edWebcasts

Robert Martellacci, President of Mindshare Learning, interviewed Lisa Schmucki, founder and CEO of edWeb.net, about a new professional learning research report, the edWeb Educator Voice. As of January 1, 2026, edWeb requires educators to complete a professional learning reflection plan to earn an edWeb CE Certificate. In just 6 months, 55,000 educators have completed 420,000 PL Plans to earn their CE Certificates. The result is a fast-growing archive of reflections on what is needed and what works for preK - 12 educators and students. edWeb will continue to publish professional learning research as this archive grows and can provide research insights for specific topics, school districts, sponsors and partners, and for geographic and demographic analysis. A video version of the podcast is available here.

edWeb.net is the 2026 CODIE Winner for Best Education Professional Development Solution.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Presented by Third Circuit Senior Judge, The Honorable Marjorie “Midge” Rendell

This edWeb podcast is part of a series of WebBriefs hosted by The Alliance of Former Chief State School Officers.

The meeting recording can be accessed here.

Join us for an engaging and educational edWeb podcast, hosted by the Alliance of Former Chief State School Officers, with Appellate Judge Marjorie Rendell, who discusses three recent Supreme Court cases of her choosing and offers insight into how appellate judges approach important legal questions.

This nonpartisan event is designed to give listeners a clearer understanding of current developments in the law, the reasoning behind judicial decisions, and the value of thoughtful public dialogue, while providing a rare opportunity to hear directly from the bench about how major legal issues are analyzed and how recent decisions may shape the broader legal landscape.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Presented by Becky McCraw, Ph.D., Experienced Educator, Assistant Professor of Education, Converse University; Sarah Mitchell, Teacher Candidate, Converse University; Sophia Pollard, Teacher Candidate, Converse University; and Sandry Perez, Converse Graduate and First Year Teacher, Cleveland Academy of Leadership (SC)

This podcast is hosted by edWeb.net.

The webinar recording can be accessed here.

State-level policy overhauls can leave even the most seasoned educators experiencing a rollercoaster of professional “fight, flight, fawn, flop, or friend” responses. When South Carolina’s 2024 Read to Succeed Teacher Competencies revisions triggered a major program shift within the Converse University Teacher Preparation Program, it demanded more than just revised syllabi—it required space to navigate deep cognitive dissonance and evolve core belief systems.

Join us for an insightful edWeb podcast exploring how members of the Converse University Teacher Preparation Program turned systemic disruption into an opportunity for building community for the next generation of teacher leaders. Discover how the strategic integration of a private edWeb professional learning community (PLC) allowed teacher candidates to find their voices, engage with just-in-time professional development, and grow into deeply reflective practitioners.

Listeners learn:

• The impact of state-level policy changes (like the 2024 Read to Succeed updates) on educator belief systems and programmatic design
• How K-12 district models of edWeb PLCs can be successfully adapted into higher education teacher preparation programs
• The structure of a private PLC that balances student autonomy, choice, and shared, collaborative cohort experiences
• How to actively leverage a private digital learning community

This edWeb podcast is of interest to K-12 educators and leaders.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Presented by Katie Gribben, District Instructional Lead for ELA/Literacy, Upper Schools, Cambridge Public Schools (MA); Brigitte Seyferth, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning, LEARN Charter Schools (IL); and Emily Wojtusik, Experienced Educator, Senior Director of Implementation, Fishtank Learning
Moderated by Jim McVety, Managing Partner, First Step Advisors

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by Fishtank Learning.

The edLeader Panel recording can be accessed here.

Building on the April edWeb podcast, Using Whole Texts to Foster Student Agency and Critical Thinking, this follow-up session turns from the what and the why to the how.

Katie Gribben, District Instructional Lead for ELA/Literacy, Upper Schools at Cambridge Public Schools, and Brigitte Seyferth, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning at LEARN Charter Schools, joins Emily Wojtusik, Senior Director of Implementation at Fishtank Learning, to explore why new ELA curriculum adoptions stall in schools and districts and the seven shifts that make them stick. The panelists reframe adoption not as a purchase but as a multi-year change process: one that is a science, involves investment and training, and that can’t be done alone.

Listen to this session to discover:

• Why Good Curricula Stall: The seven most common traps, from handing teachers new materials with no time to train to not having a school or district leader to champion the implementation to expecting results before year three.
• What Makes Adoption Stick: How to build the systems, investment, change management, and shared ownership that carry a curriculum past the learning in the first year, including phasing in one adoption at a time to prevent teacher overwhelm.
• Implementation as a Science: Why lasting change means giving a new curriculum three-plus years, creating space for teacher reflection and voice, and adjusting schedules, structures, and routines so the materials can succeed.
• The Cost of Stalling—and the Power of a Pilot: What districts lose when adoptions fizzle—student learning stalls, teacher trust erodes, and there’s no sustainable expertise—and how a well-run pilot works out the logistics and builds buy-in before full rollout.

