After taking the helm in 2020, Bracy invested in a comprehensive curriculum and high-quality resources, including menus for acceleration and remediation. The results are significant.

The North Carolina district has risen in state rankings from 83rd to 35th for grade-level proficiency. Additionally, it reduced its number of low-performing schools from 15 to one.

“When I got here, the benchmarking system was not in place,” Bracy says on the latest episode of油District 91心頭istration’s油“Talking Out of School” podcast. “You had pockets of schools that were benchmarking their students. So, we invested heavily into making sure all of our students were being assessed, taking the same assessment per grade level, and then we would come together and look at the results.”

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Bracy says the district used ESSER funds to purchase a research-based curriculum aligned with best teaching practices. He also implemented district-wide benchmark assessments and established data meetings with油senior leadership to analyze trends in student performance.

To learn more about how Bracy spearheaded academic success through the pandemic, listen to this episode of “Talking Out of School” on , or , or by using the widget down below:

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“Identifying the problem and potential solutions should involve everybody who’s engaged in it,” says Francie Alexander, senior vice president of efficacy and consulting research at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH). She notes that school districts nationwide rely on edtech to boost student academics, putting immense pressure on vendors to produce high-quality results.

She advises leaders to focus on “data-rich” insights and look for tools that do more than provide raw data about their students. Instead, find a product油that guides and informs instruction to boost student outcomes.

Alexander cautions against the “dreaded drip” that comes from having too much data. The most effective products should help educators identify meaningful and actionable data.

You can listen to the podcast on , , , or using the template below:

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In the latest episode of油District 91心頭istration‘s “Talking Out of School” podcast, Merlyn Mind’s fills listeners in on the emerging technology. The more well-known large language model, such as ChatGPT, is “what makes a computer able to understand our human language in ways that, previously, would have been shocking,” Belnap says.

“Its most current versions is, you take all the world’s information, you stick it in there and now [your computer] can kind of understand anything you say, and it can respond in ways that seem really coherent,” he adds. “It’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh! The computer understands me.'”

Merlyn Mind’s founder, Satya Nitta, has described using such a powerful in K12 learning as “putting a Ferrari engine in a lawnmower,” Belnap notes.

“In a classroom, we need to take into account privacy, safety and security needs,” he adds. “We need to take into account costs and, very importantly, we have to take into account ‘How do you help students learn?’ And that may not be doing everything that the big models can do, but doing very focused, specific things that you want to do in the classroom.”

Merlyn has built a small-language “appropriateness” model that reduces the risk of returning inappropriate answers to students’ questions. The company’s technology is also designed to increase student-teacher interaction after witnessing the struggles of AI tutors to fully engage students.

“You gotta make sure that what’s in those models is safe for those students to see,” he explains.

To learn more, listen to the podcast below, or on , or .

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Sasha Rabkin, chief of program strategy and innovation for the , a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research and development in K12 education, argues that because of the way public education is funded���or not���we’ve given a large set of responsibilities to philanthropy to fill financial gaps in district operations.

“Because of that, I think we’ve created a real sense of both needing philanthropy in that relationship and also having a real opportunity to shift how philanthropy is doing that and not having to be a one-way street because some of us need the money,” says Rabkin.

Rabkin says numerous areas receive little to no funding in education, and R&D has the potential to bolster these services for K12 education.

“In the federal government, I think 50% of the defense budget goes toward R&D while less than 2% of the education budget goes to R&D,” Rabkin explains. “We know how to do R&D and we know it’s important for creating guardrails and what you can do in the world.”

The Advanced Education Research and Development Fund also works closely with district leaders to fill in the scientific discovery gaps behind R&D in public education. You can find some of those opportunities .

You can listen to this podcast on , , or , or you can use the template below.

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“When I went to school, media literacy looked like being able to read a newspaper, understand what we were being told, maybe verify that with a second or maybe third source,” Camhi notes. “But the abundance of information that’s out there requires that we teach students how to know the difference between factual information and other people’s version of that.”

Media literacy begins in sixth grade English language arts and social studies in the Baldwin Union Free School District. High school seniors can take a college-level civics news literacy course that is credited through Stony Brook University.

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“Our kids sit around the dinner table with their families, having these political discussions, and so I dare say that they probably influence the thinking in their families and in their communities,” she continues. “It’s not a skill that you can learn overnight. It’s a skill you have to grow up with.”

Media literacy is a hot topic during an election season but it’s a skill students need throughout their daily lives on- and offline, Camhi adds.

“It’s about the clothes that you buy. It’s about the friends that you keep. It’s about your community and the local newspaper. It’s about everything,” she explains. “The election is sort of the cherry on the top. I mean, it’s like the peak of the mountain. But knowing that what you read or hear is true, and being able to decipher your opinions and your beliefs based on real information, is paramount to everything that we do all the time.”

Listen to the podcast below, or on , or .

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“We need to help these teachers fully understand the empowerment they have and the impact they’re going to make on the future workforce of America,” he says on the latest episode of the Talking Out of School podcast.

Anderson and the National Math + Science Initiative work across districts in nearly 40 states, helping education leaders streamline their STEM programs and build a stronger American workforce capable of filling some of the most sophisticated jobs in cybersecurity, data science and other areas. “Our professional development is focused on strengthening teachers’ skills and equipping them with strategies that we believe the studies are showing will inspire the next generation of STEM professionals and innovators.”

But to cultivate an educated workforce of tomorrow, K12 stakeholders must油ensure these opportunities are available for students from all walks of life. “It has to be done, and that’s where our focus is,” he says. “If you look at the number of unfilled STEM jobs across America, they’re not going to be filled just by one demographic getting a degree.

