the show to discuss how President Trump's mass deportation plan can bring relief to Americans.6:05 pm: Dr. Lance Izumi, Director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute joins Rod and Greg to discuss the results of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress report which shows U.S. students have still not recovered academically from impacts of the Covid pandemic.6:38 pm: Ramsey Touchberry, Congressional Reporter for the Washington Examiner, joins the program to discuss today's confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

It's been nearly five years since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted learning for children. New data known as the Nation's Report Card shows that across the nation, fourth and eighth graders in 2024 still performed below pre-pandemic levels. That's also true for Minnesota. Across the state, students' test scores did not significantly change from two years prior. The last time the test was conducted in 2022, students around the country showed steep learning losses from the pandemic. Many experts had hoped to see students rebounding from some of those losses in 2024. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which provides data for the Nation's Report Card, is mandated by Congress and is the largest nationally-representative test of student learning. The assessments in math and reading are given every two years to a broad sample of students in fourth and eighth grade.For more on these results and what they might mean for Minnesota's students, MPR News host Nina Moini talks with Julio Caésar, executive director or research, evaluation and assessment for Bloomington Public Schools.

Did you know that there are scientists who study teamwork? Co-hosts Anne Chappelle, PhD, and David Faulkner, PhD, DABT, speak with Stephen Fiore, PhD, Director, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, about the art and science of working in teams and what you can do to improve teamwork in your lab, department, etc.About the GuestStephen M. Fiore, PhD, is Director, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, and Professor with the University of Central Florida's Cognitive Sciences Program in the Department of Philosophy and School of Modeling, Simulation, and Training. He maintains a multidisciplinary research interest that incorporates aspects of the cognitive, social, organizational, and computational sciences in the investigation of learning and performance in individuals and teams. His primary area of research is the interdisciplinary study of complex collaborative cognition and the understanding of how humans interact socially and with technology.Dr. Fiore is Immediate Past President of the International Network for the Science of Team Science, and Past President for the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research. In 2018, Dr. Fiore was nominated to DARPA's Information Sciences and Technology (ISAT) Study Group to help the Department of Defense examine future areas of technological development potentially influencing national security. He has been a visiting scholar for the study of shared and extended cognition at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in Lyon, France (2010), and an invited visitor to the internationally renowned interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute (2013). He was a member of the expert panel for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which focused on collaborative problem-solving skills. He has contributed to working groups for the National Academies of Sciences in understanding and measuring "21st-Century Skills" and was a committee member of their "Science of Team Science" consensus study, as well as a member of the National Assessment of Educational Progress report on "Collaborative Problem Solving".Dr. Fiore has been awarded the University of Central Florida (UCF) prestigious Research Incentive Award four times to acknowledge his significant accomplishments, and he is recipient of UCF's Luminary Award (2019), as recognition for his work having a significant impact on the world, and UCF's Reach for the Stars Award (2014), as recognition for bringing international prominence to the university. As Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Fiore has helped to secure and manage approximately $35 million in research funding. He is co-author of a book on “Accelerating Expertise” (2013) and is a co-editor of volumes on Shared Cognition (2012), Macrocognition in Teams (2008), Distributed Training (2007), and Team Cognition (2004). Dr. Fiore has also co-authored over 200 scholarly publications in the area of learning, memory, and problem solving in individuals and groups.Send SOT thoughts on the episodes, ideas for future topics, and more.

In 2022, 37% of 4th graders performed below basic reading levels, and 25% fell short in math—the worst results since 1990. Tonight, a look at alternatives to traditional public school, like "unschooling” and A.I. led education. In 2022, the National Assessment of Educational Progress looked at 4th graders and reported that 37% performed below basic reading levels and 25% performed below basic levels in math. That's the worst result since the assessments started in 1990. You might say the public school model, as it stands right now, is broken. So, what do you? Tonight, we explore interesting alternatives to traditional schooling like “unschooling” and artificial intelligence-based education. Thank you to our sponsors: Tax Network: https://tnusa.com/drphil  or call 1-800-958-1000 for a free consultation. Jase Case: https://Jase.com | Code: PHIL  

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE).The edLeader Panel recording can be accessed here.We are in the midst of a literacy crisis. Roughly 40% of students nationwide struggle to read. Recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals that nine- and 13-year-olds' average reading scores declined by four points in the 2022-2023 school year compared to the 2019-2020 school year, and by seven points compared to 10 years ago. Improving literacy in school districts quickly and effectively will require a sense of urgency, transformative leadership, and a reliance on proven, research-based strategies.Join us for an edWeb podcast that brings together educational leaders and experts to share their experiences in transforming literacy outcomes in their district. Listeners hear proven strategies, innovative approaches, and real-world examples that have led to significant improvements in student reading and comprehension.You hear firsthand accounts of the challenges they faced, the initiatives they implemented, and the key factors that contributed to their success. Whether you are an educator, administrator, teacher, or anyone passionate about advancing literacy, this edWeb podcast offers valuable insights to help you drive similar outcomes in your own schools.Institute for Multi-Sensory EducationIMSE helps educators learn to teach reading & improve reading proficiency across all student levels.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

In this episode of the Award-winning PRS Journal Club Podcast, 2024 Resident Ambassadors to the PRS Editorial Board – Rami Kantar, Yoshi Toyoda, and Amanda Sergesketter- and special guest, Scott Bartlett, MD, discuss the following articles from the November 2024 issue: “A National Assessment of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Cleft Lip Repair” by Peck, Parsaei, Jazayeri, et al. Read the article for FREE: https://bit.ly/RacialCleftLipRepair Special guest, Dr. Scott Bartlett, is the former chair of Plastic Surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is the director of the craniofacial program at CHOP where he also holds The Mary Downs Endowed Chair in Pediatric Craniofacial Treatment and Research, in addition to being a Professor of Plastic Surgery at The Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania. He obtained his medical degree at Washington University in St. Louis followed by plastic surgery training at The Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and pediatric and craniomaxillofacial surgery fellowship at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Bartlett is an international authority in craniofacial surgery and won the AAPS Clinician of the Year award in 2023. READ the articles discussed in this podcast as well as free related content: https://bit.ly/JCNov24Collection

Attendees at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago will have the opportunity to get a free abortion or vasectomy just blocks away from the event — and vasectomy appointments are filling up fast. In the name of consumer protection, a slew of U.S. federal agencies are working to make it easier for Americans to click the unsubscribe button for unwanted memberships and recurring payment services. On the 2022 National Assessment of Education Progress, known as the Nation's Report Card, nearly 70% of eighth-graders scored below “proficient” and, of those, 30% scored “below basic.” The average parent says their family spends 17 hours per week managing family schedules and other back-to-school stressors driving 60% of parents to tears.

Catch our conversation with Montana State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen as she discusses new opportunities for Montana teachers to utilize ESSER funds, provides an update on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and more. Tune in for crucial insights on the future of education in Montana!

Dear Heavenly Followers, We're back with another divine dispatch from The God Pod! In our latest episode, God and Jesus dive into a mix of divine humor and righteous rants, covering everything from Louisiana's latest classroom mandate to the broader implications of such moves. Here's your holy recap:

Today we launch a special series on the five civic dispositions of the National Assessment for Educational Progress Civics Framework. The first civic disposition stresses the importance of becoming an independent member of society. Listen for more! Center for Civic Education

Dr. Maia Dorsett and our newest PEC Podcast member, Dr. Rachel Stemerman, explore the manuscript A National Assessment of EMS Performance at the Response and Agency Level  with the authors Michael Redlener MD Medical Director of Emergency Medicine Mount Sinai West & Remle Crowe PhD Director of Clinical and Operational Research at ESO Click here to download it today! Please visit NEMSQA.org for more information to improve the experience and outcomes of patients and care providers. As always THANK YOU for listening. Hawnwan Philip Moy MD (@pecpodcast) Scott Goldberg MD, MPH (@EMS_Boston) Jeremiah Escajeda MD, MPH (@jerescajeda) Joelle Donofrio-Odmann DO (@PEMems) Maia Dorsett MD PhD (@maiadorsett) Lekshmi Kumar MD, MPH(@Gradymed1) Greg Muller DO (@DrMuller_DO) Ariana Weber MD (@aweberMD4) Rebecca Cash PhD (@CashRebeccaE) Michael Kim MD (@michaelkim_md) Rachel Stemerman PhD (@steminformatics) Nikolai Arendovich MD Elijah Robinson MD

