In Episode 4, we hear from Melinda Young, superintendent of Steubenville City Public Schools , Kayla Whitlatch, Steubenville’s treasurer, and Lynnett Gorman, the district’s federal grants administrator, about how ESSER funds are allowing Steubenville to construct a STEM building connected to the high school, which they view as a long-term investment in students’ dreams and post-pandemic economic growth. “This is the money to use for our dreams that we probably would never have had enough money t...
May 23, 2022•42 min•Season 5Ep. 4
In Episode 3, leaders in two states explain how they are using ESSER funds to pursue statewide improvement efforts. In Delaware, recently retired state superintendent, Dr. Susan Bunting , along with Dr. Michael Saylor, education associate for school leadership initiatives , and Dr. Jackie Wilson , director of the Delaware Academy for School Leadership, note that their state has developed a leadership pipeline that includes teacher leaders, assistant principals, principals, and superintendents, i...
May 16, 2022•29 min•Season 5Ep. 3
In Episode 2, we sit down with Tricia McManus , superintendent of Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools, who says that her district is making the most of its relief money by using it to address pressing needs and invest for the future. She’s spending on everything from COVID mitigation and new curricula to contracting with community “violence interrupters” to help mentor and engage students. She is also hiring an evaluator to ensure that the district will be able to see what works and needs to be...
May 09, 2022•24 min•Season 5Ep. 2
In Episode 1 , we talk about the big picture with Phyllis Jordan of FutureEd , a Washington think tank that has been tracking how districts are spending the money. She says that what is very clear is that what she calls “under-resourced districts” are using much of their money for immediate needs, such as repairs or to prevent illness. We also talk with Dr. Luvelle Brown , a superintendent in Ithaca, New York , and Dr. Corey Miklus , a superintendent in Seaford, Delaware , about how much of thei...
May 02, 2022•23 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Are you wondering how school districts are spending the money the federal government sent them to get through the COVID crisis? Karin Chenoweth, a writer-in-residence at The Education Trust, has been talking with educators around the country for Season 5 of ExtraOrdinary Districts. Karin explores how this once-in-a-generation investment in education is being used to meet the immediate needs of students during the pandemic and to set up long-term strategies to address inequities.
Apr 13, 2022•3 min
In the final episode of this season of ExtraOrdinary Districts, Tanji Reed Marshall interviews her co-host Karin Chenoweth about Chenoweth’s new book, Districts that Succeed: Breaking the Correlation Between Race, Poverty, and Achievement , which will be published May 25 by Harvard Education Press. Be sure to subscribe to ExtraOrdinary Districts to be notified of new episodes when they come out.
Apr 23, 2021•48 min•Season 4Ep. 20
In this episode, ExtraOrdinary Districts co-hosts Karin Chenoweth and Tanji Reed Marshall chew over what they heard and what they learned from five previous episodes that explored different aspects of reading instruction. They connect the question of reading instruction to our historical moment in which we as a nation are deciding whether to be a democracy in which all citizens are equal or an autocracy in which some citizens are marked to be members of a lower caste. If we are to be a democracy...
Apr 16, 2021•58 min•Season 4Ep. 19
When Tennessee showed no progress on the last results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress and Massachusetts actually declined, both states were spurred to make some major changes to improve the reading instruction in their states. In this episode, Dr. Lisa Coons, chief academic officer of the Tennessee State Department of Education, Dr. Heather Peske, senior associate commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Education, and Katherine Tarca, director of literacy and humanities in t...
Apr 09, 2021•51 min•Season 4Ep. 18
Most elementary schools teach reading with either a basal reading program , a teacher-developed curriculum, or a balanced literacy program like Fountas & Pinnell or Teachers College Units of Study . But the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) , in calling for a national improvement in reading instruction, has called upon all state superintendents and commissioners to encourage schools and districts to adopt the high-quality materials that have been developed in the last few years ...
Apr 02, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 17
The last results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed no progress and some indicators even declined, meaning few children are reading at an advanced or proficient level. Partly because of those disappointing results and partly because of a series of podcasts by American Public Media’s Emily Hanford , a growing number of educators, parents, advocates, and policymakers have become interested in incorporating the “science of reading” into reading instruction in hopes of improvi...
Mar 26, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 16
The right to be taught how to read is a birthright of all Americans, argues attorney Mark Rosenbaum . And schools have a responsibility to teach them, says reading expert Nell Duke . They are allies in a series of legal cases to try to establish the “right to read,” and they join podcast co-hosts Karin Chenoweth and Tanji Reed Marshall in this second installment of a series of podcasts about reading instruction. (The first was a conversation with reading researcher Alfred Tatum.) Among other thi...