“We have to have more women. We have to have more students of color,” he concludes. “It may not be what they’re considering their [favorite] course, yet once they get into it, they get really excited.”

You can listen to this episode on , , or down below:

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In the latest episode of District 91心頭istration‘s “Talking Out of School” podcast, Lauren Morando Rhim, executive director of the Center for Learner Equity,油 details her organization���s pivotal of how charter schools support students with disabilities.

“Collectively, traditional and charter, we are not doing what we should be doing for kids with disabilities,” says Rhim, named one of District 91心頭istration’s Top 100 Education Influencers. “So let’s be honest about that, and say, ‘How do we improve?’ How do we make sure that parents of kids with disabilities can find a school that works for their child?'”

The Center for Learner Equity study offers models and insights to education leaders and policymakers working to enroll and enable students with disabilities to succeed in charter schools. Charter schools have thrived under less regulation than traditional K12 schools and Rhim fears that policymakers may introduce new legislation if charters do not more proactively address the needs of kids with disabilities.

���I would love to see charters that are creating great learning environments and having great outcomes for kids who have long been marginalized, kids who are from low-income communities, kids of color,��� she continues. ���Because there���s lots of intersection���it���s not like kids are one thing or the other.���

Small charter schools should consider partnering with nonprofits, other charter systems and community organizations to maximize resources. Education leaders in the charter and traditional sectors facing staff shortages should also look at how to reorganize schools to improve the climate for teachers.

For more of Rhim’s insights���including how education leaders can tackle the challenge of expiring COVID relief funds���listen to the podcast below, or on , or .

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Smartphone bans have ramped up in popularity as school systems like New York Public Schools, the nation’s largest district, during the school day. The announcement came not long after U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an op-ed in油The New York Times油advocating for warning labels on social media platforms to better protect youth from harmful effects on mental health.

Bill Salak, chief technology and chief operating officer at Brainly, a homework help and test prep platform, says it’s a model that no school should follow.

“I don’t think anybody on either side of this issue, whether they agree with me or they’re for smartphone bans, I don’t think they have bad intentions,” he explains. “I think we’re aligned on the ultimate goal, which is to keep kids safe and make sure they have positive mental health and that they’re not distracted in school and their educational experience is effective.”

Overall, Salak doesn’t believe that banning smartphones in schools is an effective way to minimize distractions and reduce behavioral issues. “Cell phones are a part of our daily lives as adults,” he says. “They’re productivity tools that we as adults use in our professional and personal lives.”

“By saying that school is somehow different and we should ignore these tools and not lean into them, I think we’re setting our kids up to be under-informed, under-prepared.”

Tune into this episode of the “Talking Out of School” podcast to learn why Salak believes schools should instead tap into the potential smartphones create for teaching digital literacy.

You can listen to this episode on , , , or down below:

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Fact: This week’s guest on District 91心頭istration’s ‘Talking Out of School’ podcast provides a framework for creating a portrait of a graduate that better equips students to transition from K12 to college and careers. Mike Duncan, CEO of the nonprofit , works with his team to guide district leaders in sparking curiosity in young people to engage them in more meaningful and rigorous learning.

“The nation has just been focused on high-stakes, standardized testing that aims to rank and sort students, but probably not much more,” Duncan says on the podcast. “And so the idea was ‘How do we leverage rigorous, academic content to create experiences where young people can develop a set of durable skills that are locally developed and globally positioned?'”

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Three underlying themes elevate the portrait of a graduate concept: inquiry-based learning, a high degree of student self-direction and authentic placed-based projects that have value beyond school.

“The portrait of a graduate is not, unto itself, the movement, the portrait graduate is a catalyst for deeper instructional transformation inside of school,” Duncan advises. “When you think about those three characteristics, that’s an incredibly powerful learning environment that creates joy and meaning for young people.”

Check out the podcast for some concrete examples of districts and states���such as North Carolina���that have created expansive portraits to establish a shared vision for K12 learning and the skills colleges and employers now require of high school graduates.

“The portrait of a graduate begins to help schools assist young people in being really good at life,” Duncan concludes. “And so the idea that the people who will be successful in this next generation will be those who have the ability to unlearn and relearn rapidly and in real-time���that is the type of environment and cultivation of instructional design that we believe all young people should have access to.”

Listen to the podcast below, or on , or .

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Home to some 2,250 ninth- through 12fth-graders, State College Area High School is the only public high school in its Pennsylvania district. Like many schools since the pandemic, its leaders have noticed a considerable shift in student behavior���until innovation took hold.

They’ve been working to implement PBIS for the better part of 10 years, notes Danielle Ambrosia, the school’s assistant principal, on the latest episode of the “Talking Out of School Podcast. She says it’s been difficult to launch such a program given the school’s size. There was also a dramatic change in leadership in 2021 resulting in five fresh leaders, including Ambrosia and Principal Laura Tobias.

While attending a conference, Tobias heard , an author, speaker and award-winning principal, talk about the importance of ensuring students know they’re loved each day.

“That was that an a-ha moment for us, and we took that and started last year by showing kids what love looks like,” says Tobias. That included showing kids their staff’s wedding photos and then presenting examples of teachers working closely with students to help folks differentiate between the two.

“All the good things that are happening in the high school, this is a different type of love,” explains Tobias. Additionally, she communicates the following principles to her students during morning announcements: pause before you post; if it’s not your business, it’s not your business; leave it better than you found it; and remember, we love you State High.

“I tell those students every day that they are loved and we want them with us in this community,” Tobias continues.

Their PBIS program goes even further, and you can learn more about it and the leaders who pioneered this effort by listening to the podcast on , or , or down below.

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