In this episode of the Just Schools Podcast, host Jon Eckert interviews Krystle Moos, an award-winning science teacher known for her innovative and engaging teaching methods. The discussion revolves around Krystle's approach to creating a dynamic learning environment that fosters curiosity, belonging, and genuine learning experiences for her students. Krystle emphasizes the importance of addressing distractions and creating a sense of belonging in the classroom, regardless of the evolving landscape of technology. She shares her strategy of making science hands-on and exploratory, moving away from traditional labs towards phenomenon-based learning to spark wonder and curiosity in her students. To learn more, order Jon's book, Just Teaching: Feedback, Engagement, and Well-Being for Each Student.   The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Each week, we'll talk to catalytic educators who are doing amazing work.   Be encouraged. Connect with us: Baylor MA in School Leadership Baylor Doctorate in Education Jon Eckert: @eckertjon Center for School Leadership at Baylor University: @baylorcsl Mentioned: Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers by Jo Boaler     Transcription: Jon Eckert: Welcome back to the Just Schools Podcast. We're really excited today because in our podcast studio/my office, we have the award-winning amazing science teacher, Krystle Moos. A huge blessing to be able to work with her through our master's program. She's also a local educator that's impacted many, many kids' lives over the last several years. So, Krystle, thank you for being here first of all. Krystle Moos: Oh, it's honestly an honor and a joy to share education and our experiences with everybody we can. Jon Eckert: Yeah. Oh, and I should mention you're also... My kids got to pick one teacher that they dedicated the book just teaching to, and so one of my daughters picked Ms. Moos as her most just teacher. So teacher that leads to justice and flourishing, not just a teacher, but the most impactful teacher that she had. So she had selected Ms. Moos. And now my other daughter is getting the benefit from Ms. Moos as well. So I think this is the first educator that I've been able to interview that's taught my own children. So you can feel free to share any shortcomings as a parent that I have that you see through my children. But really, what I want to talk to you today about is you've been teaching for a while, and you've won these awards and these accolades for being a great teacher, which are well deserved. But I'm curious, what do you see that's different about kids today than when you first started teaching? Krystle Moos: Yeah, I don't think there's much that's different, honestly. They have different distractions. And so I started my first five years at Waco ISD. It was a title one school, and their distractions were very different than when I moved to Midway ISD. It's more of a suburban school. They didn't have as many phones back then. Not everybody had a phone. We weren't assigning digital assignments when I first went to Midway, but they still had other distractions. I had distractions when I was a student. It was writing notes and finding cute ways to fold them and sneak them along, and we still... I would leave and go to the library to write a paper. And so, I think they're the same. They're still distracted. They still have the same fundamental belonging in the classroom. And when we look at students and we look at what they're facing, and I do think they're facing more, everything's just way more visible in their life and way more connected, which can be really distracting. But then I think about sitting in my course, three math class, and writing notes to my friends and folding them, and I definitely was not engaged. I think that sense of belonging in any classes where that teacher really made me feel like things were meaningful, they really cared about what I was doing, and what I was learning, and where I was going really were the most impactful classrooms that helped me center. And so, whether it was 17 years ago when I started or today before I get to the content, you have to get to the belonging and why we're doing things, and then the distractions fade away. Jon Eckert: Well, I like that you went back to the part that makes us human, which we all have this desire to belong. We want to be seen and known by other people, and that's an innate need. I think that's true. I think the distraction is also true, depending on how engaged we are in the classroom. We're looking for distraction. I think the challenge that I see is I don't think kids are different. I would agree, and I hope that's an encouragement to educators today that the kids aren't different. I do think the ability to distract them has increased significantly because we didn't walk around in our pocket with this device that engineers are paying billions of dollars to turn us as kids into the product. Their attention is that we didn't have that. You had the paper and pencil and the pen and the origami folding, which you could distract yourself, but nobody's being paid to distract you. Krystle Moos: Yeah. And I think that is something that we battle in my classroom. I make you grab your phone and show me it on days where I notice that things are going to be a little bit harder and I need them all in. I'll say, "Grab your phone. If you're not reaching in your bag, you're doing something wrong. Get your phone in your bag." When I walked in here today, I took my watch off. And so I think it's training people on when it's appropriate to use devices and when we need to put it away and really focus on what we're learning on each other, so that way the experience is more meaningful. Jon Eckert: Well, and I think in your classroom... Again, as a middle school science teacher, I never rose to the level of high school teacher, but I was a middle school science teacher. What I loved about middle school science is it's hands-on. You're doing things. You're experimenting. You're demonstrating. You're seeing how this works, and you did it this way this time, and now you do it this other way, this other time, and what's different, and you're recording it, and you're observing. And so it's designed to capture your attention. It requires your attention. So talk about some of the ways you make science come alive through the ways you make it hands-on in your class. Krystle Moos: So I went to school, where I loved all my teachers. I was a very compliant student, and I just did what I was told to do, and I was horrible at lab. I was the student that would finish a lab, have all the numbers, and then go sit and bother the teacher until they told me exactly what step to do to get the result. When I started teaching, I took all labs and took the instructions away. I would do all the labs first. And I really made it more about exploring and modeling and less about manipulation of equipment. And so, I felt like a lot of labs were cookie-cutter labs. You just followed the instructions, and then it kind of connected to the content, but not at all. For me, it wasn't until I started teaching that I understood all the big connections. As I rewrite labs, I take away the instructions. I make them target labs, or we'll spend multiple days or minutes, even just minutes, looking at a phenomenon, something as simple as ice melting on a block of plastic versus a block of metal. And then we draw, and we discuss, and we show transfer of energy. And so a lot more of the class is discussing revising models. And then I can drive the conversation of what's happening based on student misconceptions, and it makes it less paper pencil working through practice problems and more relatable, so I can say things like, "Do you remember in class when we did this thing? What did you learn, and how can you apply it to this problem?" Jon Eckert: Why do you think more teachers don't do this? Again, science lends itself to this, but a lot of science teachers, it's all procedures. It's all trying to track what you did when you did it. Be very careful in your observations, but it's not this exploration of the bigger concepts. Why do you think teachers don't do that more in whatever discipline they're in? Krystle Moos: Yeah, I think we do what we were taught. And so I think for a lot of people, it's just really easy to take what's out there and do it, and it worked. And so why change it? And for me, it didn't work for me. And I hated that I spent hours in college in lab, not understanding why I was doing it. And I wanted my students to have a different experience. And I wanted them to see the science around them coming to life so that when they walk outside and it's snowing, they're thinking about the transfer of energy and what's actually happening with the individual water molecules. And I just know I have to change what happened to me so that my students could see all the things that I'm seeing now. We were just driving down the road. I drove from Denver to New York. And I looked out the window and saw a huge solar panel, a whole field, really, of solar panels. And I got this incredible idea that when I do a topic, I could actually have the students do those little... You know the car where this has a little solar panel, and when light strikes it, it bobbles its head? Well, I could have them explore with different color light on the end of flashlights to figure out a new relationship, a new lab that might make a little bit more sense to the students than the way I had been doing it by just discussing it. Jon Eckert: So what I love about what you've described already is you talked about this human piece that we want to belong. And then I think you also are tapping into this idea of wonder. How do we create a sense of awe and wonder about how things work? Not just, "Oh, that's amazing and that's beautiful," but what makes that work? And when kids start doing that, I think that's how five-year-olds are. They have this curiosity that somehow school rings out of them. And I do think you're right that sometimes we just replicate what we experience as students. But I also think there's a fear of turning over control to students, where it's a lot easier to bore kids into compliance or make sure they follow these steps. And you can see, "Oh, they're not following the steps. They're not complying," where someone might walk into your classroom and be like, "What is going on here?" There's so much happening, there's so much energy. And that creates a sense of loss of control. And if I did that in my classroom, it would just get out of hand. And they fear that loss of control. Do you think that's true, or am I overstating what some teachers might be feeling? Krystle Moos: I think it's a little bit of that, and I think it's having those procedures in place. I go everywhere and in populations of adults, obviously, if you can hear me clap once, and it works every single time. But it's also that awkwardness and that a willingness to try something new. Science is about experimentation. I think education is about experimentation. So today, you said wonder. One of the things that I ask my students to do when they model or when they observe a phenomenon, the first thing I ask them is to write down two things they notice and then two things they wonder. And when