Podcasts about phi delta kappan

This conversation explores the implications of recent changes to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in education. A panel of educators discusses how these changes affect teaching practices, classroom environments, and student relationships. They emphasize the importance of maintaining inclusivity and building strong relationships with students and families, regardless of policy shifts. The discussion highlights the need for educators to adapt while remaining committed to fostering an equitable learning environment. Follow on Twitter: @_CrystalMWatson @CrystalMWatson on BlueSky | @jehan_hakim | @JM_Butcher | @DevonBeck365 | @MarantoRobert |@AggieAshley | @jonHarper70bd | @bamradionetwork Crystal Watson is a passionate mathematics educator from Cincinnati, serving as an elementary school principal. She is dedicated to helping cultivate spaces of belonging where deep learning and positive growth can happen. Her motto, “What do the students think?” reminds her to always take time to hear different perspectives, especially the children, in order to make sound decisions. Jehan Hakim is a second-generation Arab-American Muslim woman and mother of four. She is a Bay Area native who was born and raised in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, California – and graduated from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science. Though she's been a community organizer and educator for decades. The depths  of her experience span from program management and coordination within school districts, to interfaith coalition building, community outreach, foreign affairs, and diversity. Robert “Bob” Maranto is the 21st Century Chair in Leadership in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, has served on his local school board, and with others has written or edited 18 books so boring his own mother refused to read them. He co-edited a forthcoming book, The Free Inquiry Papers, to by published by the American Enterprise Institute in April. Maranto. “Bob”and James V. Shuls. (2011). Lessons from KIPP Delta. Phi Delta Kappan 93: (November) 52-56, at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003172171109300313. Jonathan Butcher is the Will Skillman Senior Research Fellow in Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation. He has researched and testified on education policy around the U.S., including testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He is the author of Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth (Bombardier Books, April 2022). He co-edited and wrote chapters in The Critical Classroom (The Heritage Foundation, 2022), discussing the racial prejudice that comes from the application of critical race theory in K-12 schools. In 2021, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster nominated Jonathan to serve on the board of the South Carolina Public Charter School District. Ashley Eberhart is in her 11th year of teaching as a Spanish Teacher at Round Rock High School in Round Rock, Texas. She serves as the Vice President for the Texas Foreign Language Association and the Austin Area Chairperson for the Texas A&M Hispanic Network. Ashley has presented from the campus level all the way to the national level on various topics such as SEL classroom strategies, building relationships in the virtual space, and implementing authentic resources for World Languages to advance interpretive proficiency. Devon Beck is a dynamic leader and advocate for education, equity, and community development. His career spans multiple sectors, including education, community engagement, and the music business, where he has pioneered new roles to address organizational needs. A graduate of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Devon began his career in education, holding various roles such as Teacher's Assistant, Behavior Specialist, Geometry/Algebra Teacher, Family & Student Liaison, and Pre-Referral Coordinator for the Talbot County Board of Education. Through these positions, he developed expertise in mentoring and supporting students who faced learning challenges. His work reinforced his belief that reaching students at critical stages in life can have a lasting impact.

Discover the power of small schools with Stuart Grauer, a visionary educator challenging the "bigger is better" mentality in education. Learn how connecting students to their local environment and fostering genuine human connections can revolutionize learning outcomes. From expeditionary education to naturalist leadership principles, Stuart shares insights from his 50-year journey that will inspire you to reimagine education.IN THIS EPISODE, WE DISCUSS:The principles and values that guided the founding of the Grauer School in 1991The importance of expeditionary education and connecting learning with the local environmentThe benefits of small schools, including safety, teacher retention, and student connectednessChallenges facing small schools and the need for better metrics beyond standardized testingStuart's upcoming book on naturalist principles for school leadershipRESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:The beta reviews to The Way to Pancho's Kitchen are stunning, there has never been a book like this, and there's a “previewer” list for the book launch. Sign up for the launch here: https://thewaytopanchoskitchen.com/Connect with Stuart on Facebook  and LinkedInFollow The Small Schools Coalition on FacebookCheck out the Grauer School on FacebookEmail Stuart at stuart@grauerschool.comGet your copy of Rebel Educator: Create Classrooms Where Impact and Imagination MeetLearn more about Rebel Educator, explore our professional development opportunities for educators and students, and check out our project library.Visit us at UP Academy to learn more about our personalized and inclusive learning environment.Connect with Tanya and UP Academy on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram and learn more about her journey here.GUEST BIO:Stuart Grauer, Ed.D., is the Founding Head of School Emeritus  of The Grauer School (founded 1991 in Encinitas, California) and is considered one of the nation's top authorities on small schools and expeditionary education. He founded the Small Schools Coalition in 2011 in support of small school leaders looking for evidence that their schools are more by virtue of their size, not less. Outside Magazine named The Grauer School one of the top ten places to work in the United States. He publishes and consults widely and his work has been covered in New York Times, Discovery Channel, Phi Delta Kappan, and many other publications.In his hometown of Encinitas, CA, where he has been named “Peacemaker of the Year” and “Local Legend.”Enjoying the show? Leave us a rating and review and help more people find us!bit.ly/RebelEducatorApplePodcastsWe'd love it if you could take a few minutes to fill out this survey to let us know how we can bring you the best possible content: forms.gle/JcKHf9DHTZnYUmQr6 Interested in being on the Rebel Educator podcast? Fill out this form and we'll reach out to you if we think you'd be a great fit for an upcoming episode. https://forms.gle/CZJXLQDdevPh22ZN7Want to learn more about opening your own UP Academy? Check out the Rebel Educator Accelerator:www.rebeleducator.com/courses/the-acceleratorMORE ABOUT THE REBEL EDUCATOR PODCAST:In each episode of the Rebel Educator podcast, I deconstruct world-class educators, students, and thought leaders in education to extract the tactics, tools, and routines that you can use as teachers and parents. Join me as we discuss how to shift the classroom, the learning environment, the mindset, and the pedagogy, to resist tradition, reignite wonder, and re-imagine the future of education.This podcast is dedicated to all of the educators who work thankless hours to make our next generation the best it can be.  It was designed to begin conversations on how we can redesign education for the future of work and the success of our students.  It is meant for teachers, students, administrators, homeschoolers and anyone who interacts with and teaches youth. We're thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL's comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers' timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments

Greetings and Welcome to another Potentially Useful episode of the TCAPSLoop Podcast. Today's show includes potential pulitzer prize winning novelist, Danelle Brostrom as well as her ghost writer in this alternate reality, Stephie Luyt. We will be discussing all things Libraries including three school library associated bills currently working their way through Michigan State Congress and how they'll effect our Certified Librarians. We focus on Information Literacy, Artificial Intelligence and of course, Bluey. Moment of Zen: “The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read.” — Benjamin Franklin   The Letter: Dear Senate Education Committee Members,   Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and questions about the “Library in Every School” bills that are sponsored by Senator Camilleri (SB741, SB742) and Senator Bayer (SB743).   At yesterday's Senate Education Committee Meeting, members of the committee asked for data about school libraries. The Michigan Association of School Librarians (MASL) has a wealth of data and we will share some of it below in several forms.   Please reach out if you have questions about this data or would like to meet to have any of your questions answered.   Thank you very much,   Kathy Lester >MASL Advocacy Co-Chair, Immediate Past-President AASL, Adjunct Faculty Wayne State University Alexa Lalejini >MASL Advocacy Co-Chair, School Librarian, Rockford Public Schools Stephie Luyt >MASL Advocacy Co-Chair, School Librarian, Traverse City Area Public Schools Carrie Betts, >MASL President, School Librarian, Birmingham Public School District, AASL National School Library of the Year Christine Beachler,  >MASL President-Elect, School Librarian, Lowell Public Schools   DATA ABOUT THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS   Correlation between reading scores and school librarians in Michigan According to the latest data, Michigan 46th in the nation in the ratio of students to school librarians (ratio of 2788 students per school librarian from 2021-2022) and 43rd in 3rd grade NAEP reading scores. Michigan Study About the Impact of School Librarians In Michigan, a Library of Michigan research study showed that school library media programs have a statistically significant positive impact on reading achievement in grades 4, 7, and 11. Specifically, this study showed that schools with librarians have 35 percent more fourth graders who score proficient or above than school without librarians (see page ix of the study). The Michigan reading test scores rise with the extent to which the state's school library programs are headed by qualified school librarians. The relationship between school libraries and test scores cannot be explained away by other school or community conditions at any school level. The Impact of Michigan School Libraries on Academic Achievement: Kids Who Have Libraries Succeed Other research and data about the positive impact of school librarians The Michigan Association of School Librarians has put together a document that summarizes the different ways that school librarians have a positive impact on students and includes links to research for each item. bit.ly/slibevid A good article that summarizes much of the research The article below is a great article that summarizes much of the research. Lance, K.C. & Kachel, D.E. (2018).  Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us. Phi Delta Kappan, 99 (7), 15-20. An infographic about the impact of school librarians on students with cited research studies: bit.ly/slheights Tech Tool of the Week Teaching Books is the new Sora extra!    Please rate and review the podcast on your app of choice and leave us a comment on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram Thank you so much for listening and inspiring!   Hosts: Danelle Brostrom, Larry Burden Special Guest: Stephie Luyt Um and Ramble Editing: Larry Burden   Cover art created with help from Adobe Firefly.

Our guest this week is Allan Shedlin of Chevy Chase, MD, who is a father, grandfather, former educator and outspoken advocate for all things related to 'Daddying.'Allan and his x-wife, Michelle, were married for 32 years and are the proud parents of three adult daughters: Raya, Samantha and Christina as well as grandparents of five. Allan was a career educator and was founding Executive Director of the National Elementary School Center. He has also been a freelance writer for 39 years with work appearing in; The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Hearst News Service, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan magazine, Principal magazine, GRAND magazine, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, Desert News, Johannesburg Times, and more.Allan is one of the country's most outspoken advocates for father involvement going back to the 1980s. Allan coined the term 'Daddying.' He leads the Dadvocacy Consulting Group and he curates the Daddying Film Festival & Forum, now in its third year. He also oversees the Daddy Wishes Fund & Daddy Appleseed Fund.That's all on this episode of the SFN Dad To Dad Podcast. Show Links - Email- allan@dadvocacyconsultinggroup.comPhone – (301) 651-5344Website – https://www.dadvocacyconsultinggroup.com/Film Festival Website: https://www.daddyingfilmfest.com/Special Fathers Network - SFN is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs. Many of the 500+ SFN Mentor Fathers, who are raising kids with special needs, have said: "I wish there was something like this when we first received our child's diagnosis. I felt so isolated. There was no one within my family, at work, at church or within my friend group who understood or could relate to what I was going through."SFN Mentor Fathers share their experiences with younger dads closer to the beginning of their journey raising a child with the same or similar special needs. The SFN Mentor Fathers do NOT offer legal or medical advice, that is what lawyers and doctors do. They simply share their experiences and how they have made the most of challenging situations.Check out the 21CD YouTube Channel with dozens of videos on topics relevant to dads raising children with special needs - https://www.youtube.com/channe...Please support the SFN. Click here to donate: https://21stcenturydads.org/do...Special Fathers Network: https://21stcenturydads.org/SFN Dads Mastermind Group - https://21stcenturydads.org/sfn-mastermind-group/Discover more about the Dads Honor Ride 2023 - https://21stcenturydads.org/2023-dads-honor-ride/Find out about Horizon Therapeutics – Science and Compassion Working Together To Transform Lives. https://www.horizontherapeutics.com/

Today's guest is the brilliant Zaretta Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. We'll talk about the science behind her recommended “six core design principles” that she calls “culturally responsive brain rules”. Later, I'm joined by my colleague Jerry Maraia for a continued conversation about practical takeaways.  ***To learn more about Jennifer Serravallo: www.jenniferserravallo.comTo read a transcript of this episode: www.jenniferserravallo.com/podcastLearn more about Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, Zaretta Hammond's book***Zaretta Hammond is a former classroom English teacher who has been doing instructional design, school coaching, and professional development around the issues of equity, literacy, and culturally responsive teaching for the past 18 years.  She teaches as a lecturer at St. Mary's College's Kalmanovitz School of in Moraga, California.In addition to consulting and professional development, she has been on staff at national education reform organizations, including the National Equity Project and the former Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC).  She has trained instructional coaches in reading development, especially targeted at students of color and English learners.  She has also designed national seminars such as the three-day Teaching with A Cultural Eye series for teachers and school leaders. She is regularly invited to present at regional and national conferences. She has authored articles that have appeared in publications such as Phi Delta Kappan.Along with a focus on culturally responsive teaching, Ms. Hammond has a strong research agenda around literacy, vocabulary development, and equity. She has designed culturally responsive tutor training programs aimed at volunteer reading tutors for a variety of non-profit organizations. She currently designing a literacy program to accelerate low reading skills among high school students. She holds a Masters in Secondary English Education.She also writes the popular ready4rigor.com blog.  Zaretta is the proud parent of two young adult children, both of whom she taught to read before they went to school. She resides in Berkeley, CA with her husband and family. Support the show

