As a school leader, when is it best to make “top-down” decisions, and when should you make it a collaborative process?

How can you tell which stakeholder input to prioritize?

What’s the best way to communicate with your staff in a way that feels transparent, but doesn’t burden them with too much information? 

How can you make decisions confidently when you’re supervising staff in positions you’ve never held yourself? 

I invited Dr. Jen Schwanke to episode 170 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to discuss these questions. 

Dr. Jen Schwanke is a longtime educator, teaching and leading at all levels. She is the author of four ASCD books, including the recently-released The Principal’s Guide to Conflict Management, and has published hundreds of articles for various educational publishers. She has written and presented for multiple state and local education organizations, and has provided professional development to various districts in the areas of school climate, personnel, and instructional leadership. An instructor in educational administration at Miami University of Ohio and The Ohio State University, Dr. Schwanke currently serves as a Deputy Superintendent in Ohio. You can find her at jenschwanke.com.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅Getting to the “root cause” of pain points: How can you tell what people really need from you? 

✅Being decisive vs. being collaborative: The different types of decisions leaders need to make and the strategies for handling them

✅When should we use our own expertise to solve problems, and when should we leverage the expertise of others?

✅Shaking things up vs. maintaining the status quo: How this changes the way you lead

You can connect with Dr. Schwanke at her website at jenschwanke.com, on X @jenschwanke (http://jenschwanke.com), and on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/drjenschwanke/

In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. 

You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Today, I wanted to share some FAQs that people ask about how to teach executive functioning. 
Some of those common questions are:

How do you teach self-talk, time-perception, and strategic-planning?

How do you offer help without making kids prompt-dependent?
​
I understand that executive functioning intervention is more than just checklists and behavior charts, but what’s the right way to structure interventions?

​How can I provide environmental scaffolding after students leave my therapy sessions? 
What exactly is “environmental scaffolding”? 

I understand I need to coach and train others, but how should that look in practice? 

One of the ways I answer these questions is through the concept of “scalable protocols”. This is an alternative to the way we traditionally think about lesson plans. 

It allows you to define the specifics of the “how”, which is why people are asking questions such as the ones I’ve listed above, and also enables clinicians to train others. 

In this episode, I share the audio of two video clips that help give an overview of how that could look, as well as the overview of a framework I use to support executive functioning in context. 

If you’re a clinician who wants to know how to do this in therapy AND coach others, it will help you through the first step in that process. If you’re a parent or teacher and you want to learn a strategy you can use to support kids, you can also use this strategy. 

In this episode, I mentioned this blog post https://drkarenspeech.com/whats-better-than-an-executive-functioning-lesson-plan/), where I include the full video clips that contain screen shares of some of the protocols I mentioned. 

I also mention this article about scalable protocols and how they fit in to your intervention model. 
Link here: https://drkarenspeech.com/executive-functioning-support-three-paradigm-shifts-for-school-teams/

In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. 

You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Almost every school leader that I know has said they didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into when they started their first administrative position. 

In this episode, I wanted to share clips from past “De Facto Leaders” guests to showcase some of the challenges faced by school administrators (or those hoping to move into an administrative role).
 
You’ll hear discussions on:

✅Qualities of a good principal: Protecting staff and removing barriers

✅Navigating ambiguity and impostor syndrome as a leader

✅Can teaching practices change if the system isn’t ready? 

✅Investing in curriculums: The end user is the TEACHER, not the student. 

✅Asking for help: How to make it an easy “yes” for the other person. 

This episode includes clips from the following interviews:

EP 109: Can my principal evaluate me if they’ve never done my job?(with Eric Makelky)?  
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-109-can-my-principal-evaluate-me-if-theyve-never-done-my-job-with-eric-makelky/

EP 151: Does your SYSTEM support your policy and your curriculum? (with Jalita Johnson) 
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-151-does-your-system-support-your-policy-and-your-curriculum-with-jalita-johnson/

EP 112: How to “lead up” to your school administrator (with Jethro Jones) 
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-109-can-my-principal-evaluate-me-if-theyve-never-done-my-job-with-eric-makelky/

In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

As a professional field, we’re getting stuck in old ways of thinking when it comes to designing services for students experiencing executive dysfunction. 

When we think of “therapy” the first thing that comes to mind is a clinician sitting in a chair saying things like, “And how does that make you feel?” or a clinician doing exercises in a 1:1 or group setting.
 
When we think of “planning for therapy”, we think of what materials or activities we’re going to do in our direct therapy sessions.
 