we start to do that, we start to get them to think. And today, I even messed up in class. I said, "What do you guys notice?" And instead of giving them time to talk to each other first, I asked that question to the whole class complete in utter silence. And so in the next class period I was like, "I got to do this better," so I gave them some time to talk together, "and I need three answers. I need three people to respond when you're done." I had eight people that just... I had to let them answer all eight of them. And so it's looking at what works and what doesn't work. It also is getting together with other educators. And so, so much of what I do has been revised by talking to teachers across the nation, not just in chemistry, also in biology, and really driving those conversations about, "What do you do? My students struggle with this. Do you have a lab or an activity or a way to teach it? Tell me how you teach it." And being okay, saying, "My students are struggling. What I'm doing is not working. I need some new ideas so that I can get my students to the point of wonder." Jon Eckert: Well, I think isn't that ultimately the goal for each of us is that whatever our subject is to get them to wonder. Because if we really want to tap into intrinsic motivation, we can intrinsically motivate them. That's, by definition, impossible. But if you can create the conditions like you did in the second class period where you set it up where it wasn't about you, it was about what they wanted to share, that creates conditions where they might be intrinsically motivated by the concept that they're studying. Because again, intrinsic motivation isn't "I want to be good at science so that I can get into college and then become a doctor." That's all delayed extrinsic motivation. It's, "Do I really have this awe and wonder about what I'm doing?" And I think that's more likely to happen in a class where they feel like they belong. I will say too, my daughters have both said they love Ms. Moos because of your kind of nerdy love for so many things. And I think that's great because I think you've done a great job modeling that you're not trying to be cool, as whatever an 18-year-old thinks is cool. It's, "No, I think this is amazing," and that passion comes across to them. It's like, "Wow, I've never known anybody quite like that." And then that makes it okay for them to be excited about things that really get them going. Have you seen that pay dividends? Do you ever struggle with that? I mean, I was clearly not a cool person by the standards of middle school kids, but I felt like I tried to make it okay to be quirky and be a little different and weird. Have you seen that pay dividends for you? Krystle Moos: I think I'm just quirky and weird. I'm okay. Just I am who I am, and I don't want my students to think that they have to be anything different than what they are. And having that belonging means that they get to see my weird. They get to see me on my best days when I'm just so excited, and they get to see me on some days that are a little bit harder. And so I really... I guess I didn't think I was that quirky, but I like it. I tell them, "I run science UIL. We're the nerd herd, and we are going to embrace it and love it." And the thing is that science and math and those are the places that I live and breathe. And man, if you want to come with me, great. If not, just appreciate the fact that I'm really excited about something, and I'm happy to hear about what you're excited about too. Jon Eckert: And I think that's part of the belonging you create in your classroom. And I may still remember you were talking to us about the eclipse that's coming. Krystle Moos: Path of totality. Jon Eckert: We've been talking about the path of totality in our house ever since, and- Krystle Moos: I'm not even a space person. Just you know, I've never taken a day of a space science class, but I am so excited. I didn't know when we had the annual eclipse. I don't know if you saw the pictures. But when the annual eclipse shines through the trees, the shadow is actually representative of what's happening in the sky because you're not supposed to look at it directly. Jon Eckert: Interesting. Krystle Moos: And so I didn't know that. And that stuff, what I didn't know, I didn't know. And what I've learned, I'm just so excited to share. It's path of totality on April 8th. I'm so excited. Jon Eckert: Space science, I never took anything in space science. I never taught it. And again, if you haven't taught something, it's hard to really know it. So I'm with you, but it is fascinating. And I just love that the energy you bring to that, but it's not just for the subject because sometimes people say, "Oh, elementary teachers teach the kids, and high school teachers teach the subject." It's like, no, you still teach kids, but you teach them to be passionate about what they're interested in. And you bring a passion to the science that I think is it effervesces in a way that it draws people in. So one of the things you talked about before we jumped on is the way you give feedback based on this. So again, it's really way easier to give meaningful feedback when you have kids who are deeply engaged. But how do you give feedback in a way that helps kids grow and stretch in ways that are hard and uncomfortable but pays big dividends in the end? Krystle Moos: Yeah, I think anytime something's tied to a grade, you have a chance of not seeing what students really know and don't know. When we start deducting points for showing what you don't know, I just feel like it's asking students to copy from someone else because it has a stake in it, even