Link for Kade's video: https://youtu.be/rdOc2HB5sx0?si=-4B_koSDMxPxyNMi This month on Curiosity Killed the Rat, we are taking a break from our usual content to present the audio from the YouTube video made by host Kade Huckstep this month in response to Channel 7's blatant spread of disinformation and misrepresentation of science. It breaks down the “documentary” aired about detransitioning, and goes through the scientific evidence that does actually exist. As a show, we value the spread of correct information, and so this is our part in the fight against mis/disinformation. As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com. We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show. References: (if people want access to any actual papers stuck behind paywalls please do hit us up) Abreu, Roberto L., et al. "Supporting transgender students: School counselors' preparedness, training efforts, and necessary support." Journal of LGBT Youth 17.1 (2020): 107-122. Bailey, Louis, Sonja J. Ellis, and Jay McNeil. "Suicide risk in the UK trans population and the role of gender transition in decreasing suicidal ideation and suicide attempt." Mental Health Review Journal 19.4 (2014): 209-220. Borges, Maria de Fátima, et al. "Evaluation of central precocious puberty treatment with GnRH analogue at the Triangulo Mineiro Federal University (UFTM)." Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism 59 (2015): 515-522. Bruce, Lauren, et al. "Long-term regret and satisfaction with decision following gender-affirming mastectomy." JAMA surgery (2023). Butler, Gary, et al. "Discharge outcome analysis of 1089 transgender young people referred to paediatric endocrine clinics in England 2008–2021." Archives of Disease in Childhood 107.11 (2022): 1018-1022. Choi, Seungtaek, and Andrew K. Lee. "Efficacy and safety of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists used in the treatment of prostate cancer." Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety (2011): 107-119. Cheung, Ada S., et al. "Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of transgender adults in Australia." Transgender health 3.1 (2018): 229-238. Giacomelli, Giulia, and Maria Cristina Meriggiola. "Bone health in transgender people: a narrative review." Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism 13 (2022): 20420188221099346. Golan, A. "GnRH analogues in the treatment of uterine fibroids." Human reproduction 11.suppl_3 (1996): 33-41. Hannema, Sabine Elisabeth, et al. "Continuation of gender-affirming hormones in transgender people starting puberty suppression in adolescence: a cohort study in the Netherlands." The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health 6.12 (2022): 869-875. Jedrzejewski, Breanna Y., et al. "Regret after gender-affirming surgery: a multidisciplinary approach to a Multifaceted patient experience." Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 152.1 (2023): 206-214. Jeffery, Eiddwen. “Anti-Trans Group Raises False Alarm on Victorian Policy for Gender Diverse Students.” RMIT University, 4 Nov. 2022, www.rmit.edu.au/news/factlab-meta/anti-trans-group-raises-false-alarm-on-victorian-policy-for-gend. Jones, Hannah Elizabeth, et al. "Decision Regret in Plastic Surgery: A Summary." Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open 11.6 (2023). Katz-Wise, Sabra L. “Gender Fluidity: What It Means and Why Support Matters.” Harvard Health, 3 Dec. 2020, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/gender-fluidity-what-it-means-and-why-support-matters-2020120321544. Levine, Laurence A., and Stephen P. Guss. "Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues in the treatment of sickle cell anemia-associated priapism." The Journal of urology 150.2 (1993): 475-477. Mahdi, Aamir, et al. "Patients' experiences of discontentment one year after total knee arthroplasty-a qualitative study." BMC musculoskeletal disorders 21.1 (2020): 1-11. Mangin, Melinda. "Supporting transgender and gender-expansive children in school." Phi Delta Kappan 100.2 (2018): 16-21. Martín-Castillo, David, et al. "School victimization in transgender people: A systematic review." Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020): 105480. Martino, Wayne, Jenny Kassen, and Kenan Omercajic. "Supporting transgender students in schools: Beyond an individualist approach to trans inclusion in the education system." Educational Review 74.4 (2022): 753-772. Nolan, Brendan J., et al. "Early Access to Testosterone Therapy in Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adults Seeking Masculinization: A Randomized Clinical Trial." JAMA Network Open 6.9 (2023): e2331919-e2331919. Olson, Kristina R., et al. "Mental health of transgender children who are supported in their identities." Pediatrics 137.3 (2016). Ramos, G. G. F., et al. "Systematic Review: Puberty suppression with GnRH analogues in adolescents with gender incongruity." Journal of Endocrinological Investigation 44 (2021): 1151-1158. Russell, Stephen T., et al. "Chosen name use is linked to reduced depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior among transgender youth." Journal of adolescent Health 63.4 (2018): 503-505. Sares-Jäske, Laura, et al. "Gendered differences in experiences of bullying and mental health among transgender and cisgender youth." Journal of youth and adolescence 52.8 (2023): 1531-1548. Schmauss, Daniel, Hans-Günther Machens, and Yves Harder. "Breast reconstruction after mastectomy." Frontiers in surgery 2 (2016): 71. Tankersley, Amelia P., et al. "Risk and resilience factors for mental health among transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) youth: A systematic review." Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review 24 (2021): 183-206. Telfer, Michelle M., et al. "Australian standards of care and treatment guidelines for transgender and gender diverse children and adolescents." Medical Journal of Australia 209.3 (2018): 132-136. Tordoff, Diana M., et al. "Mental health outcomes in transgender and nonbinary youths receiving gender-affirming care." JAMA Network Open 5.2 (2022): e220978-e220978. Turban, Jack L., et al. "Pubertal suppression for transgender youth and risk of suicidal ideation." Pediatrics 145.2 (2020). Valsamakis, Georgios, et al. "GnRH analogues as a co-treatment to therapy in women of reproductive age with cancer and fertility preservation." International journal of molecular sciences 23.4 (2022): 2287. Victorian Department of Education. “LGBTIQ Student Support: Policy.” Education.Vic.Gov.Au, 5 Dec. 2022, www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/lgbtiq-student-support/policy. Waller, Kathleen G., and Robert W. Shaw. "Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues for the treatment of endometriosis: long-term follow-up." Fertility and sterility 59.3 (1993): 511-515. Witcomb, Gemma L., et al. "Experiences and psychological wellbeing outcomes associated with bullying in treatment-seeking transgender and gender-diverse youth." LGBT health 6.5 (2019): 216-226.

James V. Shuls is the director of research and distinguished fellow of education policy at the Show-Me Institute. James' work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including Phi Delta Kappan, Social Science Quarterly, Education Week, The Rural Educator, Educational Policy, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He earned his Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas. He holds a bachelors degree from Missouri Southern State University and a masters degree from Missouri State University, both in elementary education. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, James taught first grade and fifth grade in southwest Missouri. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

How long have “the reading wars” been a part of the national education discourse? What are the recurring themes? What can 4K-12 practitioners do to engage in a dialogue that leads to a better understanding of effective literacy instruction?In this episode, Paul Thomas shares his findings about the science of reading movement and how educators can navigate this conversation.Paul, a professor at Furman University, is the author of the policy brief The Science of Reading Movement: The never-ending debate and the need for a different approach to reading instruction (NEPC, 2022). He also wrote How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policy Makers, and People Who Care (IAP, 2020). Paul is a frequent writer at his blog, Radical Scholarship and on Twitter at @plthomasEdD. Special thanks to Mary Howard, Joy La Vay Taylor, Debra Crouch, and Mary Beth Nicklaus for engaging in and elevating this conversation. Full subscribers can join these conversations in real time. They also have access to the video archive and professional discussion guide here. Sign up today to fully engage in this community.Know someone who would benefit from Read by Example? Refer them to this space - see button below. Complimentary subscriptions can be earned with sign ups.Full TranscriptMatt Renwick (00:03):Welcome to Read by Example, where teachers are leaders and leaders know literacy. We are joined today by Dr. Paul Thomas. Paul is a professor of education at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and taught high school English in rural South Carolina before moving to teacher education. He is a former column editor for English Journal, National Council Teachers of English, current series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching Series: Challenging Authors and Genres and author of Teaching Writing as a Journey, Not a Destination: Essays Exploring What Teaching Writing Means, and the book, which I believe is in its second edition now, How to End the Reading Wars and Serve the Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policymakers, and People Who Care. NCTE named Paul the 2013 George Orwell Award winner. He co-edited the award-winning volume, Critical Media Literacy and Fake News in Post-Truth America. You can follow Paul's work at on Twitter at @plthomasedd and at Radical Scholarship at radicalscholarship.wordpress.com. Welcome, Paul.(01:26):Thank you very much. Nice to be here.(01:29):And we have a few who could join, if they could share too. Who you are, briefly just what you do. We'll start with Mary.Mary Howard (01:39):I am a literacy consultant and now doing Zoom, because I'm in Honolulu and I'd rather not get on a plane. This is year 51.Matt Renwick (01:57):Joy.Joy La Vay Taylor (01:59):Hi, I'm Joy La Vay Taylor, and I work for James Madison University with student teachers. Before that, I was literacy coach, reading recovery teacher and reading specialist.Matt Renwick (02:15):Deborah.Debra Crouch (02:17):Hi, I'm Deborah Crouch. I'm a literacy consultant as well and a co-author of Made For Learning with Brian Cambourne.Mary Beth Nicklaus (02:30):Hi, I'm Mary Beth Nicklaus, and I am with Eastern Harbor County Schools in Minnesota. And I'm a secondary level reading specialist. This is my 34th year.Matt Renwick (02:48):Welcome everyone. And I have a few questions for Paul, but we'll definitely save time for any questions that you might have. The first one for Paul is, you are consistently on point in your policy brief, which we will link in the newsletter, the Science of Reading Movement, which is a condensed version of your book on the topic. It's a nice summary, as well as what you post online on Twitter and on your blog. What motivates you to keep coming back to this topic of the science of reading movement?Paul Thomas (03:27):Oh, that's a really good question because most of my career, I'm really a composition writing person. And when I discovered Emily Hanford's Hard Words, early 2018, it really struck a chord, but I had no idea that it would get the momentum that it did. So I've always been a holistic literacy person, and I've always been skeptical of over focusing on things like grammar and phonics. And although I taught high school English at Furman, I have taught master's literacy program. So I've been working with early literacy teachers who are getting graduate degrees. And a former colleague of mine, Nita Schmidt, who moved from Furman to Iowa and now she's retired, she's brilliant, she was an early literacy people, and she, she brought me in at N C T E.(04:33):And so I had had this kind of transition to being, what I would say, a literacy generalist where I understand kind of K-16 literacy, or birth to grave literacy. My focus I feel like is public work. Like, how do I talk to the public? How do I help people understand education? And this movement just kind of intersected with that public work. And throughout 2018, 2019, I found myself blogging maybe too much, but I had quite a number of blogs on this, and I said, "I've got enough for a book. I did see how it was developing in a direction that regretfully has come true. That early kind of messaging has now become policy. So in the last, I guess that's what, five years now, I have shifted very much into being a policy person, which I think was the rightful place for me to go.(05:44):I do think trying to work on public narratives, how we talk about critical discourse analysis is a big thing for me. It's a central part of my upper level reading and writing course. At Furman, that's a requirement at Furman, they have to have an upper level writing and research course. So I think it was just kind of a perfect storm for me because I do feel like it's really important for scholarly work to have a real world place. And this felt way more engaging. It felt way more productive than my composition work. Although my book before this was on writing. I'm still, I teach first year writing. I care very much about writing. But reading is very central to sort of how we think about education in the United States. So it seemed like kind of a natural development for me.Matt Renwick (06:47):Yeah, your policy brief is very practical, very useful. It was easy to read, but you covered the, the essential topics of it and really gave, for me anyway, it gave me some nice talking points. Right now in Wisconsin, we're dealing with it, right this very week, up for discussion, so to speak. How might educators and parents best use this resource to effectively advocate for more reasonable policies? What can we do with this to, to make some kind of a difference, or at least try to influence policymakers?Paul Thomas (07:29):So first I would like to say I really am very proud of the policy brief. And I think a huge part of that was the N E P C staff itself. They did not make this easy . I had to a 6,000 word policy brief. I probably wrote 15 to 20,000 words and three or four drafts, and I was kind of taken to task three or four or five times before it even went to peer review. And I think they should be commended for that. The editorial group at N E P C weren't literacy people, so they were constantly going, "What do you mean by this? Uh, is this real?" And the the fun part was being challenged on using the simple view of reading.(08:22):One person said to me, "Paul, nobody uses that. That's silly. That's a silly term." And I had to say, "No, it's a technical term. It's a real term." So I do appreciate that opportunity, and I will say any PC believes in practical. So it had to build to what do people do. I do feel really good about the policy implications at the end. I've been working indirectly with Diane Stephens, who is Professor Emeritus from the University of South Carolina. She taught several other places. Diane has really perfected taking actual legislation and copy editing it, . It's amazing, "Here is where you're off base, but here is how to reform that." So I think what we have to do is, it kind of parallels the book banning and the anti C R T movement.(09:23):It seems almost silly to have to argue for access to books. It seems silly to have to say you shouldn't ban books. So I think it seems kind of pointless for a lot of reasonable people to argue for teacher autonomy and serving the needs of all students. And very simply put, that's kind of what the policy brief boiled down to. We really targeted, "there's no such thing as one size fits all instructional practices." So there should not be any one size fits all mandates in policy and legislation. We really kind of honed in on, "it's not the place of legislators to ban or mandate anything that goes against what is a reasonable approach to day-to-day classroom practices." So I think what can people do is I think is, kind of target these simple messages.(10:37):I've been trying to work better about clarifying that I'm advocating for teacher autonomy. I'm advocating for meeting the needs of every individual child. I am not an advocate for reading recovery. I'm not an advocate for balanced literacy. I'm not an advocate for National Council Teachers of English. I'm not an advocate for International Literacy Association. I'm not being trivial here. I don't advocate for labels and organizations, even though I love N C T E, for example. It's been my home for a long time, and I respect N C T E, but I think what we have to advocate for are key principles. And I've called this challenge out many times, you know, on social media. If someone says they don't agree with me or that I'm wrong, I say, so you're saying that there should not be teacher autonomy, so you're saying we shouldn't serve the individual needs of every student, and I really think we have to call people on the carpet about that.(11:47):I also think it's really important, and it might be too much for most people, I just don't believe in misinformation. I get called out that I'm advocating for X when I simply say Y isn't true . This is a really good example to me, is the attack on Lucy Calkins, I think is just unfair. It's not accurate. Lucy Calkins Units of Study and Fountas and Pinnell work are in one in four schools in the country. It's 25% of the reading programs, I just tweeted out today. You know, their programs are not the dominant programs in New Mexico. And New Mexico has the lowest NAEP fourth grade reading scores and the highest percentage of children below basic. So creating a bad guy is a trick of storytelling.(13:00):And regretfully the science of reading movement, I mean, Sold a Story. I mean, it's about storytelling, and they're manufacturing the crisis. They're manufacturing the bad guy. I really just don't like misinformation. And again, I don't like the way balance literacy is defined. It doesn't mean that I endorse balanced literacy, even though I don't have any actual problem with the concept of balanced literacy. I'm really a critical literacy person. Do I like whole language people and their philosophies? Yes, there are a lot of my friends. Do I find balanced literacy ideas compelling? Yes, of course I do. I am a holistic person. So I think we have to, I have to keep sort of simple messaging on the key concepts that we support.(13:55):But we also have to say, actually what you're saying isn't true. Your definition isn't true. Your cause of the problem isn't true. Your solution isn't true. Over and over the national reading panel is just misrepresented. I use Diane Stephen's work. The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics was no more effective than balanced literacy or whole language. Almost every single credible study says the exact same thing. The major study out of England said systematic phonics no more effective than balanced literacy. We need balance in England, over and over. That's the truth. And then you've got the science of rooting people saying, it's the Emily Hanford mantra, that it's simple and it's settled, and neither one of those are true.Matt Renwick (14:48):That leads into my next question, Paul, is this towards, especially phonics instructions, kind of this reason why kids are failing to read because they don't have enough of it, or we need more of it to ensure that they can read. And then picking on some of these targets, whether it's a person or it's a program or approach, are these strawmen for maybe avoiding bigger issues that we do need to address, such as poverty or teaching and learning conditions? Or is there some reasonableness to what some people might be advocating for in the sor movement? Where do you see that falling?Paul Thomas (15:33):Really nice job there. I appreciate that. Because that's two other kind of key points that we need to hit on. So, the part of my book and the policy brief that I'm most proud of is the historical perspective. In the 1940s, draftees performed very poorly on literacy tests, and Eleanor Roosevelt and the government shouted reading crisis. And John Dewey in progressivism was blamed. The woman I did my dissertation on, Lula Brandt ,did an analysis and found out that most draftees went to traditional schools and had traditional instruction, like phonics instruction, had skills instruction. And there's Elementary English, which became Language Arts, had a special issue on it, very similar to Reading Research Quarterly, having two special issues on it in the 2020s.(16:33):There was one article, , and they literally say this false attack on progressivism is to avoid the truth. The problem with literacy in the United States is poverty. You know, that was the 1940s. Then it recurs, the Johnny Can't Read in the fifties and sixties, same thing. It's phonics, it's lack of phonics. And people are like, "no, the people who are doing poorly are impoverished." And then it recycles into the sixties, into the 1990s, and then around No Child Left Behind is this same thing. So I think two other messages that we really have to make sure we make clear is, and I refer to Martin Luther King toward the end of his life in 1967, he said, "We would find that instead of reforming education to erase poverty, that if we erase poverty, education would improve."(17:30):And there is nothing truer. If children had universal healthcare, if they had no food deserts, if they had steady homes, if their parents had steady well-paying jobs, if there were books in their homes, the NAEP scores would go up. And that's doing nothing in the schools. Now, I'm not saying don't do anything in schools. I actually think this is the other thing that drives me crazy. I've been accused of being a protector of the status quo. And people who know me would laugh, they should talk to some of the people I've worked for. I think I entered education in 1984. I start year 40 in the fall. And when I started education, I was a reformer.(18:23):That's why I want, I wanted to do school better than it had been done to me. And then when I was in my doctoral program in the 1990s, I found out there were the reconstructionist. There was a whole movement in the early 20th century to reform schools. And so I want things to be different. I want school to be different. And you said it just a second ago. So we've got to address the lives, the homes, and the communities of children. I mean, we have to do that. And this constantly pointing at teachers and saying they don't know what they're doing and that schools are failing is a distraction. But simultaneous to that teaching and learning conditions, I just cannot say that often enough. There's been research for decades that marginalized students are more likely to have beginning and uncertified teachers.(19:25):That's a simple thing to address. We should guarantee that no child who is performing below what we believe they should be, instead of using third grade test scores to retain students, why don't we use third grade test scores to ensure children to have experienced certified teachers and low student-teacher ratios in fourth grade? That's a much better policy. And I would 100% endorse the use of standardized testing for that. But we are not going to do those things. I mean that's what's kind of criminal about this. Special needs children...we're overly concerned about dyslexic students. I am not saying that we should not be, absolutely, we should be concerned with dyslexic students. But special needs students are really highly likely to have beginning and new teachers, special needs students are really highly likely to have uncertified teachers.(20:31):Those are things that could be addressed. Now I think that would solve a lot of problems, systemic forces outside of the school. And then, I agree, this is a national education policy center thing. Instead of accountability reform, we need equity reform. So inside schools, I would say no grade retention. We should not be stratifying students. We should not be gatekeeping students into courses. But the biggest thing to me in school is a teacher assignment. The dirty little secret about education, nobody wants to talk about...if you teach long enough when someone retires, you get the good kids. And I think that's one of those little dirty secrets that we don't talk about. Beginning teachers too often... administration sits down, the remaining teachers get to pick their courses for next year, and the leftovers go to the new person. That is a terrible policy. It's a terrible way to treat children. And these are things we could address. We never talk about them, and we don't do them. So I think as you were implying, I think a lot of this is about ways to avoid doing the hard stuff.Matt Renwick (21:53):Yeah, for sure. You hit on a lot of topics there with that. There were couple of questions and, and I won't bring it up here just because it could, who knows where it would to go. But the money aspect too. You noted on Twitter, that a lot of these arguments and blaming are actually creating a space, a void, in which then certain individuals, publishers, organizations can sell their programs, trainings to solve the problem that they created in the first place. But that's a whole nother topic almost, I think.Paul Thomas (22:38):I could interject there real quick. Sure. I think people don't understand. I just had a conversation with a producer of a major news series yesterday morning. Instead of chasing the right reading program, we should reevaluate that. We use reading programs. It's much simpler than that. At W S R A, I think it was 2019, it was right before covid, teachers taught me a lesson. The problem that they had with units of study was not units of study, it was how it was implemented. And we too often hold teachers accountable for implementing a program instead of serving the needs of students. And I think that's a really important distinction. And it would also, I think it would address the money issue. We do, I think we do spend too much money on educational materials, and then we feel obligated to holding teachers accountable because of that investment.Matt Renwick (23:41):Yeah. Too much money and resources is not enough. And the ultimate research, which is teachers and students as well is, how can we structure students to be resources for each other? I'd like to open it up to other people who have questions here, or Paul, if you have anything you'd like to share that to come to mind. I'll open the floor up.Mary Howard (24:06):Okay. I was just gonna come back to, and I appreciate this so much because it led me back to what you wrote. One of the best things about this is that it's so specific to suggestions for decision makers and policy makers. And so one of the, and I loved every one of them, but one of the things that I kept coming back to is at the very end, two that really keep, are really in my head. One is be wary of overstatements and oversimplifications within media and public advocacy. Acknowledging concerns raised but remaining skeptical of simplistic claims about causes and solutions. And one of the challenges is that there are so many, the policy makers, the people who are making these decisions, they want oversimplification. They want to know, all I have to do is write a check and there's nothing else I have to do.(25:11):And if, because they don't have a background in education, that sounds really, really compelling. And then the other one is just a couple down from that, which is so important. Recognize student-centered as an important, research supported guiding principle, but also acknowledge the reality that translating research-based principles into classroom practices is challenging. So not only do they want those over simplifications, but they want to be able to take the research and say, here's what the research says, which is complicated research. And so we're gonna do this. You know, it brings me back to RtI where the solution was the walk-to-intervention model. So they know the importance of supporting children, but they're going to find the easiest possible, not just the one that they can write a check for, but the one that's going to be the easiest possible to implement.(26:09):So, you know, those just loom really large in my mind, and I don't know how we undo. Let me just say one more thing. I remember so many times walking out of a session where someone, usually someone with a really big name, said something really absurdly ridiculous. Like, time for reading, independent reading doesn't matter. And does it in such a compelling way that people I really admire walk out of that session and say, "Oh my God, I never thought about that before." And that's been happening with the science of reading too. "Oh my God, I never knew that." And so it's really smart, lovely, wonderful people. But for some reason, , it's coming across not as what is being said. I don't know. It's a really weird thing to me.Paul Thomas (27:11):Yeah. One advantage of my career being pretty eclectic is I've taught some graduate level leadership courses, and I used to use Howard Gardner's book Leading Minds. He's known for multiple intelligences, but I don't think that's his best work actually. In Leading Minds, he directly says all the research shows that leadership functions on black and white statements. And there's very little you can do about that. So there's an ethical obligation if you're going to compel the public, you're going to have to be relatively simple. So to me, I think the line is between simple and simplistic. And the challenge we have, and again, the conversation I had yesterday morning, really, really drove this home to me, is we're in a bind because our message is not simple. And the sor people are, it's become a cult of personality because they're doing the simple and settled.(28:12):And it is very compelling. I, like you Mary, know some very lovely people who have bought it. I knew some, and I still know, I know some lovely people, bright, who bought Teach for America. I know some lovely and bright people who bought charter schools. And those have now passed, and we know they didn't work. Teach for America has really dramatically fallen off. And some of the best people I know in education went through Teach for America. So it's not the people. The simplistic message, that you just had to demand more of students, it's that soft bigotry of low expectations. And if you just demand more, and if you just work harder, these kids will succeed. And then those poor people who did that, and those children didn't succeed. They were devastated.(29:07):So we do have a problem. Our message is not simple. But that's the only message that works. And also I think, another point of yours Mary, is the idea of evidence. I think I said this the other day, but the most important evidence is the child in front of you. The first five or 10 years of my teaching, the best thing that happened to me was humility. I had missionary zeal. I came in thinking I knew what I was doing. I kind of had my butt kicked at the National Writing Project. I'll shout out to Brenda Davenport. She almost literally kicked my butt. She saw something in me. She did respect me, but she took me in a room and she let me have it. And it was an awakening for me.(30:00):I softened, I backed up off of my certainty, and I learned to work from the ground up. Research and theory... I love theory. I love philosophy. These things are important, but they're for you back here. I mean, they sit somewhere back here. But it's the actual child in front of you. So I've learned, Furman has really taught me a lesson too. I mean, for the last 21 years, my college first year writing students are a different type of human than what I taught in rural South Carolina in high school. So I try to work from the student and instead of imposing Paul's beliefs about writing, Paul's beliefs about learning. You know, one simple thing is we we're always told that, that you have to give students credit for class participation.(31:04):I know a lot of professors still put that on their syllabus, and there's a percentage for it. Well, Furman has taught me that students can participate by being completely quiet in the room. And I had to listen to that, which is kind of ironic. And , I don't say that anymore. I don't say, "You have to speak in class, you have to participate this specific way." So I think one of our messages, I think has to be that, evidence is not simplistic. And the most important piece of evidence is the child in front of you.Matt Renwick (31:41):Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Mary.Debra Crouch (31:45):Can I ask a question, Paul? How do you simplify in a way, I guess, how do you talk to student-centered in a way that keeps it understandable for people who don't come at this from "Look at the child and recognize what children are bringing" and that sort of thing. How do we talk to that? Because I agree with you. I think that piece is huge.Paul Thomas (32:12):Yeah. And teacher education, that's one thing I do is I talk about artifacts of learning. I talk about things like, I really think music teachers, art teachers, coaches, that I think the average person understands that. So, there was a piece in Phi Delta Kappan many, many years ago, somewhere in the 1990s. And the guy said, what if we had two football teams line up every Friday night and take a multiple choice test to decide the football game? Parents would revolt, my hometown, the entire town would revolt. So, you know, in art class, we have a child actually draw an artifact of learning, and then we work from there. Until the child does a drawing or a clay sculpture, we don't have any way to teach them. We have children play instruments, we have children sing, we have children play the sport.(33:13):So I think putting it in terms of behaviors, having students do the thing, and I think that's where my holistic urge is. I was a soccer coach, I coached for quite a few years. And I love scrimmage. I was a big fan of scrimmaging. So you could end the moment, you could teach, of course we did some skills, but to be perfectly honest, that's not that effective. If people practice the same thing over and over incorrectly, they're not actually learning. They're getting worse. They're building the wrong tools. So, the joke of my teaching high school was I graded about 4,000 essays a year for 18 years. Wow. And I graded about 6,000 journals on top of that. So my joke was, it was volume, volume, volume.(34:07):Until a kid wrote a paper, I did not know what they needed, Until a player lined up as a centerback and played and played a soccer match, I did not know what he needed. So I do think we have to talk in terms of sort of holistic behaviors that we're trying to teach children to do. And then our job to me is mentoring. It is coaching. I love the word coach. I think the right kind of coaching, not the stereotypical United States coach that screams and cusses, but the kind of coach that goes, "Look, you did it this way, now do it this way." Like, here is why. One thing I loved about soccer is it's conceptual. You don't run plays and it's not very structured, the type the clock runs, and it's these concepts. So it's these holistic behaviors at the conceptual level, what should you be doing? But the key element is why are you doing this? I hope that answered your question, I feel like I did.Matt Renwick (35:12):Yeah. Thanks Deborah. Thanks, Paul. Joy, did you want to throw that question out of how did we engage in this? I think Paul spoke to that previously. Was there anything else that you wanted to follow up on though, Joy regarding how to engage in conversation around this time?Joy La Vay Taylor (35:35):The article that you put out, Paul, was really helpful, Mary and I will follow it a little bit better.Paul Thomas (35:51):A lot of this movement is public, so I think a lot of it is on social media. And there is a problem. I do think Twitter is not a good place for discussion. I haven't had good luck with it. I've had a few people try to. I had one person a couple times lately, very kindly say, would you mind, you know, let's have a discussion about this blog post. I don't. There's just not enough room. There is no chance for nuance. I joke and say the best way to deal with social media discussions is don't do it. But a more practical one is, are you dealing with a serious person? So probably six months ago, a woman who is an s o r person engaged with me.(36:42):She was patient, she was kind, she was clear. I did two or three tweets with her. I realized she was a serious person. We had a very long Twitter discussion. She didn't change her mind. I did not mute her. I did not block her. Everything was fine. The key was not that we agreed with each other. The key was that she was a serious person. And that's the hard part. I often check the Twitter bios. If there's four followers, probably not serious. If they've got the little hashtag, #amplify, probably not serious. Way too much of the science of reading movement is driven by the exact thing that Hanford is attacking. If it is in fact a problem that Lucy Caulkins has made money, which is an odd thing to accuse somebody of in the United States, then the science of reading, people who are driven by market intentions are just as guilty.