With “social skills intervention”, we think of an adult teaching a group of kids how to follow the rules in social situations, while students answer questions and discuss to demonstrate their understanding.
 
Lack of generalization continues to be one of the biggest pain points for therapists using these models.
 
And while most clinicians agree that collaboration with other professionals and caregivers is important, the “planning” for those activities is often less intentional than the way we plan for direct intervention. 

That’s why in the School of Clinical Leadership, the first thing I teach clinicians is how to create a long-term strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place for their caseloads (and sometimes the entire school) using multiple service delivery models.
 
When the entire intervention starts and ends within a traditional therapy session, students don’t generalize executive functioning skills across settings.
 
We as a field need to evolve in the way we think about what’s included in “therapy” services for executive functioning.
 
There are three paradigm shifts clinicians, educators, and school leaders can make when thinking about supporting kids executive functioning in schools.
 
I describe what they are in this episode.

I mentioned the following resources in this episode:

Push-in, pull-out, co-teaching: What’s most functional for language therapy? (Link here: https://drkarenspeech.com/push-in-pull-out-co-teaching-whats-most-functional-for-language-therapy/)

How to make better accommodations by being less accommodating  (Link here: https://drkarenspeech.com/push-in-pull-out-co-teaching-whats-most-functional-for-language-therapy/)

EP 83: How to provide high-quality support for your caseload with the “asset stack” method (Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-83-how-to-provide-high-quality-support-for-your-caseload-with-the-asset-stack-method/)

In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Language and executive functioning have a bidirectional relationship (Baron & Arbel, 2022; Larson, et al., 2019). This means that building language skills can impact executive functioning, and vice versa. 

A significant amount of executive functioning skills are required to comprehend language-based academic tasks like reading and writing. 

Yet strategic thinking (which is part of executive functioning) requires a significant amount of internal dialogue; which is very difficult to engage in without adequate vocabulary or ability to use and understand complex syntax (Fahy, 2014). 

Complex sentences are loaded with language that indicates cause and effect or temporal information; all which are essential for strategic planning. 

On top of that, many students continue to struggle with reading comprehension without direct work on foundational language skills; even if they’re taught comprehension strategies (Eberhardt, 2013; Scott, 2009; Scott & Koonce, 2014; Nippold, 2017).

One might make the argument then (which I often do), that these underlying language skills are necessary to developing strong executive functioning skills. 

This makes both treatment planning, diagnosis, and determining eligibility for educational programming complicated; especially when it comes to legal guidelines as well as state and local policies. 

That’s why in episode 166 of De Facto Leaders, I’m sharing a Q & A session I did in my Language Therapy Advance Foundations member’s group to talk about the relationship between syntax, processing and higher level cognitive processes like executive functioning. 

In this episode, I share: 

✅How to create a strategic plan if you need to build a system for language therapy and a system for executive functioning intervention?

✅Should you focus on the students' needs or your own needs when planning your professional development goals?

✅Common comorbidities and diagnoses to consider when focusing on language, executive functioning, and reading/writing.

✅The impact of syntax on other language and cognitive processes.

✅Common sentence types that are difficult for individuals with DLD and other diagnoses that impact language.

✅Ineffective strategies used to comprehend difficult sentence types.

✅Why do these difficult sentence types impact comprehension, processing, and our ability to engage in internal dialogue and strategic planning?

In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

I also mentioned the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership 

You can view the YouTube version of this episode with slides here: https://youtu.be/7-F0fjjJ0F8

I also mentioned the following resources:

Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure : https://drkarenspeech.com/sentencestructure

​The 5 Component Language Therapy Framework: https://drkarenspeech.com/language​

​Syntactic Development in the School-Age Years​​: https://drkarenspeech.com/syntactic-development-school-age-years/​

K-12 Professional Learning: It’s about what the adults need, not just the kids: https://drkarenspeech.com/k-12-professional-learning-its-about-what-adults-need-not-just-the-kids/​

De Facto Leaders EP 159: Comorbidities and Differential Diagnosis: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-159-comborbidities-and-differential-diagnosis-adhd-dld-dyslexia/​

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Teacher preparation programs should equip reading teachers with the knowledge they need to provide explicit intervention for students who have dyslexia or other disabilities. 

But what if they don’t? 

Unfortunately, this situation is quite common. 

That’s why I invited Mary Saghafi and Shannon Betts from the Reading Teachers’ Lounge Podcast to episode 165 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to talk about how reading specialists and other service providers can emerge as literacy leaders; whether it be in their current job or within a career transition. 

The Reading Teachers’ Lounge is a podcast where listeners can eavesdrop on professional conversations between elementary reading teachers. Shannon and Mary are passionate about literacy and strive to find strategies to reach all learners. Shannon and Mary are neighbors who realized they were “literacy soul sisters” at a dinner in their Atlanta Neighborhood. Once they started chatting about reading, they haven’t really stopped. Shannon is currently teaching part time as a reading resource teacher while she continues to create teaching materials on Teachers Pay Teachers and Boom Learning. Mary is a private tutor and dyslexia advocate. They began their podcast in 2018 and are currently finishing their sixth season.

In this conversation, we share:

✅How a litigious situation turned into a reading reform initiative and inspired Mary to make a career pivot.

✅When there’s conflict between schools and parents; should you be a united front with your school team, even if you resonate more with the parent’s point of view? 

✅The parent advocacy perspective: How parents can advocate for their kids AND the school staff at the same time. 

✅Should schools be using the “dyslexia” label (and what do the laws require vs. allow)? 

✅Will voicing your opinion have a negative impact on your career (plus Shannon’s experience with being the squeaky wheel on her team)? 

You can find Shannon’s Teachers Pay Teachers store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Rdng, and her Boom Learning resources here: https://wow.boomlearning.com/author/rdng?collection=Decks&sort=publishDate&order=-1

Connect with Shannon and Mary on their Patreon community for literacy professionals here: https://www.patreon.com/readingteacherslounge

Follow the Reading Teacher’s Lounge Podcast on Instagram @readingteacherslounge https://www.instagram.com/readingteacherslounge/, on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/readingteacherslounge, or on their podcast website here: https://www.readingteacherslounge.com/podcast-home

Listen to the Reading Teacher’s Lounge Season 6, Episode 13 (Link here: https://www.readingteacherslounge.com/season-6-episodes/s6-e-13-the-intersection-of-speech-reading-and-language)  where I was a guest, and we discussed the partnership between speech-language pathologists and reading teachers here.

I mentioned the following resources in this episode:
EP 141: No, kids do not learn to read and write naturally with (with Melanie Brethour) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-141-no-kids-do-not-learn-to-read-and-write-naturally-with-melanie-brethour/

EP 159: Co-morbidities and Differential Diagnosis (ADHD, DLD, Dyslexia) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-159-comorbidities-and-differential-diagnosis-adhd-dld-dyslexia/

Williams, V. (2023) Letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of “Developmental Language Disorder” for special education eligibility. Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from: https://www.asha.org/siteassets/advocacy/comments/OSEP-Response-Letter-to-ASHA-on-DLD-5.30.23.pdf

Yudin, M. K. (2015). Letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of “Dyslexia” for special education eligibility. Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from: https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/policy_speced_guid_idea_memosdcltrs_guidance-on-dyslexia-10-2015.pdf

In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Is it functional to work on parts of speech?

Is sentence diagramming useful?

How do we improve word-retrieval in kids with developmental disabilities, and is it similar to what we’d do for an adult with a brain injury?

How can we make therapy academically relevant and functional beyond just getting a good score on a standardized test?

I invited speech-language pathologist and Language Therapy Advance Foundations student Katy Wyatt to the show to share answers to these questions.

I’m always excited to connect with people who are using the frameworks I teach; because I’m always amazed at some of the creative ideas they come up with to expand on what I’ve given them.

If you’re a Language Therapy Advance Foundations student, and you want some practical ways to use the tools I’ve given you, you'll really enjoy this interview. And if you’ve been lurking and considering whether the program is for you, this will give you an idea of what you’ll learn if you do decide to join.

Katy Wyatt graduated from California State University, Los Angeles in 2017, with a Masters of Arts in Communication Disorders. After moving to North Carolina, Katy has worked in head starts, homes, schools, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities with clients ages 11 months to 99+ years. Katy is a board-certified cognitive specialist, and has also been certified in the SOS approach to feeding. Katy currently works in the schools full time with Kinetic Physical Therapy and Wellness; she works with students to improve their language, articulation, and fluency skills, develop alternative means of communication, and improve their social and academic functioning. Katy also serves as the compliance coordinator and SLP-Assistant supervisor with Speech Inspirations PLLC.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅The parallels between therapy for aphasia and child language disorders.

✅Why therapy focused on vocabulary and background knowledge can ALSO address executive functioning skills like the ability to self-question, generate and evaluate ideas, and plan/executive them.

✅Parts of speech and sentence diagramming: How to embed this kind of work into structured but contextualized activities.

✅Syntax as a vocabulary skill: How to help kids understand what words MEAN and what words DO.