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 15
The education field has long understood that improving class instruction was the key to improving student learning. But for the past two decades, the focus of national and state policy, as well as the efforts of education practitioners, has been almost exclusively on teachers and their practices. In 2004, however, an important study established that principals were important to student […]
Mar 12, 2021•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 14
Schools have come under increasing pressure to reopen their buildings so that students can attend in person again. But those who insist that schools are safe don’t often acknowledge the work that must be done in order to make them safe. Jennifer Robbins, principal of Ladd Acres Elementary School in Hillsboro, Oregon, talks about the many things that have had […]
Mar 05, 2021•48 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Recently the organization representing state education superintendents issued a statement urging their members to make reading instruction a core focus. During the rest of this season, we will have an ongoing discussion of why the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) took such an unusual step and the implications of its statement. To kick off this series of discussions, […]
Feb 26, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Junction City, Kansas (USD 475 Geary County) re-opened school buildings in September after a summer of planning and a myriad of mitigation measures, from closing down water fountains to ensuring that students face in the same direction whenever possible—as well as making sure every school has a nurse or nurse clerk and putting in equipment to change the air in […]
Feb 12, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 11
After a fall of flipping between opening and closing school buildings, Godwin Heights Public Schools in western Michigan responded to a huge spike in community spread of coronavirus by deciding to close before Thanksgiving until at least January 19. Part of the decision rested on the fact that it had become difficult to fully staff schools as bus drivers, janitorial […]
Dec 18, 2020•53 min•Season 4Ep. 5
“Something that was already a yeoman’s job has become even greater.”
Dec 11, 2020•55 min•Season 4Ep. 4
“We keep using that word hard.”
Dec 04, 2020•49 min•Season 4Ep. 3
“We have a third of our kids in every day. But one hundred percent of our students are learning every single day” In this episode of Season Four of The Education Trust’s podcast, ExtraOrdinary Districts, Nicholas Stirling, superintendent of Valley Stream 30 in Nassau County New York, is joined by assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction Jennifer Lewner and three […]
Nov 27, 2020•50 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In this inaugural episode of Season Four of The Education Trust’s podcast, ExtraOrdinary Districts, Sergio Garcia, principal of Artesia High School in ABC Unified District in Los Angeles County, is joined by two teachers: William Napier, chair of the special education department and Stephanie Palutzke, acting dean. Napier and Palutzke are also the school’s teacher union representatives, and they and […]
Nov 19, 2020•46 min•Season 4Ep. 1
The Education Trust is about to launch Season 4 of ExtraOrdinary Districts. In our first two seasons we provided in-depth profiles of school districts that are breaking the correlation between race, poverty, and academic achievement. Before we could even choose the next districts to go to, the pandemic hit. So for season 3, Ed Trust’s Director of Practice Tanji Reed […]
Oct 06, 2020•2 min
In a lively conversation, Tanji Reed Marshall and Karin Chenoweth wrap up Season 3, ExtraOrdinary Districts in Extraordinary Times, by talking through what they have heard from school and district leaders from Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington D.C. Over the course of 19 episodes, front-line educators have […]
Jul 01, 2020•47 min•Season 3Ep. 20
In a lively conversation, Tanji Reed Marshall and Karin Chenoweth wrap up Season 1 of ExtraOrdinary Districts in Extraordinary Times by talking through what they have heard from school and district leaders from Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington D.C. Over the course of 19 episodes, front-line educators […]
Jul 01, 2020•47 min•Season 3Ep. 20
“If we’re face-to-face, we’ll be pretty good with that. If we’re remote, we’re 80% there,” says superintendent Corey Miklus in Seaford, Delaware, about the upcoming fall semester. “The real question is if we go to a hybrid format, because in that hybrid format there’s probably about 50 to 100 different scenarios you could work out.” Should they have A days […]
Jun 29, 2020•27 min•Season 3Ep. 19
“If we’re face-to-face, we’ll be pretty good with that. If we’re remote, we’re 80% there,” says superintendent Corey Miklus in Seaford, Delaware, about the upcoming fall semester. “The real question is if we go to a hybrid format, because in that hybrid format there’s probably about 50 to 100 different scenarios you could work out.” Should they have A days […]
Jun 29, 2020•27 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Dr. Sonja Santelises joins ExtraOrdinary Districts in Extraordinary Times to discusses the Black Lives Matter protests and the decisions she faces as superintendent of Baltimore in planning for the return of students in the fall — from what equipment she is having to buy to what changes in the curriculum she will have to make. Surveys to gather information and […]
Jun 24, 2020•51 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Dr. Sonja Santelises joins ExtraOrdinary Districts in Extraordinary Times to discusses the Black Lives Matter protests and the decisions she faces as superintendent of Baltimore in planning for the return of students in the fall — from what equipment she is having to buy to what changes in the curriculum she will have to make. Surveys to gather information and […]
Jun 24, 2020•51 min•Season 3Ep. 18
By using gyms and deploying every possible teacher, even if they don’t have all the proper certifications, Steubenville’s superintendent Melinda Young is hoping to “open up all day every day.” The only exception is that 4-year-olds will attend three days a week and 3-year-olds will go two times a week. “We just feel so strongly that we need those students […]
Jun 19, 2020•29 min•Season 3Ep. 17
By using gyms and deploying every possible teacher, even if they don’t have all the proper certifications, Steubenville’s superintendent Melinda Young is hoping to “open up all day every day.” The only exception is that 4-year-olds will attend three days a week and 3-year-olds will go two times a week. “We just feel so strongly that we need those students […]
Jun 19, 2020•29 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Increased costs in the face of massive budget cuts means that the already difficult task of re-opening school buildings becomes even more complicated. “It’s overwhelming,” says Vincent Romano, principal of Malverne High School in Nassau County, New York. In this episode of ExtraOrdinary Districts in Extraordinary Times, Romano and Sergio Garcia, principal of Artesia High School in Los Angeles County, […]
Jun 17, 2020•39 min•Season 3Ep. 16