(37:56):My home state and the most recent budget, 15 million for LETRS training, were a very small state. Can you imagine how much state money, tax money is being earmarked for LETRS training? I don't trust advocates of LETRS anymore than I trust anyone. I mean, we learned that the tobacco industry said cigarettes were okay. They had a market interest. So I do think we have to navigate public discussions with serious people. I do not mute people instantly. I generally give everybody one or two tweets. I give you a chance. Then it's it, and it's just little things, right? Are they selling something? Do they have almost no followers? I've got people out there. I know I muted them, so I didn't block them, but they can still do it. They say, don't listen to Paul Thomas. He works for reading recovery. That's just a blatant lie. There was an organization that blogged and said, don't listen to me because I'm not a teacher. I start year 40 in the fall. I've been a literacy teacher for 40 years, over five decades since the eighties. It's just a blatant lie. So lying means you're not a serious person. If if you're trying to sell something, you're probably not a serious person. So I just think navigating that space, we're looking for serious people and then we can engage.Matt Renwick (39:34):I had the pleasure of watching Paul have a panel discussion with other serious people. It was a research panel at the Wisconsin State Reading Association Conference. He was talking with a researcher at UW-Madison, a principal out of California, and they did not all agree. I think we talked about this later, Paul. You did not all agree on the same issues, but you all were respectful the way you talked. "I hear what you're saying. Here's where I'm coming from." It was very, it was just a good conversation. And I learned a lot. And I think, I thought it was a really good model for, for what this could be, but unfortunately, often is not.Paul Thomas (40:16):Right. And I really don't think we have to all agree. Like, there are people I love that I don't agree with everything about them. And that's not what we're looking for.Mary Howard (40:29):Yeah. And in a conversation like that, you have the opportunity to have a fluid coming back and forth. That's impossible. But one of the things that I looked for on Twitter, and I've only been recently really trying to dig into it, there are just certain catchphrases that people use over and over. And that to me is a dead giveaway because it's almost like they came out with a s o r attack list of these are the things you want to say. It really is problematic that you can't. There's a big difference to being able to look at someone in the face, for example, and listen to what they're saying and then come back and respond to that than it is. It's almost like the Twitter social media is a ping pong ball, and it's really easy to get caught up in it, you know, especially when emotions are involved.Paul Thomas (41:32):That's why I say the, the s o r movement is too similar to the anti CRT movement. They're both too often ideological. So when you're ideological it's very simplistic and narrow. So you do have recurring things to say that are just, they're just imposed onto the situation. They're not drawn from the situation. Someone I blocked, I mean, I muted. I didn't see them, but I saw the response. And apparently somebody on Twitter just in the last couple of days, said that they listened to Emily Hanford. Cause she's an expert. I'm not. And the interesting thing there is not only have I taught literacy for 40 years, I taught journalism for 13 years, and I've published journalism for the last 20. I have a level of expertise in both journalism and education. That's where you can tell somebody's not serious. This is not a serious comment. That is just a blanket imposed statement. And so I think that is the ideological problem. It's not everybody who's in the science of reading movement by any stretch. But there is a faction that is just, it's just an ideologue. And it's the same thing. You know, woke , woke by DeSantis, woke by too many Republicans, uh, c r t, these have just been catchphrases. They're not, again, they're not serious people. They're not credible people.Matt Renwick (43:00):This conversation's been great as always. Any closing thoughts or takeaways from anyone in the group that you'd wanna share out before we close things out?Joy La Vay Taylor (43:15):I'm such a novice, I feel like, at Twitter for sure. I was so focused on being in the classroom, working with teachers that I was so shocked when this whole s o r thing just seemed to slam in. And I hadn't, I didn't have time to be on Twitter. I shouldn't say I have time now, but I thank you so much all for all this information that you put out. And Mary, I love Mary and Matt is great. I don't know you too, but I'm sure you two are great too. .(44:15):Because I thought that all the information that you gave about politics and the movement of reading was so helpful for me. It just gave me a background. I kind of came in with balanced literacy when it was just kind of called balanced literacy. So all of that was helpful. But is is then, if we think about the purpose of being on Twitter to share information like you do, so is that the best way to think about it as a vehicle for getting truth out there?Paul Thomas (45:00):Yeah. I would say, I would say two things. One historically we have told teachers not to be political, which is a political demand, by the way. And we also keep classroom teachers way too busy. If you keep people with their head down, they don't see what's happening to them. So I do not expect teachers to sacrifice themselves. I don't expect K-12 teachers to speak out. Absolutely, that is not an expectation. If you do find the opportunity, I think you said it perfectly. Most of my work that I do on social media is to teach, it's an extension of my teaching. I cite, my blogs are heavily cited. I cite, I link to peer review journal articles on Twitter. So I think you have to perform on social media, not to change people's minds that you're speaking to, but to leave a trail for other people to learn.(46:03):I am rarely actually speaking to the individual I'm responding to. I am leaving a trail for other people to learn from. Nobody's asking K-12 teachers to sacrifice themselves. Nobody's asking K-12 teachers to lose their jobs. As a matter of fact, I don't want you to lose your job. I'm relatively safe. I'm even at a private university. If I were in Florida and I was at a public university, I would be toast. But my university is incredibly supportive. I'm a white guy, I'm tenured, I'm old. Let us do it, you know, let us take the brunt of the damage. But if you do engage, it's not to change people's minds, it's to teach.Matt Renwick (46:54):Well said Paul. And your policy brief, half the brief is citations. I mean, it's just so well resourced. And I remember Peter Aach speaking about your work too, and just said you were meticulous. I think that's one of the first people he brought up about how to be become more knowledgeable about this topic and stay engaged. So thank you Paul Thomas. Thank you everyone for being here. This has been great. We wish you all a good rest of the year if you're still going. Otherwise, we hope you are enjoying your summer break. Thank you.Paul Thomas (47:27):Thank you. A pleasure.Matt Renwick (47:28):Thank you. Get full access to Read by Example at readbyexample.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Mary Howard, Debra Crouch and I speak with professors Michiko Hikida and Leah Durán, authors of the article “Making sense of reading's forever wars” (Phi Delta Kappan, 2022). Leah Durán is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Michiko Hikida is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University, Columbus. They wrote this article to make the information “accessible to a lot of readers in a way that most academic journals aren't.”Our conversation was guided around three primary questions:* Have we learned anything from our past debates, or are we just going in circles?* What are your thought on the idea that these “wars” may be part of a thesis - antithesis - synthesis that we need to go through in order to move forward as a profession?* Students need institutional changes, not just individual instructional change. What can K-12 practitioners do to support institutional change?I hope you find this discussion as helpful as we did for better understanding the context and the conversation around the science of reading. Full subscribers also have access to the following:* Video recording of our conversation via Zoom* Professional discussion guide (linked within the video recording post)* Access to future disussion threads, ability to comment on posts, and join virtual conversations with esteemed literacy leaders (click here for upcoming schedule).Full TranscriptMatt Renwick:Hi. Want to welcome Michiko and Leah to our conversation. They wrote a wonderful article for Kappan Magazine of Phi Delta Kappan titled Making Sense of Reading's Forever Wars. Subtitle is, “Adopting a new science-based methodology is not enough to address students' difficulties with reading.” And we were chatting prior just how much we appreciate how well you were succinct in your article, but yet covered so much ground. I'm going to share my screen here so we can all see it. And yeah, and I'm just going to scroll down here to your bylines and your well sourced cited article. So Leah is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural studies at the University of Arizona Tucson.And Michiko is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. So welcome again. And yeah, I guess I'll start with the first question here. And it's actually your question, is have we learned anything from our past debates or are you just going in circles? And I'll open it up to Leah or Michiko first, but everyone else here feel free to chime in and offer your thoughts. And when you do, if you can introduce yourself when you speak. Michiko and Leah, we've already introduced you before. For our other guests here, just make sure you state your name.Michiko Hikida:Leah, do you want to take this or do you want me to give it a shot?Leah Durán:Yeah, yeah. I think that we have not learned as much as we should have from past debates, and I think that was part of the reason why Michiko and I really wanted to write this, is that it seemed like No Child Left Behind is very recent history. And at least the way that people are legislating science of reading, it is pretty much identical to scientifically based reading research, the term from the Bush era. It's still the big five from the report of the National Reading Panel.So in some ways it seems like there's this real energy to do exactly what has already been done without really grappling with why that didn't lead to the transformative changes that people hoped it would. And I think it's very important that we do that, if we don't acknowledge the way that No Child Left Behind and Reading First really fell short of I think the big dreams that people had for it. And think about why. Then there's no chance of not doing that again. So I really hope that the article gives people a chance to think about what we've already tried and what that means about what we haven't tried, and should try, and do differently, in order to not just do the same old thing over and over again every 10 to 15 years.Michiko Hikida:I do want to add to that a little bit and say that from a research perspective, I do think that there has been some consensus. And that consensus is that phonics instruction is helpful as a part of a more robust literacy curriculum. I think a person would be hard pressed to find a researcher that is anti-phonics. But I reiterate what Leah's saying is that at a policy level that doesn't feel like how it's being taken up.Matt Renwick:Yeah, I won't put anyone on the spot here, but I think the “be reading by third grade” retention policies might be one where we're not really learning from the past and repeating some mistakes. Yeah. But yeah, to me it sounds like this article's intent was just to create a pause for us and just to take stock of where we've come from, where we're at, and how might we proceed forward. So yeah, that's how I read it too. And I'd just open it up to our guests here. We have Debra, Mary and Sonya. So any thoughts on this too? What have you've learned, if anything from past debates?Mary Howard:Well, one of the things, and I'm Mary, I'm been an educator 51 years and now living in Honolulu, and I'm connecting back to something that you said in your piece that I keeps capturing my a attention. Some have argued that a permanent sense of crisis in K-12 education has been manufactured by those who aim to undermine the institution of public schools and scapegoat educators as a way of diverting attention from America's deepening social problems. And I think for me, a lot of that is wanting a thing. And that's always been what I've seen in all of these years in education, but never so much as now when social media makes it so easy.But wanting to blame all of these, we don't have enough programs, we don't have enough phonics, we don't have enough this, we don't have enough this and this is the way to fix it. And for anyone who's been in education longer than a day, the one thing that we know is that nothing is going to work all the time for every child. And it's certainly not going to work when we're fixated on that. So I just always keep coming back to that quote because the one thing we don't want to talk about is those deepening social problems. And so the article really meant a lot to me because you did that so beautifully.Matt Renwick:And Mary, if I can just then transition what you just said to maybe a question to Michiko and Leah is you mentioned that not one thing's going to work for everyone. And I appreciate you surfacing that because in the article too, you mentioned that students, they don't need individual instructional change, they need institutional change. And I think that's what Mary's pointing to here too is that's a big, big thing to take on. As practitioners, what are some ideas you might have for us to move on, a next step? That would probably might be helpful.Michiko Hikida:I have a couple of thoughts, and they are maybe outside of the classroom more than inside of the classroom because we are talking about institutional change. So I think a lot about teachers as public intellectuals. So when you've been teaching for 51 years like Mary has, you have a wealth of knowledge that you can stand on in a public context. So I think speaking publicly, posting on social media, having podcasts, those kinds of things, as well as organizing and doing things like voting.Leah Durán:Yeah, and I would say my answer is pretty similar in that I think maybe part of what we can do is redefine what counts as reading policy. Things that are about housing are also reading policy. Things that are about poverty are also reading policy. And I think that we sometimes compartmentalize them and think that those belong in a different arena or somebody else's expertise. But I think that they should be part of a conversation and part of our efforts around improving reading have to do with improving everything, even though that's a lot and hard to do, but it definitely won't happen if we don't try as part of it.And the other piece that related to that I think is that one thing that has been hard for me about watching this current round of the reading wars is that there really is a tremendous amount of money being spent, but to my eyes, it's being spent on things that I wouldn't reasonably expect to cause huge changes based on the research. But there are other things that we're not spending money on because I think we don't categorize them as being about reading. So I think that's part of it too. People are willing to spend money. Millions of dollars of money, but maybe I think they, legislators need some push around what counts as doing something about reading.Michiko Hikida:And I would say that that comes back to this question of what have we learned? And I think there is some consensus in the field about the impact of poverty and trauma and housing insecurity on reading scores.Matt Renwick:Yeah, that's one of the few correlations I've seen is poverty and trauma and some of these challenges as a principal and as a former teacher, and that correlation with reading achievements. So I'm glad you pointed that out. We mentioned this latest round of the reading wars, we use these metaphors to try to describe it. But I also noted in there too, instead of the pendulum swinging, you talk about incremental progress as a better way to gauge growth as a profession with reading instruction. And what things have you seen now that you've studied this in terms of specifically around reading instruction, you mentioned that we know phonics does work as a instructional strategy, and other resources or practices that are promising and that you'd like to see. You mentioned we have all this money, what buckets would you want to put the money in? Certainly outside of education, poverty and those issues are super important. Within the school, where would you want to put some of those resources?Leah Durán:Well, one of the things that I think about in terms of what all schools need to do a good job is based on an experience I had when we were both doctoral students at UTS. And one of the pieces of our training there was to supervise student teachers. And so we did that in schools all across the Austin area, so in the urban core and the suburbs. And one of the things that has really stayed with me was how different, even within the same district, classrooms were and schools were in terms of resources, depending who was enrolled there. And so I think about one particular school where I sometimes supervise student teachers, that was just really lovely and I would want everyone to have that experience. The teachers there were terrific, really talented teachers. They had huge classroom libraries. And just a lot of care and expertise went into mediating kids', access to books, kids' instruction, and were very inclusive.I remember seeing the whole classroom labeled in braille when there's a child who would benefit from them. So there's all these things. I think if you look at some of these schools that are already serving more affluent communities. I feel like everyone deserves that. And part of that is making it an attractive working condition. So one of the reasons I think that teachers like to work there and experience teachers that gravitated towards it was that they had money to pay for extra specialist teachers so that they got more planning periods. And I think that was part of what went into really thoughtful lessons. And they had tons and tons and tons of children's books. And I think that's an important piece that we should also take from the whole language side or the meaning focused side of these different pendulum swings, is that there's value in thinking about meaning and there's value in children's literature as a resource.And that doesn't have to be opposed to teaching about phonics, teaching about the code. So I guess that's my answer is I think if you look at a really wonderful school in an affluent neighborhood and think about what are all the resources that they have right there, even just in the school, that's even leaving outside all of the different things that kids have access to. But I would want all children to get to go to a school that looks and feels like that one in terms of a good place to learn, a good place to work.Matt Renwick:Any thoughts from the rest of the group on what was shared there?Debra Crouch:So, hi, I'm Debra Crouch. I'm a literacy consultant, so I go in and support schools. I live in San Diego. And you're echoing a conversation I had with the principal this morning as we walked around and we were looking at classroom libraries specifically. And just thinking about what it looks like. And at one point I asked, so I said it's that getting that picture, what would an affluent school look like? Why can't we create spaces that feel like that? Because one of the things that we were noticing were some of the jumbles in classrooms storage. It's the classrooms got the classroom, but then it's also got storage stuff all over. And we were starting to brainstorm ways that we could even take some of that out. And is there a space in the building that we could use as a storage because another principal had shared that idea.I think that envisioning, what are some of the possibilities that we could create around this, because I'm not absolutely positive that it is, like you were saying, it's like we have the money. So it's not like we don't have the money, it's the way that we're using it and the way that we're thinking about what happens at these schools. I go into classrooms sometimes and they've made black and white photocopies for the kids as opposed to giving them these really gorgeous books that they have access to. And for some reason they decide that a printed off black and white, and I keep saying to them, don't children deserve color in their books? Come on, this is not an acceptable way of treating the children. So maybe it is some of that conversation that we have around how we're using what we have and what those spaces could look like for kids. Yeah. So I so appreciated your article. Oh my goodness. This was brilliantly done. Yeah.Michiko Hikida:Thank you.Debra Crouch:You're welcome.Matt Renwick:You've already answered my last question, which was a colleague of mine, we were talking about science of reading, the reading wars, and he mentioned these things go on cycles. There's a thesis and then there's an antithesis, and then there's synthesis. And it goes back, goes around and around. And do you see that? I guess the question we had was, are these hard conversations of these issues necessary to go through in order to get to a better understanding of good reading instruction? I don't enjoy arguing about the science of reading, but is it also the obstacle is the way of thinking too?Michiko Hikida:My initial thought of that about that is it depends on who's having the conversation. So I think about the field of literacy research and how this conversation started in the 1960s. And in the field of literacy research, there has been a synthesis. And part of that synthesis is that, yes, phonics is an effective instructional tool, but it is not the entirety of a literacy curriculum. So within that field, I feel like there has been that thesis, antithesis and synthesis of this conversation. I think within the public sphere, the motivations for it are different. It's complicated, there's a lot of money involved, there's a lot of a lot of things involved. But I don't think that that conversation, the more public discourse on it is coming to it necessarily earnestly. And willing to engage with all of the research and evidence that we do have. So I think it depends on who's having the conversation and for what purpose.Matt Renwick:And then the context, it sounds like too, if you're debating stuff on Twitter, it's going to be a different conversation. [inaudible 00:19:08].Michiko Hikida:Or you know what? Policy makers like things that are very measurable and concrete and that I can legislate, and learning isn't really that clean. But gosh, that would be so much more convenient. [inaudible 00:19:25] with people and we're messy.Matt Renwick:Yeah, we can measure engagement, you can measure those more messier kinds of things, but not in the way you can measure some of the things that seem to get more of the attention. That's a great point.Mary Howard:And one thing that worries me in this day and age, and in my mind more so than ever it's been in history, is the level of mandating and the laws that are coming out from schools that are saying here are things that are not research based, like choice reading is not research based. We just shake our heads and go, "What?" So I think too, it's really important for us to be very cognizant that teachers are in schools where these horrifying mandates are being put in place. And so at the same time that we're thinking about all of the important things, I love the discussion of let's envision what is possible, and I know that teachers do that every day, but how do we help teachers to understand how to maneuver a school where there is a ball and chain attached to their arms and legs and persona, so to speak.Debra Crouch:See, a lot of it comes to leadership. It's the leadership in the schools. Because you can have that legislation piece, but it's interpreted so much by the school leadership. So that piece is so powerful and important in school leadership.Matt Renwick:Yeah. Leah or Michiko, did you see when you were visiting these schools during your dissertation, your studies, did you see a correlation with leadership? And you mentioned affluence, did you see a leadership factor there with supporting teachers?Michiko Hikida:I'll actually talk out of my teaching experience. So I taught third, fourth, and fifth in Texas. So they were all testing grades. And we had a remarkable principal and she protected us from the district. So when the district would say every elementary school in the city has to do this professional development, she would appeal to them and say, "Hey, I would love to do this with professional development with my teachers instead." So absolutely, and this was a title one school. I think 97% of our kids were on free and reduced price lunch. More than half of our kids were bi or multilingual.This was a school that I think people would think of as low performing, and it wasn't. And it was a joyful place to work as a teacher. I felt like I had a lot of autonomy. I felt like I had a ton of administrative support. And because of that, our students performed very well on high stakes testing and enjoyed reading. So I think that in my own experience, having a supportive administrator willing to go to bat for us made all the difference in the world.Matt Renwick:Well, that's great. We're running close to our time here together and I want to be respectful of that. Any closing thoughts that you might have, Leah or Michiko? If not, you can also share what you're reading right now. That's an option. But yeah, just any closing thoughts as we close our time together?Leah Durán:Yeah, I mean, one thing that I've been thinking about, and it was part of the reason why we wanted to write specifically in Phi Delta Kappan, is a place that's accessible to a lot of readers in a way that most academic journals aren't. I think that the state of the field is a very difficult thing to know. It requires a lot of time devoted to reading, to get a sense of what's going on in the field, what does the research say, what are points of contention? And I do feel like as people who have institutional access to all of these scholarly journals and that time is part of our jobs is to be current, that that's an important thing that I want to do is try and translate that or make more accessible the complexity or the synthesis that the field has arrived at in ways that I think are not always very easy to see if you can't get access to a lot of scholarly journals or go to AERA or any of these other conferences.Michiko Hikida:I'll just add a couple of things. So first thank you for having us. It's fun for Leah and me to talk about this. This was an important piece for us. But second, there is a piece that was just published in one of those journals that of course is behind the paywall that I would be happy to share with you about this that was written by David Reinking, and just came out in January, called Legislating Phonics. And he and a couple of others go through the history of this and challenge some of the arguments that phonics only people are making, which I thought was really helpful. The second thing I thought about is a book called Rocking the Boat, How Tempered Radicals affect Change.So when thinking about what teachers can do in their classrooms, when we know that there are some institutional constraints and some other challenges that they face, that's what comes to mind to me. So if I can share my screen for a quick second, I can just show you the cover.Matt Renwick:Yeah, I don't mind.Michiko Hikida:And as a classroom teacher, this is how I felt. I felt like I was a tempered radical. I, of course, had to operate within the constraints of the school and what I was expected to do. And I really worked to try to find those spaces where I could do something else. So that I would just share.Leah Durán:Oops. I wasn't fast enough.Michiko Hikida:Oh, sorry.Leah Durán:It's all right.Michiko Hikida:There you go.Leah Durán:Thank you. Let me do a quick screen-Matt Renwick:Rocking the Boat. How tempered Radicals Affect Change Without Making Trouble. Okay.Leah Durán:Oh, I love that title.Matt Renwick:[inaudible 00:26:27].Michiko Hikida:It really resonated for me as a teacher where we do operate with systems and how we might be able to make change from the inside without just burning it all apart.Leah Durán:Wow.Matt Renwick:And still be able to teach and lead and study and do research. And this has been great. We really appreciate you all being here, and we look forward to reading more from you. So thank you.Mary Howard:Thank you so much for the invitation. It was really great to get to talk.Leah Durán:Thank you.Debra Crouch:Thank you.Mary Howard:That was wonderful. Get full access to Read by Example at readbyexample.substack.com/subscribe