✅Why it’s impossible to define what vocabulary skills are “age-appropriate” at each grade level; and how to reframe the way you think about scaffolding across grade levels and varying student needs.

✅Generalization: How to focus on explicit instruction of content and strategy in direct therapy while ALSO giving students retrieval tools they can use outside sessions.

The Language Severity Rate Scale and Classroom Communication and Learning Checklist from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) can be found here: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/documents/ec/speech-guide/download

Katy's Semantic Feature Analysis Song Video can be found here: https://youtu.be/Qdw3M1ZiaSM

I mentioned this conversation in this interview: EP 148: Unlocking success through sensory processing and team collaboration (with Maude Le Roux) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-148-unlocking-success-through-sensory-processing-and-team-collaboration-with-maude-le-roux/

Katy is a member of Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives SLPs and other service providers create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Preparing young people for adulthood is all about providing them with the right blend of experiences; both in and outside of school. Building literacy, numeracy, and content knowledge will give students a foundation for success; but we need to pair that with real-world experiences where they can apply that knowledge in real time.

When we think about “real-world” experiences; we often think of internships, “on the job” skills, or daily tasks and other things we’d categorize as “adulting”. 

However, outdoor excursions offer kids and young adults the opportunities to explore and experience things beyond the day-to-day. 

It’s one thing to learn about water health and environmental studies in a classroom; but when you get the chance to do a multi-week excursion along the Hudson river and drink from a natural water source, you amplify your learning to a new level. 

That’s why I invited Greg Morrissey to the De Facto Leaders podcast for episode 163. 

If you enjoy hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities you’ll want to listen. 

Trust me, you’ll thank me later :)

Greg Morrissey is an educator, explorer, and founder of Mountain Goat Movement -- an organization that provides transformative adventures for students while connecting them to leading explorers, educators, and storytellers. Think: education through adventure. Projects can be as short as one day or as extensive as a multi-week expedition, everywhere from the Adirondacks to Antarctica. Greg has raised over $140,000 for students from low-income backgrounds to experience the power of the great outdoors.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅Bringing traditional curriculum and content areas to authentic outdoor experiences.

✅How to use excursions to help kids work as a team and form connections with peers.

✅The concept of “tiered” expeditions: Offering different activities to support different levels of experience with the outdoors

✅What habits and skills can you practice in daily life to prepare for a multi-day or multi-week adventure

✅A behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to prepare for quality outdoor education; including what Greg is doing to raise funds for scholarships to increase equity. 

Be sure to check out the BE podcast network for educators and aspiring leaders. If you’re looking for shows to inspire you to level up in your career or more effectively serve students, we’ve got you covered. Learn more about the BE podcast network at http://bepodcast.network.com/

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

My heart sinks when I see how polarizing topics in education have become, as well as the tendency for people to have “all or nothing” thinking.

I’ve seen an increasing amount of activities pitted against each other as if doing one means we can’t ALSO do the other:

👉Standardized testing vs. real-world observations/stakeholder interviews.

👉Year-round school vs. traditional summer break.

👉Critical thinking skills vs. foundational skills.

👉Play vs. academics during non-school time (after school or over the summer).

👉Soft skills vs. technical skills.

What if we stopped thinking about all of these things as opposing viewpoints, and instead tried to integrate them together? 

What if we stopped saying, “Should I do this or that?”, and instead started asking “How can I find a way to do this AND that”? 

I invited my colleague David Schipper to episode 162 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to ponder some of these questions.
 
Specifically, I wanted to tackle the “summer slide” debate. 

This topic is near and dear to me because I was a “summer slider”. I was almost held back in first grade because I was behind in reading, and my parents took it upon themselves to spend time with me after school during the school and over the summer to get me remedial instruction in reading through a combination of things they did at home, as well as tutoring programs they invested in. 

I was also shy and anxious, and needed a nudge from my very extroverted mom to participate in activities that allowed me to work with others, build friendships, handle frustration and learning curves, and develop mental flexibility. These experiences were essential in helping me to fully leverage the skills I was working on concurrently, like reading. But going to the pool for swim meets in the summer did not teach me to read; my academic instruction did. 

Had my parents decided to just “let me catch up naturally” and eliminated the reading tutoring from my early years, I wonder what kind of impact that would have had. 

Would I have turned into a lifelong learner? 

Would I have felt even more anxious due to the combination of struggling academically AND being really shy? 

Would the issue have been identified if standardized testing wasn’t done? 

In this interview David and I talked about how we can better answer these questions, starting with a discussion of the summer slide. 

