ExtraOrdinary Districts

A Dream Project, Staff Shortages, and Canceling the Ku Klux Klan—Wait, What?

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...

Leading the Way

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...

Addressing Learning Needs

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....

Where Are All Those Dollars Going?

How are educators using the $189 billion in federal #COVID relief funding? What does it take to retrofit old buildings to keep students & staff safe from illness? Karin Chenoweth talks with Phyllis Jordan of Future Ed, Dr. Luvelle Brown, a...

How are Schools & Districts Using the Money That the Federal Government Has Provided to Help Them Get Through the COVID Crisis?

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...

Districts That Succeed

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...

What Have We Heard? What Have We Learned?

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...

What Can States Do to Improve Reading Instruction?

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,...

High-Quality Materials

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...

The “Science of Reading”

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...

The Right to Read

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...

School Leaders REALLY Matter

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...

Opening a School Building in the Time of COVID

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...

The State of Reading in America

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...

Managing COVID-19

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...

Finding the “Missing Kids”

When schools closed abruptly in March 2020 because of the pandemic, it was reported that 8,000 of Baltimore’s students had not logged into remote schooling. Roger Shaw is the district administrator whose responsibility it was to find them and find...

Kids Are Still Learning Things

At University Park Campus School in Worcester, Massachusetts, no one questions that the pandemic has been terrible and the remote school year has been difficult to navigate. “Remote school is not as good as in-person school,” principal Dan St. Louis...

What Kind of School Produces Hundreds of Top African American Scientists?

One where educators take responsibility to help students thrive, excel, and be intellectually curious. More than 30 years ago, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III began a small program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. With a core set of...

It’s Not an Ideal Situation. But We’re Making the Best of It.

Pandemic schooling has been difficult at Malverne High School in Nassau County New York, but social studies teacher Brian China says that his AP social studies class is only four days behind last year. “Under these circumstances, we’re making it...

We’ve Probably Gone Through More Change Since March Than I did Through My Entire Career.

Steubenville City Public Schools had as its goal operating as normally as possible this school year, so educators spent the spring and summer learning computer programs, putting lessons online, buying computers and hot spots, and clicking together plexiglass desk dividers....

It’s Amazing How Much Kids Adapt & Learn.

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...

Something That Was Already a Yeoman’s Job Has Become Even Greater.

We Keep Using That Word Hard.

We Have a Third of Our Kids in Every Day. But One Hundred Percent of Our Students are Learning Every Single Day.

“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...

As Soon as We’re Back to Normal, We’ll Have to Accelerate Our Kids.

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...

ExtraOrdinary Districts – Season 4 is Coming!

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...

What Did We Hear? What Did We Learn?

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,...

We’ve Been Planning, Planning, Planning.

“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...

Schools That Already Had Cohesive Cultures Did the Best.

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...

Our Hope Is to Come Back as Close to Normal as We Possibly Can.

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...

Virtual Learning on Steroids.

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...

We Have the Resources.

“The money exists to ensure that all students are served,” says Tricia McManus, the brand-new deputy superintendent of Winston-Salem Public Schools in North Carolina. The question, she adds, is whether we as a nation are willing to spend it. When...

This Is so Much of a Harder Task to Perform.

Providing distance learning is much harder than providing an education in person, says Mary Haynes-Smith, principal of Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in New Orleans. Bethune is a school that runs on personal relationships and hugging, and building a culture...

We’ve Borrowed the Phrase, ‘Provide Grace’.

“The biggest bonus” of the remote learning that Godwyn Heights School District in Michigan has been doing is the strengthened ties between school and families, says Mary Lang, principal of West Elementary School. Another bonus, says Michelle Krynicki, director of...

We Have the Opportunity & I Hope We Don’t Waste It.

Jennifer Robbins, principal of Ladd Acres Elementary School in Hillsboro, Oregon, has been collecting and studying data about which of her school’s students are showing up to distance learning classes and what they are learning. She wants to know, “What...

This is Going to Make Our System Better.

After delivering 10,000 devices, thousands of Wi-Fi hot spots, and 300,000 meals per week, Mobile County Public Schools created a hybrid system of instructional packets, online instruction, and television instruction to provide children and families choices in how continue their...

Can you practice distance learning without access to technology?

Until now, we have heard about schools and districts that are doing everything they can to connect students to school through technology. In this episode we hear a frustrated principal and assistant superintendent talk about not being able to distribute...

Our Schools Were Not Built for This.

That sounds like an obvious statement, says Daniel St. Louis, principal of University Park Campus School (UPCS) in Worcester, Massachusetts. But “a big part of how we see our identity has been taken away” by the school closures following the...

We Would be Wrong to Believe That Education Won’t be Transformed Forever.

“It hurts my heart tremendously” to know that gaps in achievement will grow during the shutdown of school buildings, says Jennie Black, principal of Washington Elementary in Junction City, Kansas. She is most worried about the students who were already...

We’re Trying Not to Overwhelm Them, Because They Are Living Through a Pandemic.

Before their school building closed, teachers and leaders at Garfield Prep Academy in Washington, D.C., learned as much as they could about COVID-19 and shared that with students and parents. The next step was to gather materials and lessons that...

Why Did We Even Think That Could Work?

Educators in Steubenville, Ohio, have been scrambling ever since hearing that their schools might close. With no clear standards for how to operate schools remotely, they have been trying things, evaluating them, and revising. “It’s a learning process,” says Superintendent...

There Are So Many Unknowns.

Corey Miklus became superintendent of Seaford (Delaware) Public Schools in January. On March 13 he closed the buildings to students. “These are some challenging times, but we’re figuring it out just like everyone else is.” Since closing its doors, the...

They Are Rising to the Challenge.

“This is different. This is hard for some of our parents. We have to show compassion and patience,” says Faith Belle-Lucy, principal of Dr. Robert W. Gilliard Elementary in Mobile, Alabama. Parents and students are facing a brand-new world of...

Creating the New Normal Day by Day

We are “creating the new normal,” Superintendent Dr. Nicholas Stirling says. As his schools closed this spring, Valley Stream 30 in Nassau County, New York, phased in its response. The first two weeks, “phase one,” recognized that “everyone would be...

Let’s Teach….But Remember the Context.

Maintaining Relationships in a Distance Learning World.

On March 11, Malverne High School in Nassau County, New York, collected cell phones from their students in an attempt to help them become more mindful and focused in school. Within three days, as they prepared to shut down in...

No Computer, No Wi-Fi, & No Cell Coverage While America Is Supposed to be Learning Online.

John Daniel, superintendent of Cottonwood Public Schools in rural Oklahoma, talks about the challenges of making sure students don’t fall behind when many of his students and teachers don’t have access to computers, Wi Fi, or even reliable cell phone...

Panel Discussion on “Systems to Build Knowledge”

To talk about the lessons we can learn from Valley Stream 30 (episode #6), Ed Trust brought together Jeffrey Howard, founder of The Efficacy Institute, Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap, and Josh Anisansel, a Long Island school administrator...

Valley Stream 30: Systems to Build Knowledge

Valley Stream 30 is just over the Nassau County line from Queens, New York, and has attracted a diverse population of African Americans, Hispanics, and relatively new immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It is in many...

Panel Discussion on “Fast Improvement in Delaware”

To talk about the progress Seaford has made in the last few years (episode #4) Ed Trust brought together Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, author Richard Kahlenberg, and Sharon Brittingham, a Seaford native who is a former...