Join Jim and Zaretta Hammond in this episode of Coaching Conversations as they break down culturally responsive teaching and how teachers can be powerful catalysts in helping students transform into cognitively independent learners. Follow along as they discuss the impact of applying the science of learning through active demandingness, instructional equity, setting goals, and building students' confidence to accelerate and bring joy into learning for all students.   Ms. Hammond is a national education consultant and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. She is a former high school and community college expository writing instructor. She has published articles in Educational Leadership, The Learning Professional, and Phi Delta Kappan. She is passionate about the intersectionality of equity and culturally responsive teaching as a way to help educators close opportunity and learning gaps for under-served students. She has consulted widely with school districts, regional education service agencies, and coaching organizations across the country on ways to support students to accelerate their own learning through the science of learning. Ms. Hammond sits on the Board of Trustees for the Center for Collaborative Classroom and is involved in a number of working groups committed to educational equity through improvement science and the science of learning.  Learn more about Zaretta Hammond and her work by visiting: https://crtandthebrain.com/  Hear more from Zaretta at the 2023 Teaching Learning Coaching Conference, where she'll be featured as a keynote presenter. Register to attend in-person in Orlando, FL or virtually from your home or office. https://www.instructionalcoaching.com/tlc2023/

Zaretta Hammond is an international education consultant and the author of the best-selling book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. She holds a Master's in Education in English Education, with a concentration in Writing from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Zaretta is a former high school and community college expository writing instructor. She has also served as adjunct instructor at St. Mary's College School of Education in Moraga, California, where she taught Foundations of Adolescent Literacy. As a consultant, she has advised and provided professional development to school districts and non-profit organizations across the country around issues of equity, literacy, and culturally responsive teaching for the past 25 years. In addition to consulting and professional development, she has been on staff at national education reform organizations, including the National Equity Project and the former Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC) and she sits on the Board of Trustees for the Center for Collaborative Classroom. She has published articles in Educational Leadership, The Learning Professional, and Phi Delta Kappan. Zaretta brings a unique focus on neuroscience to the conversation about equity, literacy and culturally responsive pedagogy to make it understandable and practical for educators. Social Links LinkedIn: @zaretta-hammond Twitter: @Ready4Rigor

Get the book, Implementing Mastery Learning 3rd Edition Visit Tom's Website, www.TGuskey.com Follow Tom on Twitter @tguskey About the Author Thomas R. Guskey, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago's renowned Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis (MESA) program, he began his career in education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in the Chicago Public Schools, and was the first Director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national educational research center. He is the author/editor of twenty-five books and over three hundred articles published in prominent research journals as well as Educational Leadership, Kappan, and School Administrator. Dr. Guskey served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, as well as on the task force to develop the National Standards for Professional Development. He was named a Fellow in the American Educational Research Association and was awarded the Association's prestigious Relating Research to Practice Award. He was also awarded Learning Forward′s Outstanding Contribution to the Field Award and Phi Delta Kappan′s Distinguished Educator Award. 