David Schipper is the director of Strategic Learning Clinic, a position he has held since 2013. David obtained a B.A. in English Literature from Concordia University in 1998 as well as a B.Ed. in Secondary Education (English and History) from McGill University in 2002. After some work as a local teacher in Montreal, David founded 2Torial Educational Centre in 2007. Aside from his ability to put both parents and students at ease, David is able to help families get to the root of the problem(s) and propose the most suitable programs to resolve these issues. As a father of two children, David knows how to relate to the concerns of parents and as an experienced educator and passionately understands the struggles of students. His passion and dedication to teaching and learning is second to none.

*We briefly discussed a presentation that covered a sensitive topic in this interview. 

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅Is the summer slide real? Who is it impacting the most?

✅This isn’t just about summer: It’s about what we’re prioritizing in school.

✅The case of too many accommodations: What happens in the college years when we don’t build foundational academic skills before students graduate high school.

✅The layering of academic skills with executive functioning: Real life examples of how it looks when teenagers are planful with their time and when they aren’t. 

✅Tutoring: Yes, it’s needed; but what does good tutoring look like? 

In this conversation, I mention a number of other interviews relating to the topic of early literacy, so be sure to check the show notes for links to all of those other interviews in the show notes here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-162-the-summer-slide-real-phenomenon-or-invented-by-tutoring-companies-with-david-schipper/

In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

I also mentioned the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

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 technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Helping families feel involved in their children’s education goes beyond checking the boxes to make sure you’re following legal guidelines.

That’s why I invited Dr. Kristin Vogel-Campbell to De Facto Leaders to talk about how school teams can make the IEP process more welcoming to families, especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. 

Dr. Kristin Vogel-Campbell (she/her/hers) is a veteran Special Educator with over 20 years in the field. She has served in various roles from paraeducator to Director of Student Services and Special Education. She was a classroom teacher for a decade in the San Francisco Bay Area, working with students from Kindergarten through 8th grade. She is a systems-focused educator, working at the district level with school teams to ensure that students with disabilities are provided high-quality, research-based instruction and that all students are treated with dignity and respect in the Least Restrictive Environment. In addition, she has supported new site leaders in deepening their understanding of Special Education, including laws and protections for students and families. 

Kristin is a practitioner-researcher, working with families to share their experiences and perspectives. Informed with this familial knowledge, teams can make practical shifts needed to move to a collaborative partnership with culturally affirming, sustainable, and equitable families. She has presented at AERA (American Educational Research Association), NAME (National Association of Multicultural Education), and ACSA (Association of California School Administrators, among others. Articles have appeared in Leadership (ACSA magazine), The Journal of Leadership, Equity, and Research, and the KQED Education blog. Her book “Partnering with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families in Special Education” was published in December 2023 by Rowman & Littlefield.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅You’ve provided the “procedural safeguards”, but do families really understand their rights? 

✅What’s going on when parents don’t show up for parent-teacher conferences and IEP meetings?

✅Why environmental set-up matters during IEP meetings; including seating arrangements and how/when the team enters the room. 

✅Navigating language barriers, transportation issues, and logistical constraints. 

✅Finding the balance between family schedules and staff contractual time when setting up IEP meetings.

✅Tips for managing nerves during IEP meetings so you can make your report feel conversational (and less technical).

You can connect with Dr. Vogel-Campbell on LinkedIn here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/drvogelcampbell/), and on Instagram here (https://www.instagram.com/drvogelcampbell/).
 
Be sure to check out her book “Partnering with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families in Special Education” here (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538180365/Partnering-with-Culturally-and-Linguistically-Diverse-Families-in-Special-Education).

Be sure to check out these other episodes of De Facto Leaders where I talked about how to improve community and family engagement:

EP 113: Making literacy accessible and equitable (with Cassandra Williams) 
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-113-making-literacy-accessible-and-equitable-with-cassandra-williams/

EP 118: Coaching aspiring leaders in school turn-around and community outreach (with Edward Gordon II) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-118-coaching-aspiring-leaders-in-school-turn-around-and-community-outreach-with-edward-gordon-ii/

EP 96: Supporting bilingualism in K-12 kids (with Briana Wagner) 
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-96-supporting-bilingualism-in-k-12-kids-with-briana-wagner/

EP 143: Developing a cultural competemility mindset (with Melanie Evans) 
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-143-developing-a-cultural-competemility-mindset-for-educators-and-clinicians-with-melanie-evans/

I also mentioned The School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers guide their teams to support students’ executive functioning across the day. 
This program will help you plan direct therapy, but will also help you lead change management on your team, no matter your job title. You can learn more about the School of Clinical Leadership here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

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