This edWeb podcast is of interest to K-12 district leaders, school administrators, curriculum directors, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Presented by Christian Lehr, Managing Director, Tyton Partners, and Former Educator; Dr. Mary Catherine Reljac, Superintendent, Fox Chapel Area School District (PA); and Dr. Gene Kerns, Chief Academic Officer, Renaissance, and Former Educator

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by Renaissance.

The edLeader Panel recording can be accessed here.

Most K–12 districts have the vision. More than half have a Portrait of a Graduate framework in place. Nearly 60% report alignment between curricula and assessment. And AI adoption is accelerating, helping teachers to streamline workflows.

But new research from Tyton Partners reveals a persistent execution gap, with instructional teams struggling to make data actionable and leverage AI tools to truly improve learning outcomes.

Join this edWeb podcast to examine where the gaps are largest, what distinguishes districts that turn strategy into results, and what it takes to move from ambition to impact this school year. You explore:

• Why Portrait of a Graduate frameworks can stall between adoption and use—and what successful school systems do differently
• Where data-driven instruction most often breaks down, and how to address this
• Why data access alone fails to produce better instructional practice
• What districts should prioritize to deliver measurable outcomes aligned to their visions of student success

This edWeb podcast is of interest to K-12 superintendents, assistant superintendents, and curriculum directors.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Presented by Lori Kirksted, Author of The Imposter’s Guide to Authentic Leadership, Founder and Managing Director of Content Uncomplicated

This podcast is hosted by edWeb.net.

The webinar recording can be accessed here.

Imposter syndrome hits hardest in the people who least deserve it. Every educator who has stepped into a leadership role has felt some version of the question: Who am I to be the one in charge here? The doubt gets louder, not smaller, the more responsibility someone takes on, even when every promotion was earned on results that should have settled the question entirely.

There is a specific reason for that. The instinct to read what students and colleagues need, to keep the room steady, to put relationships at the center of how you teach and lead, is what makes someone good at this work, and it is also the instinct that, taken into a leadership moment, can shift into needing everyone’s approval to feel like you’re doing it right. Leadership asks you to make decisions people will not always like, to hold positions that disappoint someone in the room, and to trust your own judgment when no one is going to confirm you’ve got it right, and for people whose whole craft is built on attunement to others, that is the harder part of the job, and almost nobody names it out loud.

This edWeb podcast is built around Dr. Bill George’s Five Dimensions of Authentic Leadership, interpreted through the lens of educators and people-pleasers who got here by being excellent at a completely different job, exploring what it actually looks like to lead from trust in yourself instead of approval from everyone else, whether the room you’re leading has 30 kids in it or 30 adults.

This edWeb podcast is for you if…

• You got promoted because you were excellent at the work, and now you sometimes wonder if you tricked everyone into thinking you could do this job
• You came up through the classroom and leadership is asking for something completely different from what made you great at teaching
• You are the person your team comes to with everything, and you are starting to feel the weight of that
• You have been told to just be yourself as a leader and found that advice spectacularly unhelpful
• You care so much about getting it right that the caring itself has started to feel like the problem

You leave with…

• A clear understanding of why imposter syndrome is a predictable feature of the practitioner-to-leader path, not something wrong with you
• Language for what is actually happening when leadership feels harder than it should, so you can stop treating it like a personal flaw
• The ability to spot where your people-pleasing instincts are serving your team and where they are running the show in ways that cost everyone
• A real distinction between being liked and being trusted, and why that gap matters more in education than almost anywhere else
• At least one concrete reframe for a leadership challenge you are facing right now, drawn from Dr. Bill George’s Five Dimensions interpreted through the lens of people who got here by caring deeply about everyone else

Buy The Imposter’s Guide to Authentic Leadership by Lori Kirksted here.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

An Interview with Julie Young, Innovator, Edupreneur, and the Founding CEO of Florida Virtual School, with Lisa Schmucki, Founder and CEO of edWeb.net

This podcast is hosted by edWeb.net.

The webinar recording can be accessed here.

Join us for an edWeb podcast with Julie Young on her new book, Say YES! How Virtual Became Reality. Julie was the founding CEO of Florida Virtual School and grew a small, grant-funded pilot into a national model serving millions of students. She went on to be the founding CEO of ASU Prep Digital at Arizona State University. Michael Crow, the President of ASU, says of her book, “The inside story of how a bold experiment grew… by reimagining learning.”

Julie continues to be an innovator and edupreneur who understands from personal experience how your mindset is the key to unlocking innovation in education. What happens when we allow ourselves to dream about new learning environments minus the roadblocks? Julie shares stories of experimentation, partnership, and courage, and how a simple shift in thinking can transform what’s possible for students.