Welcome to "Ask the Tech Coach," a podcast for Instructional Coaches and Technology Integration Specialists.In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” Jeff welcomes Daniel Bergman onto the podcast to discuss why teachers (and coaches) truly are Superhero's in the classroom!If you would like to be a part of future podcasts and share your thoughts, please contact the podcast. We would love to have you join the show.About our Guest: Daniel BergmanDaniel J. Bergman, Ph.D., is a Professor and Program Chair of Science Education at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. Like Superman, Dr. Bergman considers the Sunflower State his adoptive home. Unlike Superman, Dr. Bergman cannot leap tall buildings in a single bound.Dr. Bergman taught middle and high school science in Nebraska and Iowa, and currently works with students and teachers from kindergarten to graduate school and every grade in between. He has given nearly a hundred educational presentations at teacher conventions, school workshops, and research conferences across the continental United States.Dr. Bergman has published in various scholarly and professional avenues such as Edutopia, Phi Delta Kappan, New Teacher Advocate, The Clearing House, Teacher Educator, Teaching and Teacher Education, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, Science & Children, Science Scope, The Science Teacher, and Journal of College Science Teaching.As a fan of science, teaching, and superheroes, Dr. Bergman is the ultimate SuperNerd. He writes about these passions at www.teachlikeasuperhero.blog and elsewhere, including the book Teaching is for Superheroes! (Jossey-Bass/Wiley) – coming May 2023!Links of InterestWebsite: https://teachlikeasuperhero.blogTwitter: https://twitter.com/ShockerSciEdPurchase on AmazonJoin the TeacherCast Instructional Coaches Network!Are you a Tech Coach or looking to become one this year?Are you searching for support in your position?The TeacherCast Tech Coaches Network, is a dynamic Professional Learning Network designed specifically for Tech Coaches and designed to provide weekly support for all Instructional Coaches.3 Distinct Professional Learning Networks designed to help you grow for network other Coaches and Digital Learning LeadersFree Downloadable Templates and Coaching Resources that can be used in your district ... tomorrow!Direct access to Jeff Bradbury and all off his "offline" content that he creates during the school year.Exclusive TeacherCast and "Ask the Tech Coach" podcast episodes directly relating to the questions that YOU ASK in our PLN groups.Weekly email check-ins to stay connected and discuss your Instructional Coaching program!Monthly invitations to TeacherCast Instructional Coaching Meetings and Webinars... and more![convertkit form=3439843]Contact the Podcast!TeacherCast.net/VoiceMailTwitter: @AskTheTechCoachEmail: feedback@teachercast.netSubscribe to “Ask the Tech Coach”Apple Podcasts

James V. Shuls is an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Missouri St. Louis and Distinguished Fellow in Education Policy at the Show-Me Institute. His work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including Phi Delta Kappan, Social Science Quarterly, Education Week, The Rural Educator, Educational Policy, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He earned his Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas. He holds a bachelors degree from Missouri Southern State University and a masters degree from Missouri State University, both in elementary education. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, James taught first grade and fifth grade in southwest Missouri. Produced By Show-Me Opportunity

Zaretta Hammond is a former classroom English teacher who has been doing instructional design, school coaching, and professional development around the issues of equity, literacy, and culturally responsive teaching for the past 18 years. She teaches as a lecturer at St. Mary's College's Kalmanovitz School of in Moraga, California. In addition to consulting and professional development, she has been on staff at national education reform organizations, including the National Equity Project and the former Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC). She has trained instructional coaches in reading development, especially targeted at students of color and English learners. She has also designed national seminars such as the three-day Teaching with A Cultural Eye series for teachers and school leaders. She is regularly invited to present at regional and national conferences. She has authored articles that have appeared in publications such as Phi Delta Kappan. Along with a focus on culturally responsive teaching, Ms. Hammond has a strong research agenda around literacy, vocabulary development, and equity. She has designed culturally responsive tutor training programs aimed at volunteer reading tutors for a variety of non-profit organizations. She currently designing a literacy program to accelerate low reading skills among high school students. She holds a Masters in Secondary English Education. She also writes the popular ready4rigor.com blog. Zaretta is the proud parent of two young adult children, both of whom she taught to read before they went to school. She resides in Berkeley, CA with her husband and family.

In this episode, long-time University of Kentucky professor Dr. Tom Guskey, an award-winning author on educational measurement, evaluation, assessment, grading, and professional learning, provides valuable insight into the harmful effects of traditional grading methods from his two most popular books, Get Set, Go! Creating Successful Grading and Reporting Systems (2020) and On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting (2015). Dr. Guskey also shares thoughts on why compliance continues to drive the use of letter grades in the classroom and offers solutions for change as he shares an innovative approach to grading in Canada. You can buy both books at www.tguskey.com and follow along on Twitter at @tguskey for more valuable resources on how to change classroom grading and assessment. Meet Dr. Tom Guskey Dr. Thomas R. Guskey is Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky where he served as Department Chair, Head of the Educational Psychology Area Committee, and President of the Faculty Council. He has been a Visiting Professor at ten other universities in the U.S. and a Visiting Scholar at universities in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. He began his career in education as a middle school teacher and earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago under the direction of Professor Benjamin S. Bloom. He served as an administrator in Chicago Public Schools before becoming the first director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national research center. Dr. Guskey is the author/editor of 25 award-winning books and more than 250 book chapters, articles, and professional papers on educational measurement, evaluation, assessment, grading, and professional learning. His articles have appeared in prominent research journals including the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, and Review of Educational Research, as well as practitioner publications such as Education Week, Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, The Learning Professional, and School Administrator. He served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, on the task force to develop the National Standards for Professional Development, has been featured on the National Public Radio programs Talk of the Nation and Morning Edition. About Dr. Greg Goins As the Founder/Host of the Reimagine Schools Podcast, Dr. Greg Goins has emerged as one of the nation's leading voices on visionary leadership and the path to transforming our schools. He currently serves as the Director of the Educational Leadership Program at Georgetown College (KY) and previously spent 15 years as a school district superintendent in Illinois. Dr. Goins is a passionate keynote speaker and is available to speak at your next education conference or school PD day. To book Dr. Goins, please send inquiries to drgreggoins@gmail.com. Twitter: @DrGregGoins. Support for Reimagine Schools Podcast You can now click HERE to "buy a bourbon" for Dr. Goins to help support this podcast. Thanks for your support! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/greg-goins/support

The ranks of English language learners continue to expand rapidly. Some have no proficiency with the language, but many are intermediate English skills. In this episode, we explore strategies that are well suited for ELLs who have more developed English fluency. Follow our PLN on Twitter: @tchrlgonzalez @maestra_Gonzalez @bhuertas80 @cahnmann @larryferlazzo @bamradionetwork @jonHarper70bd Luisana González, serving Dual Language Students in Illinois in a fifth-grade classroom, started her teaching career with multilingual learners in 2005. She has previously taught K-5 MLs in a resource position, 2nd grade sheltered and 2nd grade DL before embarking on her teaching and learning journey with 5th graders in their DL program. Blanca Huertas has taught for 14 years between Puerto Rico and in Texas. She is married and has two beautiful daughters. She proudly served newcomer ELs for 6 years recently working with the general education population as an ELA teacher, but service long-term ELs through this format and is very passionate about helping our language learners succeed. Jane Hill has worked in second-language acquisition and special education for 40 years. As a managing consultant at McREL International, she trains and coaches classroom teachers and ELL specialists on best practices for helping students gain fluency in English. She is the co-author of Classroom Instruction That Works With ELLs and has published related articles in Language, The Journal of Staff Development, The School Administrator, Leadership Information, Phi Delta Kappan, Principal Leadership, and Educational Leadership. Kathleen Rose McGovern serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Southern Maine. Kathleen has worked as a language educator, teacher educator, and theatre artist for over a decade. She has taught ESL/EFL to children and adults in a variety of contexts in Morocco and the U.S., and serves as an English Language Teaching Specialist for the U.S. Department of State. She is co-author of, Enlivening Instruction with Drama and Improv: A Guide for Second Language and World Language Teachers. Melisa “Misha” Cahnmann-Taylor, Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, is the author of five books in education, poetry, and the arts. Her most recent book is Enlivening Instruction with Drama & Improv: A guide for Second Language and World Language Teachers (2021). She is the author of a book of poems, Imperfect Tense (2016) and three other books on the arts of language and education: Teachers Act Up: Creating Multicultural Community Through Theatre (2010) & Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice, first and second editions (2008; 2018).

Anyone who has ever sat in a classroom knows that some students need a higher level of academic enrichment and challenge than others. When did such a fundamental facet of education become controversial? Amy and Mike invited author and editor Brandon Wright to explain why gifted programs are under attack. What are five things you will learn in this episode? Why exactly are gifted and talented programs under attack? How has this opposition impacted gifted programs? What makes opposition to gifted programs bad educational policy? What makes opposition to gifted programs bad politics? Why are programs for high achievers fair and equitable? MEET OUR GUEST Brandon Wright is the Editorial Director of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He is the co-author or co-editor of three books: Failing our Brightest Kids: The Global Challenge of Educating High-Ability Students (with Chester E. Finn, Jr.), Charter Schools at the Crossroads: Predicaments, Paradoxes, Possibilities (with Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Bruno V. Manno), and Getting the Most Bang for the Education Buck (edited with Frederick M. Hess). His writing has appeared in places like the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, U.S. News, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, National Review, Newsweek, Education Next, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, the Journal of School Choice, and dozens of state newspapers. He holds a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Michigan. Brandon frequently appears on radio stations across the country. Find Brandon at bwright@fordhaminstitute.org LINKS Attacking gifted education is bad policy and bad politics Rigorous courses are a good thing—and good for equity Failing our Brightest Kids: The Global Challenge of Educating High-Ability Students Universal screening increases the representation of low-income and minority students in gifted education RELATED EPISODES THE NECESSITY OF GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAMS WHY SELECTIVE SPECIALIZED SCHOOLS MATTER LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD ABOUT THIS PODCAST Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page. ABOUT YOUR HOSTS Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, feel free to get in touch through our contact page. We'd love to hear from you!

This is episode #6 of the podcast and it's Thursday, the 25th of November 2021. In today's show, I am talking to Dr. Mitchell J. Nathan, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Learning Sciences in the Educational Psychology Department, Director of the MAGIC Lab, and a Fellow of the Teaching Academy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He studies how people think, teach, and learn, with special focus on the role that language and embodied processes play in understanding mathematics and engineering disciplines. His research explores the development of algebraic reasoning, expert blind spot in teaching, how cohesion processes support integrated STEM education, computer animation to support reading of mathematics story problems, and the embodied nature of mathematical intuition and geometric proof, with implications for the design of educational technology, teacher education and professional development, and student knowledge assessment. Professor Nathan has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and has recently published a book ‘Foundations of Embodied Learning: A Paradigm for Education' - which is the focus of this show. In his book, he advocates for a coherent evidence-based framework for how people learn. Starting with basic definitions of learning and the current state of the US education system, we address the central role that embodied learning plays in education and how can such an approach be measured.In the second part of the show, we tackle issues related to the role of immersive technologies in reshaping learning and how it might be done. We wrap up the discussion touching on the important concepts of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and their relation to an embodied approach to learning. Here is the show.Show Notes:What is learning and what is the current state of the education system in the US (and elsewhere)Embodied learning: a proposal for a coherent evidence-based framework for how people learnFoundational theories at the core of the education system in the US and elsewhere: Information Processing Theory (definition, advantages and disadvantages)The sensorial component: the role of the senses and their interconnections in this grounded and embodied learning approachAssessment practices: how exactly can we measure embodied learning? Do we have the necessary tools?Education technologies: role of immersive technologies in reshaping learning and how it might be doneDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): how do they relate to an embodied approach to learningOther Notes:Books and articles mentioned:Mitchell J. Nathan. Foundations of Embodied Learning: A Paradigm for Education. Routledge. 2021.Maxine McKinney de Royston, Carol D. Lee, Na'ilah Suad Nasir, and Roy Pea. Rethinking schools, rethinking learning. Phi Delta Kappan. 2020; 102(3):8-13.For more information on Prof. Nathan's book and research:https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09017-7.htmlhttps://www.routledge.com/Foundations-of-Embodied-Learning-A-Paradigm-for-Education/Nathan/p/book/9780367349769Don't miss the live conversation of Prof. Nathan's book hosted by A Room of One's Own on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 6:00pm. Detailed information on how to join virtually  can be found here: https://www.roomofonesown.com/event/mitchell-nathan-author-foundations-embodied-learning-conversation-dr-martha-wagner-alibali