if it's just a practice grade, especially when we get to evaluation grades. I don't want to be surprised on a test if a student didn't know something that I thought that they knew because they completed all their assignments. So I like to frequently stop, give the questions, give two or three questions to the students, and say, "Take it like a test. Take it like a quiz. Go in a corner. Don't get help from anybody. Just get as far as you can." And so we do this once or twice a week. In AP chemistry, we do it all the time. I'm like, "Okay, you're going to do a CF..." We call it a CFU, a check for understanding. And what I do is they are low-stakes, very low-stakes, or no-stakes grades. And so, I'll get someone that turns it in completely blank, and they tried. They read the question. They'll have circled things, but they don't even know where to get started. I know that when I hand it back the next day, I'm going to pull that kid for a small group and work with them. It takes six weeks to drive out from students. That's okay to not know. It's not okay to not ask for help. And I'm still slowly getting the kids to kind of get rid of that. I would rather have you turn in assignments late. I would rather have you learn it later than now if you're not ready for it now, as long as you're willing to work on it later. And it has just been incredible. Students will get... The class average on a CFA will be 50%. And I will feel so bad about myself because that means I taught it horribly the first time. But maybe I'll do peer-to-peer tutoring, or maybe I'll pull small group, or maybe I'll go over the CFA together. And it was the way the question was worded. And then on the test, the class average is a 90. So at first, I was like, "Maybe my tests aren't hard enough." But that feedback that constantly having students do it low-stakes, working with them, conferencing with them, and then having them learn from their mistakes has just been so impactful on their overall grades. They don't freak out for tests like they used to. Jon Eckert: And I know you don't teach for an AP score. I know that's not what motivates you, but your kids do well on AP exams. And that's the kind of teacher that I like to see because that AP exam is validation that, "Hey, they learned a lot." And it's not about grade inflation because we have this really problematic thing going on in high schools right now where there's a ton of cheating going on. There's a tacit endorsement among some teachers like, "Hey, I don't care how you get the answers, just get the answers and let's move on." So you have graduation rates that are off the charts because kids are moving through, and the National Assessment of Education Progress, ACT, SAT they're all showing these declines in actual learning. And so what I loved in what you described was this check for understanding is not a throwaway grade. This is a true formative check for me and you to know what you do and don't know. And so then, when you get to the summative assessment, you have these high scores because you and your student know what you didn't know, and then you figure out ways because you are one of the most tireless teachers I've seen for reteaching, figuring out ways to show it a different way, and have an unbelievable amount of energy for that. And that's what gets them over that bar. So it's not about grade inflation. They've truly earned that. And that is, to me, the goal of any teacher. I don't understand teachers that are okay with a class average of 60% that they then curve and bump up because I really want to know what's the 40% of what you taught that you don't care that your kids don't know. I would hope in most classes, the class average is 90% are higher because I want to know if I'm the teacher that's going to get those kids they learn those things. And coming out of your class, they know that. Now, that's not the way most educators work. Why do you think that is? Krystle Moos: It's hard. It is really hard to get the students to take ownership over their own learning because we have just passed them on. And so, if in second grade they struggle with one aspect of math, we pass them on. We're in a very heavy math unit right now, and it involves solving proportions. I can teach them the chemistry. They know all the units. But when it gets to the math, I had to spend a half a class period pulling out small groups of students, that when I said, "Look, it's a proportion. You cross multiply and divide." I had kids honest enough. Let's just be real there. Teenagers being honest enough to say, "I don't know how to do that." They said... An exact quote was, "Teachers have been saying this to me. Cross multiply and divide for the past three years, and I don't know what they mean." And these are students in honors chemistry. And so I've broken down this wall of it's okay to not know, but you have to ask. And if I don't explain it well the first time, I put a lot of the blame on me. If I didn't explain it well the first time because you didn't get it, ask me again, and we'll come up with something else. Or let's go ask one of your friends, because your friend may have been through the same exact system you were. Something I said clicked for them. And so we just do a lot of peer-to-peer tutoring too. Jon Eckert: No, that's great. And I do think sometimes you take too much of the responsibility on yourself as an educator. And I think, as educators, we need to know it's a partnership. And kids have to ask, and they have to do the work. I think, sometimes kids, and I don't think this is true in your class, they'll say, "Well, I don't get it." It's like, "No. You have to articulate what you don't understand because I don't get it is basically saying, 'I'm not even going to try to articulate what I don't know.'" Your example with the proportions is a good example. "Teachers have told me this over and over again, and I don't know what that means." That's a really helpful place because then you can step in and say, "Oh, here's what this is." And you shouldn't have to be teaching that in honors chemistry, but... Krystle Moos: I'm going to. If we look at... You're talking about the learning connection, what our students know. I think for me, honors chemistry, the big thing is I can support our students in ACT, SAT, and just general knowledge. And if that's the hole they're missing, I'm going to jump in and fill it because do I want them to learn chemistry? Yes. But how many of them are going to use ideal gas law later on in life? And so if I can teach them proportion, I'm good for the day. Jon Eckert: Right, right. No. And I really appreciate that about the way you approach, and that's what a lot of great teachers do, and we need to just continue to highlight that. So we always wrap up with a lightning round. So here's your chance in a word, phrase, or sentence to answer a few. And I have a few common ones I go back to, so I'll ask some of those, and we'll see if I come up with anything random. Feel free to take a pause if you need to, because a lot of times these are the first times you've heard these questions, but what's your favorite book that you've read in this past year? It could be education-related, or it could be anything else. I always want a good book recommendation. Krystle Moos: I always go to Limitless Mind by Jo Boaler, Productive Struggle, just that grit, that tenacity, that it's okay to not know. I would recommend it for any math, really. Any science teacher. Jon Eckert: Yeah, you recommended that to me early on when a friend, Jo Boaler, does great stuff. Great, great example for educators. Okay. What is the worst piece of advice you've ever received? Krystle Moos: Yeah. I've watched a lot of the podcasts, and so I know the repeat ones, but I had someone recommend. And I thought it was a great idea to separate all the loud students that talk from each other. And I very quickly learned that they still talk just across the classroom. And so I'm a little bit more intentional about that. And I provide them opportunities to work with their louder friends, but gosh, that was just horrible. The one here, I separated, and they were screaming across the room. Jon Eckert: Well, with my middle schoolers, what I would do in the lab is I would let them choose who they got to sit with for the quarter, and then they get to pick their seats again the next quarter. They said to pick, they couldn't sit with anybody they sat with that quarter, so their group of four would get broken up, and so they had to move those around. But what I found was they so badly wanted to be together that if you put them together and said, "Hey, if this isn't a good choice for you, I'm going to intercede, and we're going to move you," I found that that was my best way to control some of the off-task behavior that they would get. Sometimes, putting them together was the best thing I could do. Not always, but sometimes. Krystle Moos: And their conversations are just so much cooler when they're willing to talk to one another. Jon Eckert: Yes. And hilarious. Krystle Moos: Oh, hilarious. Jon Eckert: And hilarious. All right. Best piece of advice you've ever received. Krystle Moos: Yeah. Support the support staff. My secretaries, custodians, they are the backbone behind the school. I support my leaders, support everybody, but those custodians and secretaries really can get overlooked. And their impact is very powerful at the school. Jon Eckert: Well said. Good thing to remember. Love that. What's the biggest challenge you see for educators in the year ahead? Krystle Moos: Anticipating gaps in learning. As a secondary teacher, I used to know what the students weren't, and were going to know, and where they were. And it seems like each year, planning for those misconceptions is getting a little bit more challenging, but I think it's also really fun to look at the first period and go, 'That did not work. Let's scrap it and try again." Jon Eckert: Yep. No, well said. What's the thing that makes you most optimistic as you look ahead? Krystle Moos: The kids. They're absolutely just doing incredible things. My students are trying and working with me and growing and building. And really, this move to a standards-based learning. Learning to learn and not learning for a grade has changed so much of my students' perspective on learning. They're willing to try things and ask questions in a way that I haven't seen in a while. Jon Eckert: Well, I really appreciate you coming on today. And also, just thank you for helping kids become more of who they're created to be. I think sometimes kids don't even have a vision for who the Lord has made them to be. Obviously, God's never surprised by who that kid, what they can do, but I feel teachers like you help speak into kids' lives, share that with them explicitly, but then implicitly, through the way you teach, give feedback, and push them, allows them to do things that they probably didn't imagine they could do. And you have a lot of kids at Midway High School who consider chemistry and the sciences because they feel like they can do it coming out of your class. So it's a huge blessing to my own children but also to the community. And again, it's what great teachers do. So thanks for being on, and thanks for all you do. Krystle Moos: Of course. Thank you.  

Today's episode is about Alaska's Charter Schools which were recently ranked #1 in the country. The lead author of the study is Dr. Paul Peterson of Harvard University. Paul E. Peterson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and Director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and Senior Editor of Education Next, a journal of opinion and research.He received his Ph. D. in political science from the University of Chicago. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education, he has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the German Marshall Foundation, and the Center for Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is an author or editor of over 30 books, four of which have been identified as the best work in its field by the American Political Science Association.Peterson was a member of the independent review panel advising the Department of Education's evaluation of the No Child Left Behind law and a member of the Hoover Institution's Koret Task Force of K-12 Education at Stanford University. The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center reported that Peterson's studies on school choice and vouchers have been among the country's most influential studies of education policy.LINK TO STUDY: "The Nation's Charter Report Card: First-ever state ranking of charter student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress"

Reference: Remick KE, et al. National Assessment of Pediatric Readiness of US Emergency Departments during the Covid-19 Pandemic. JAMA Netw Open. July 2023 Date: Dec 11, 2023 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Rachel Hatcliffe is a pediatric emergency medicine attending at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. Her research focuses on prehospital care of children with anaphylaxis.  […] The post SGEM #425: Are You Ready for This? Pediatric Readiness of Emergency Departments first appeared on The Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine.

The Power Hour is a weekly podcast that discusses the most interesting energy and environmental policy issues of the day with top national experts. In this episode, Jack invites Mario Loyola, Senior Research Fellow at Heritage, Director, Environmental Law and Rish Management, Institute of Environment, Florida International University, and former Trump White House alum to discuss […]

After a four-day search, police say they've arrested a suspect in last week's massacre in Texas that left five people dead including a mother and her 9-year-old child. Findings by the National Assessment for Educational Progress show that most students in the US are struggling in subjects like civics and history. And the Federal Reserve is expected to make its tenth interest rate hike as it struggles to rein in inflation.