As the founder and CEO of edWeb.net, Lisa Schmucki is delighted for the opportunity to interview Julie on a subject close to Lisa’s heart, too. This interview is of interest to anyone who wants to understand how we can make meaningful, positive change in education, a topic that is especially relevant at the dawn of the AI age.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Presented by Peter Jacobson, Experienced Educator, Product Leader, Khan Academy; and Michelle Soriano, Former Educator, Current Professional Learning and Implementation Specialist, CAST

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by CAST.

The edLeader Panel recording can be accessed here.

In today’s educational landscape, meeting the baseline for accessibility is no longer enough—it’s about creating inclusive, high-quality learning experiences that support every student. As districts evaluate a growing number of AI-enabled instructional and assessment tools, leaders are asking important questions: How can we identify solutions that are equitable, accessible, and designed with learner variability in mind from the start?

Join this edWeb podcast for a behind-the-scenes look at the “Wheel of Inclusion,” a major collaboration involving CAST, the Gates Foundation, and organizations developing the next generation of digital assessment tools. Panelists share why leading organizations are investing significant time, expertise, and resources into Universal Design for Learning (UDL), accessibility, and inclusive AI design—and how these efforts aim to improve experiences and outcomes for both students and educators.

Listeners explore:

• How accessibility and UDL considerations are shaping the development of AI-enabled assessment tools
• What district leaders should look for when evaluating digital products for procurement and implementation
• How organizations are working to reduce bias and create more flexible, learner-centered assessment experiences
• What goes into achieving third-party UDL Product Certification and why it matters for schools and districts
• Why sustainable, cross-functional approaches to inclusive design are becoming essential in today’s educational technology landscape

Whether you lead curricula, assessment, technology, innovation, or student support initiatives, you leave with practical insights and key questions to help guide conversations about equitable AI adoption and future-ready assessment design. This edWeb podcast is of interest to elementary through high school district leaders, school leaders, and education technology leaders.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Presented by Dr. Kate Cain, Professor of Psychology, Lancaster University, and Past President, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR); Dr. Kristin Bourdage, Former Educator, Current Assistant Director, Professional Learning and Instructional Design, Partnerships for Authentic Learning and Leadership; and Beth Lawrence, M.A., CCC-SLP, Experienced Educator, Co-Founder, Infercabulary
Moderated by Dr. Donna Wright, Retired School Superintendent/Education Consultant

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by Really Great Reading.

The edLeader Panel recording can be accessed here.

Language comprehension is foundational to reading, yet it can feel difficult to define and even harder to teach at scale. It begins with oral language and develops over time, with decoding strengthening the pathway to meaning. While frameworks such as Scarborough’s Reading Rope and the Simple View of Reading highlight its importance, many districts lack a clear, actionable roadmap for building it across classrooms.

Research points to specific skills that distinguish strong comprehenders, including vocabulary knowledge, inference making, syntactic processing, background knowledge, self-regulation, and motivation. This edWeb podcast focuses on how these components come together in instruction, with a deeper look at vocabulary and inference making as high-impact levers for improving comprehension.

In this session, you learn:

1. The types of inferences students need to actively construct meaning from text
2. How vocabulary depth and inference making work together to build understanding across contexts
3. What it takes to implement language comprehension instruction effectively across classrooms and districts

This edWeb podcast is of interest to K-12 teachers, school leaders, district leaders, and education technology leaders.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.

Presented by Dwight Goodwin, Executive Director of Technology Services, Coppell Independent School District (TX); and Madeleine Mortimore, Global Education Innovation and Research Lead, Logitech

This edWeb podcast is sponsored by Logitech.

The edLeader Panel recording can be accessed here.

For many students, confidence gaps, language barriers, and limited access to the right tools can make it hard to fully participate in today’s digital learning environment. Addressing these challenges requires a thoughtful, student-centered approach to edtech integration.

Richard J. Lee Elementary, an Apple Distinguished School in Coppell ISD, offers a compelling example of what’s possible when students have access to the right tools. Educators there are using iPad devices alongside headsets, styluses, and keyboard cases to remove barriers, increase focus, and unlock new possibilities for creativity and project-based learning.

The results are striking: over 90% of students surveyed after the edtech pilot felt more confident using common tools and platforms, with significant gains in participation and academic growth, especially for emergent bilinguals and newly enrolled students.

In this edWeb podcast, Dwight Goodwin, Executive Director of Technology for Coppell ISD, and Madeleine Mortimore, Global Education Innovation and Research Lead at Logitech, share what worked for Richard J. Lee Elementary alongside new research from FullScale and THE Journal. Listeners leave with actionable practices to help all students overcome confidence gaps, engage more deeply with digital tools, and express themselves fully throughout their learning journey.

This edWeb podcast is of interest to K-12 librarians, school leaders, district leaders, and education technology leaders.

Learn more about viewing live edWeb presentations and on-demand recordings, earning CE certificates, and using accessibility features.