In this episode, we invited Dr. Marc Brasof, an Associate Professor at the School of Education, Arcadia University to talk about student voice research and how this paradigm may interweave (or not) with Action Research. Dr. Brasof was a founding faculty member and history/social studies teacher at Constitution High School—Pennsylvania's only history- and civic-themed public school. We also have a special guest co-host, our very own Vanessa Gold, whose dissertation research focuses specifically on Student Voice and Action Research! We cover a range of themes centering student voice and action research in this episode, such as reflexivity, power dynamics, intersubjectivity, and contextualizing methods to the environment. The conversation starts with Vanessa asking hard hitting questions in our lightening round (5:11). She asks about Student Voice Research, some misconceptions about student voice, the importance of adults collaborating with youth in research, what high quality research with students looks like/does, and how student voice and action research may be aligned. Later in the episode, our hosts and Marc discuss four pillars of student voice research-reflexivity, power dynamics, intersubjectivity, and context/method selection; what is Reflexivity and how it evolves in student voice research(10:32), how does power dynamics look like considering researchers' positionality (13:50), how researcher go about method selection with students? (37:16). Tune in to listen more! References Brasof, M. (2015). Student voice and school governance: Distributing leadership to youth and adults. Routledge.  Brasof, M. (2018).Using Linkage Theory to Address the Student Voice Organizational Improvement Paradox. Journal of Ethical Educational Leadership, 1(Special Issue), 44–64.  Brasof, M. (2011). Student Input Improves Behavior, Fosters Leadership. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(2), 20–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171109300205 (https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171109300205) Lareau, A. (2018). Journeys through ethnography: Realistic accounts of fieldwork. Routledge. To get in touch with Marc: Twitter handles:@brasof Twitter, @stereotytans IG and Twitter Link- http://stereotytans.com/the-band.html (http://stereotytans.com/the-band.html), https://www.facebook.com/brasof (https://www.facebook.com/brasof) **If you have your own questions about Action Research or want to share any feedback, contact us on Twitter@The_ARpod or write to us at ActionResearchPod@gmail.com.**

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney Theme tune composed by David Vesey On this week's podcast I speak to cognitive scientist, Professor Daniel T Willingham from the University of Virginia. We discuss learning to read, learning styles, multiple intelligences, education research and more. The full range of topics includes: Applying the science of learning in school and at home Paradigms of cognitive psychology (reasonable assumptions) How cognitive science replaced behaviourism How cognitive science might inform the teaching of different subjects across the curriculum The relationship between basic science and applied science for teachers Why an opportunity exists for teacher organisations to review science and provide periodic updates for teachers to critique ideas (such as say, grit). Initial teacher education should provide a grounding in the science of learning and subsequently teachers' knowledge needs to be updated as the science evolves (and why the onus for such updating should not be on individual teachers) Among the few reliable publications for teachers he'd recommend are American Educator, and Phi Delta Kappan. Evaluating the relative importance of technical competence (decoding) and motivation in learning to read. The difference between reading a book and listening to an audio book (How prosody helps comprehension in audio books and how regressions help us in comprehending text) and why textbooks are different. Can audiobooks help a child who is having difficulties learning to decode? Criticism of the learning styles theory of the mind – there's no scientific basis to pedagogies based on learning styles. Why style differs to memory and ability and the importance of meaning in learning. Learning styles may offer a different ways for a teacher to think about topics they're going to teach. The construct of mental ability and multiple intelligences. Is intelligence one single construct or is it several independent constructs? Can critical thinking be taught? Can being a good critical thinker in one domain help you think critically in other domains? The importance of seeing the same underlying structure in various guises when practising critical thinking. How he evaluates the value or potential contribution of a research article in education. Contradictions in educational research – parallels with COVID-19 research. Why professional organisations need to tease out research implications for teachers. Why he reads very broadly in education. Daniel Willingham's “2002-style” website. He's on Facebook and Twitter @dtwillingham. His most recent books are Why don't students like school (2nd out now) and Outsmart your brain (August 2022).

Dr. Michael Q. McShane is the director of national research at EdChoice and Senior Fellow of Education Policy at the Show-Me Institute. Mike is the editor of New and Better Schools, the author of Education and Opportunity and coeditor of Educational Entrepreneurship Today, Teacher Quality 2.0 and Common Core Meets Education Reform. His analyses and commentary have been published widely in the media, including in the Huffington Post, National Affairs, USA Today and The Washington Post. He has also been featured in education-specific outlets such as Teachers College Commentary, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan and Education Next. In addition to authoring numerous white papers, McShane has had academic work published in Education Finance and Policy and the Journal of School Choice. A former high school teacher, he earned a Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas, an M.Ed. from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. in English from St. Louis University. Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

This episode is also supported by a blog post: https://richardjamesrogers.com/2021/04/25/3-things-that-make-a-school-outstanding/ Check out Richard's award-winning book for teachers - The Quick Guide to Classroom Management: 45 Secrets That All High School Teachers Need to Know: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TVCWFZ4 Sources referred to in this episode: W.L. Rutherford. School principals as effective leaders. Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 67 number1, 1985, pp. 31-34 UK Department for Education and Skills. Behaviour and Attendance Strand. Toolkit Unit 2. Key Stage 3 National Strategy. Everyday Policies: Rewards, Sanctions and Promotion of Positive Behaviour. pp. 21. [Online] Available at: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/5708/1/6c37a9499c7e75eaa76fd736c63ca731.pdf GREAT BRITAIN, & ELTON, R. (1989). Discipline in schools: report of the Committee of Enquiry chaired by Lord Elton. London, H.M.S.O. Available at http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/elton/elton1989.html

Novices get better when we support them with good feedback. An earlier version of this essay appeared as "10 Things to Know About Mentoring Student Teachers" in the April 2013 edition of Phi Delta Kappan magazine

Jennifer Abrams is an international educational and communications consultant for public and independent schools, hospitals, universities and non-profits. Jennifer trains and coaches teachers, administrators, nurses, hospital personnel, and others on new employee support, supervision, being generationally savvy, having hard conversations and collaboration skills.In Palo Alto USD (Palo Alto, CA), Jennifer led professional development sessions on topics from equity and elements of effective instruction to teacher leadership and peer coaching and provided new teacher and administrator trainings at both the elementary and secondary level. From 2000-2011, Jennifer was lead coach for the Palo Alto-Mountain View-Los Altos-Saratoga-Los Gatos Consortium's Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program.In her educational consulting work, Jennifer has presented at annual conferences such as Learning Forward, ASCD, NASSP, NAESP, AMLE, ISACS and the New Teacher Center Annual Symposium, as well as at the Teachers' and Principals' Centers for International School Leadership. Jennifer's communications consulting in the health care sector includes training and coaching work at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and Stanford Hospital.Jennifer's publications include Having Hard Conversations, The Multigenerational Workplace: Communicating, Collaborating & Creating Community and Hard Conversations Unpacked – the Whos, the Whens and the What Ifs. Her upcoming book, Swimming in the Deep End: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives, will be out March of 2019. Other publications include her chapter, “Habits of Mind for the School Savvy Leader” in Art Costa's and Bena Kallick's book, Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind: 16 Essential Characteristics for Success, and her contribution to the book, Mentors in the Making: Developing New Leaders for New Teachers published by Teachers College Press. Jennifer writes a monthly newsletter, Voice Lessons, available for reading at and subscribing to on her website, www.jenniferabrams.com and is a featured columnist, writing about personal development at www.eschoolnews.com.Jennifer has been recognized as one of “21 Women All K-12 Educators Need to Know” by Education Week's ‘Finding Common Ground' blog, and the International Academy of Educational Entrepreneurship. She has been a featured interviewee on the topic of professionalism for ASCD's video series, Master Class, hosted by National Public Radio's Claudio Sanchez, and in the lead article, “Finding Your Voice in Facilitating Productive Conversations” for Learning Forward's The Leading Teacher, Summer 2013 newsletter; as a generational expert for “Tune in to What the New Generation of Teachers Can Do,” published in Phi Delta Kappan, (May 2011), and by the Ontario Ministry of Education for their Leadership Matters: Supporting Open-to-Learning Conversations video series.Jennifer considers herself a “voice coach,” helping others learn how to best use their voices – be it collaborating on a team, presenting in front of an audience, coaching a colleague, supervising an employee and in her role as an advisor for Reach Capital, an early stage educational technology fund. Jennifer holds a Master's degree in Education from Stanford University and a Bachelor's degree in English from Tufts University. She lives in Palo Alto, California. Jennifer can be reached at jennifer@jenniferabrams.com, www.jenniferabrams.com, and on Twitter @jenniferabrams.

En el Capítulo 3 de Planeta Educativo, especial día de la Madre, discutimos el paper de Murphy, Seashore-Louis y Smylie (2017) ‘Liderazgo Escolar Positivo'. Además, nuestro resumen semanal de RuPaul's DragRace, y la relación entre The Witcher y la evaluación escolar según Daniel Muijs (@ProfDanielMuijs). Murphy, J., Louis, K. S. and Smylie, M. (2017) ‘Positive school leadership: How the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders can be brought to life', Phi Delta Kappan, 99(1), pp. 21–24. doi: 10.1177/0031721717728273. Entrevista a Karen Seashore-Louis en el Boletín Nº3 de LIDERES EDUCATIVOS (2019) acerca de Liderazgo Positivo.

Neste episódio, abordamos o assunto cognição e viés confirmatório, com a presença dos convidados Luciano Fuck, pai de duas crianças, advogado, com mestrado na Alemanha e doutorado na USP, e Américo Amorim, que mora em Recife e é doutor em Educação pela Johns Hopkins University. Referências: Sapolsky, R. (2017). Behave: the biology of humans at our best and worst. Vintage Books Thaler, R. & Sustein, C. (2008). Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness. Penguin Books. Watson, B. & Konicek, R. (1990). Teaching for Conceptual Understanding: Confronting children's experience. Phi Delta Kappan 71(9), 680-685. Sugestões de Leitura em português: Kahneman, D (2011). Rápido e Devagar: duas formas de pensar. Ed. Objetiva O Trio Traiçoeiro da Psicologia: Viés de confirmação, Dissonância cognitiva e Raciocínio motivado

Michael Q. McShane is Director of National Research at EdChoice and a Senior Fellow of Education Policy at the Show-Me Institute. His analyses and commentary have been published widely in the media, including in the Huffington Post, National Affairs, USA Today, and The Washington Post. He has also been featured in education-specific outlets such as Teachers College Commentary, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, and Education Next. In addition to authoring numerous white papers, McShane has had academic work published in Education Finance and Policy and the Journal of School Choice. He is the editor of New and Better Schools (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015), the author of Education and Opportunity (AEI Press, 2014), and coeditor of Teacher Quality 2.0 (Harvard Education Press, 2014) and Common Core Meets Education Reform (Teachers College Press, 2013). Learn more about the Show-Me Institute: https://showmeinstitute.org/ The Show-Me Institute Podcast is Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

In Episode 30 we have the privilege to speak with Spring CUE 2020 Keynote Speaker, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa! TNT EdTech Podcast and CUE are excited to introduce the Spring CUE Featured Speaker Series showcasing Spring CUE 2020 Conference speakers. To find out more about the featured speakers and register for the Spring CUE 2020 Conference in Palm Springs March 19th - 21st visit the CUE or featured speaker page. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa - CUE is proud to announce one of the two keynotes for Spring CUE 2020, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, a world-renowned leader and speaker – education expert who leads by example and her practical expertise will inspire. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa is the author of eight books on mind, brain, and education science, and dozens of articles related to this nascent field. Her most recent works are Neuromyths (2018) and The Five Pillars of the Mind (2019). She currently conducts educational research with the Latin American Faculty for Social Science in Ecuador (FLACSO) in Quito. She is a former member of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) expert panel to redefine teachers’ new pedagogical knowledge due to contributions from technology and neuroscience. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa has taught kindergarten through university and works with schools, universities, governments, and non-governmental organizations in over forty countries around the world. She is the former director of the Institute for Teaching and Learning (IDEA) and director of online learning at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and founding dean of education at the American University in Quito (Universidad de las Americas). Her office seeks to improve the quality of education through research, teacher training, and student support. Her current research focuses on the integration of mind, brain, and education science into teachers’ daily practice and professional development; changes in preschool math and pre-literacy skills based on neuroconstructivism; multilingualism; and the leveraging of technology to enhance learning outcomes. You can hear more from Tracy on Phi Delta Kappan’s podcast: https://www.kappanonline.org/podcast-what-we-know-about-learning-brain/ We are the TNT Edtech Podcast, and we are powered by CUE (@cueinc), www.cue.org! Follow TNT EdTech Podcast on your favorite podcast player of choice, on the web www.tntedtech.com and on Twitter @tntedtech - we thank you for listening!

TNT EdTech Podcast and CUE are excited to introduce the Spring CUE Featured Speaker Series showcasing Spring CUE 2020 Conference speakers. In this teaser, we introduce Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa and what she will be presenting on during the Spring CUE Conference. Be sure to check out the full episodes to these featured speakers in the upcoming weeks leading up to this not to miss educational conference in Palm Springs. To find out more about the featured speakers and register for the Spring CUE 2020 Conference in Palm Springs March 19th - 21st visit the CUE or featured speaker page. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa - CUE is proud to announce one of the two keynotes for Spring CUE 2020, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, a world-renowned leader and speaker – education expert who leads by example and her practical expertise will inspire. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa is the author of eight books on mind, brain, and education science, and dozens of articles related to this nascent field. Her most recent works are Neuromyths (2018) and The Five Pillars of the Mind (2019). She currently conducts educational research with the Latin American Faculty for Social Science in Ecuador (FLACSO) in Quito. She is a former member of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) expert panel to redefine teachers’ new pedagogical knowledge due to contributions from technology and neuroscience. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa has taught kindergarten through university and works with schools, universities, governments, and non-governmental organizations in over forty countries around the world. She is the former director of the Institute for Teaching and Learning (IDEA) and director of online learning at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and founding dean of education at the American University in Quito (Universidad de las Americas). Her office seeks to improve the quality of education through research, teacher training, and student support. Her current research focuses on the integration of mind, brain, and education science into teachers’ daily practice and professional development; changes in preschool math and pre-literacy skills based on neuroconstructivism; multilingualism; and the leveraging of technology to enhance learning outcomes. You can hear more from Tracy on Phi Delta Kappan’s podcast: https://www.kappanonline.org/podcast-what-we-know-about-learning-brain/ We are the TNT Edtech Podcast, and we are powered by CUE (@cueinc), www.cue.org! Follow TNT EdTech Podcast on your favorite podcast player of choice, on the web www.tntedtech.com and on Twitter @tntedtech - we thank you for listening!

Missouri recently received its latest grades on “The Nation’s Report Card,” (an assessment given to 4th- and 8th-graders in each state every two years by the U.S. Department of Education), and the news isn’t good. Read more from Dr. Susan Pendergrass: https://bit.ly/2PxRbgD James V. Shuls is an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and Distinguished Fellow in Education Policy at the Show-Me Institute. His work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including Phi Delta Kappan, Social Science Quarterly, Education Week, The Rural Educator, Educational Policy, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Learn more about the Show-Me Institue: https://showmeinstitute.org/ The Show-Me Institute Podcast is produced by Show-Me Opportunity

This weeks natter is with the distinguished Dr Thomas R Guskey. We discuss professional development and the importance of evaluating CPD. I ask Tom about his seminal piece of research: Does It Make a Difference? Evaluating Professional Development About Tom: Thomas R. Guskey, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Scholar in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville and Professor Emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he began his career in education as a middle school teacher, served as an administrator in the Chicago Public Schools, and was the first director of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning, a national research centre. Dr. Guskey is the author/editor of 25 award-winning books and more than 250 book chapters, articles, and professional papers on educational measurement, evaluation, assessment, grading, and professional learning. His articles have appeared in prominent research journals including the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, and Review of Educational Research, as well as practitioner publications such as Education Week, Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, and The Learning Professional, and School Administrator. He served on the Policy Research Team of the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, and on the task force to develop the National Standards for Professional Development. Introductory questions What is your 5 level model for evaluating professional development and how did it come about? What do you hope people take away from your model? England specific questions Professional development has arguably never been more valued than it is currently. In 2016 the DfE produced standards for teachers professional development but stopped short of overtly suggesting evaluation . Why is evaluation so important in professional development and so often overlooked? In 2018, the EEF released an implementation guide which looked at how to implement professional learning (and other initiatives) and was pitched at decision makers within schools. This seems to sit across levels 3-5 of your model. What do you see as the best ways to evaluate at level 3 . The EEF guide talks about fidelity data but what procedures would you use to evaluate at level 3? In 2019, OFSTED have written into their grade descriptors for a school to be 'outstanding' that "leaders ensure that teachers receive focussed and highly effective professional development. Teachers subject, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge build and develop over time. This consistently translates into improvements in the teaching of the curriculum" Firstly , what are your views on this? Secondly do you see this as sitting at level 4 and what are your thoughts on using observations of lessons to evaluate professional learning? Does improving the teaching of the curriculum automatically improve outcomes for pupils? Episode produced and edited by William H Rushton (www.naylorsnatter.co.uk) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/naylorsnatter/message

Dr. James V. Shuls, Show-Me Institute's Distinguished Fellow of Education Policy, joins KMOX's Charlie Brennan to discuss why Missouri lowered its testings standards and the negative repercussions its had on students. Originally aired on KMOX in St. Louis on July 3, 2018. Learn more in "Like A Sore Thumb: Missouri's Testing Standards Buck National Trend": https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/accountability/sore-thumb-missouris-testing-standards-buck-national-trend About the author: James V. Shuls is an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and Distinguished Fellow in Education Policy at the Show-Me Institute. His work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including Phi Delta Kappan, Social Science Quarterly, Education Week, The Rural Educator, Educational Policy, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He earned his Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Missouri Southern State University and a master’s degree from Missouri State University, both in elementary education. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, James taught first grade and fifth grade in southwest Missouri.

How do you address controversial science issues in your classroom instruction? This week Lab Out Loud welcomes the co-authors of a recent Phi Delta Kappan publication that might give you some insight in how to help prepare students to become scientifically literate citizens by incorporating socioscientific issues in the classroom. David Owens (College of Education, University of Missouri), Troy Sadler (professor of education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and Dana Zeidler (university professor of science education, University of South Florida) join co-hosts Brian Bartel and Dale Basler to talk about their article, discuss an instructional framework for successfully implementing socioscientific issues as learning experiences, and highlight the importance of evaluating scientific evidence when tackling these issues in the science classroom.  Show notes at: https://laboutloud.com/2018/02/episode-181-socioscientific-issues/

In January 1888, after a disarming warm spell, a violent storm of blinding snow and bitter cold suddenly struck the American Midwest, trapping farmers in fields, travelers on roads, and hundreds of children in schoolhouses with limited fuel. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the Children's Blizzard, one of the most harrowing winter storms in American history. We'll also play 20 Questions with a computer and puzzle over some vanishing vultures. Intro: In 1835 an assassin shot two good pistols at Andrew Jackson and both misfired. In 1958 Brooklyn College chemistry professor Homer Jacobson built a self-replicating model train. Sources for our feature on the Children's Blizzard: David Laskin, The Children's Blizzard, 2004. Mitchell Newton-Matza, ed., Disasters and Tragic Events, 2014. Steven L. Horstmeyer, The Weather Almanac, 2011. "The Pitiless Blizzard," Aurora Daily Express, Jan. 16, 1888. "Victims of the Storm," Bridgeport Morning News, Jan. 19, 1888. "In the Neighborhood," Deseret News, Jan. 24, 1888. "A Brave Girl," Gettysburg [Pa.] Compiler, Jan. 31, 1888. Edythe H. Dunn, "Not Even an Act of God," Phi Delta Kappan 30:7 (March 1949), 245-249. Jill Callison, "The Children's Blizzard," Argus Leader, Dec. 26, 2004. Maria Houser Conzemius, "That's Why They Call It the Children's Blizzard," Iowa City Press-Citizen, March 13, 2007. Steve Tracton, "Freak, Deadly Storm: Children's Blizzard of 1888," Washington Post, Jan. 14, 2011. Jeanie Mebane, "Blizzard!" Cobblestone 33:3 (March 2012). "One-Room Schoolhouse Lives," Argus Leader, Sept. 4, 2012. Beccy Tanner, "213 Schoolchildren Perished in the Great Plains Blizzard of 1888," Wichita Eagle, Dec. 31, 2012. Alyssa Ford, "125 Years Ago, Deadly 'Children's Blizzard' Blasted Minnesota," MinnPost, Jan. 11, 2013. Tom Lawrence, "Children's Blizzard Struck Great Plains 125 Years Ago," McClatchy-Tribune Business News, Jan. 12, 2013. Paula Quam, "Warm Weather Like This Week's Preceded 1888 Deadly Blizzard," Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Dec. 19, 2015. Sean Potter, "Retrospect: January 12, 1888: The Children's Blizzard," Weatherwise (accessed Jan. 6, 2018). Amber Pariona, "The Ten Deadliest Blizzards In History," World Atlas, April 25, 2017. Listener mail: "Hitler's Sunken Secret," NOVA, pbs.org. 20Q. Robin Burgener describes teaching a neural network to play a surprisingly accurate game of 20 Questions. Karen Schrock, "Twenty Questions, Ten Million Synapses," ScienceLine, July 28, 2006. "A Heroic Commando, A Deadly Mission to Sabotage Nazi Bomb -- and the Pregnant Widow He Left Behind," Cork Evening Echo Holly Bough, Christmas 2017. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Eugene Grabowski. Here are three corroborating links (warning -- these spoil the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music or via the RSS feed at http://feedpress.me/futilitycloset. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- on our Patreon page you can pledge any amount per episode, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

On this episode, Katie is joined by Dr. Stuart Buck. As the Vice President of Research at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Stuart works to ensure that research funded by the Foundation is as rigorous as possible, and that the Foundation's major investments are evaluated by independent experts. An attorney and research expert with a background in education policy, Stuart has written and co-written numerous scholarly articles that have appeared in journals such as Science, Harvard Law Review, Education Economics, Education Next, Phi Delta Kappan, and Review of Public Personnel Administration. Stuart has testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and has been a panelist at major academic conferences, including the Association for Education Finance and Policy, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, and the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance. He is the author of a Yale University Press book on education in the African-American community, Acting White. Stuart holds a Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas, where he studied econometrics, statistics, and program evaluation; a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review; and bachelor's and master's degrees in music performance from the University of Georgia.   Segment 1: Working at a Foundation [00:00-10:12] In this first segment, Stuart describes about his research work at the Arnold Foundation. Segment 2: Promoting Research Integrity [10:13-23:48] In segment two, Stuart shares about how he works to promote research integrity at the Arnold Foundation. Segment 3: Increasing the Use of Data in the Criminal Justice System [23:49-36:59] In segment three, Stuart describes some of the recent work of the Arnold Foundation to impact the criminal justice system. Bonus Clip #1 [00:00-04:01]: Pathways to Working with Foundations To share feedback about this podcast episode, ask questions that could be featured in a future episode, or to share research-related resources, contact the “Research in Action” podcast: Twitter: @RIA_podcast or #RIA_podcast Email: riapodcast@oregonstate.edu Voicemail: 541-737-1111 If you listen to the podcast via iTunes, please consider leaving us a review. The views expressed by guests on the Research in Action podcast do not necessarily represent the views of Ecampus or Oregon State University.

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education. Eileen Award: Advisory: You are Predictable Make the board ahead of time, or put it on a Promethean Board. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DaWcL3oOd-E Business Cards Have the kids design business cards for famous people, fictional characters, historical figures, etc. http://thisisnthappiness.com/post/35780275184/business-cards 10 Bets that you can win Use these to create a challenge for students. Encourage them to think together. This can help prime the thinking. These are really just problem solving opportunities. http://www.tastefullyoffensive.com/2012/11/another-10-bets-you-will-always-win.html Perceptives On the cover of American Prospect, Joel Sternfeld’s ode to roadside America, was a ghoulish photo. A fireman shops for a pumpkin as the farmhouse — whose fire presumably brought him to this very acres — burns in the background. Its fiery destruction perfectly complemented the wintry leaves, the spoilt pumpkins, and from the foreground, with his hands tightly clasped upon a prized possession, the orange-clad firefighter: an American Nero. http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/joel-sternfeld-mclean-virginia-december-1978/ Middle School Science Minute by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com) Reflecting on Data Recently I gave a talk at a new teacher orientation for the Rouge Education Project, a water quality monitoring project on the Rouge River, in the Michigan counties of Wayne and Oakland. The purpose of the talk was to share ideas on curriculum. The two areas I focused in on were: 1. Inquiry Analysis and Communication 2. Reflection and Social Implication To learn more about the Rouge Education Project, please visit: http://www.therouge.org From the Twitterverse: Save the date 2/6/13 Digital Learning Day @sjhayes8 #ncte12 #mschat every Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. Resources: Circuits http://www.circuits.io/ 8 GREAT GRADING APPS FOR IPAD http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/11/8-great-grading-apps-for-ipad.html Web Spotlight: A Cure for the Mania of Multiple Drafts, Multiple Formats, X 100 By Ariel Sacks In my last post, I described my utter failure to effectively organize and manage my students' drafting process for writing projects. This job has become much more complicated over the years with the availability of various technological tools for writing. New, clear parameters are definitely necessary. http://transformed.teachingquality.org/blogs/shoulders-giants/11-2012/cure-mania-multiple-drafts-multiple-formats-x-100 Everything That Will Go Extinct In The Next 40 Years Futurist website nowandnext.com put together this awesome infographic predicting all of the technologies, behaviors, and ideas that will probably be distant memories by 2050. Among their predictions: no more retirement four years from now, no more secretaries six years from now, and no more free parking or sit-down breakfasts by 2019. The European Union is seen as surviving the current crisis before extinct in 2039. http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-that-will-go-extinct-in-the-next-40-years-2012-8#ixzz29zsNrc6U News: The [editor of Phi Delta Kappan] concludes by asserting that “every classroom should have excellent teaching every hour of every day.” I would add that every child should also have an excellent parent who serves them excellent food and provides them with an excellent home in an excellent neighborhood. Let’s also add excellent healthcare and excellent supervision every hour of every day as well. If we could accomplish all of that, we would have the highest achieving students on earth. http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2012/11/while-we-wait-for-wise-lawmakers-to-emerge.html AMLE Annual Conference Sessions: Dr. Debbie Silver, paid session.

Michael Soguero is the Director of Professional Development at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center. His work at Eagle Rock was covered in a recent article in Phi Delta Kappan which is reprinted on the Eagle Rock website. According to the article: Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center (ERS) in Estes Park, Colo., is […]