What’s Inside: In this episode, we chat with Brent Conway, Assistant Superintendent of Pentucket Regional School District in Massachusetts about his experience with district literacy improvement. Several years ago, Brent began his administrative career as a principal of a school in danger of state takeover. With this task ahead of him, he set about doing the strenuous work of school turnaround which included changing schedules, curriculum, and mindsets. Brent is a firm believer in systematic, explicit instruction. 

Brent currently serves on the Massachusetts Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education's Literacy Champions advisory group, charged with developing the state’s Early Literacy Guidance Plan. He has contributed to the development of guidelines for schools and districts in implementing the Massachusetts Dyslexia Law and is a founding member of the Northshore Literacy Leaders group which has brought in speakers such as Emily Hanford to help build professional knowledge and dialogue around the science of reading and evidence-based practices. Brent recently spoke to the MA Board of Education on the state’s work with early literacy and serves on the MA Reading Association’s Professional Development Committee. He regularly speaks at professional conferences on the need for professional development on literacy and tiered literacy systems, among other topics.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• "Annual Growth for All, Catch -Up for Those Who Are Behind" 

• Nancy Young, The Ladder of Reading by Lynn Fielding, Nancy Kerr, and Paul Rosier

• https://heggerty.org/blog/case-study-brent-conway-from-pentucket-regional-school-district/

• https://curriculummatters.org/profile/brent-conway/

This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness