Public Impact News & Views

This blog was first published on Education NC on November 19, 2019.

Digital learning has gotten a bad rap, in some cases reasonably so, especially for the lack of results with disadvantaged learners. Meanwhile, alarms are sounding about the rise of online screen time co-timed with surges in anxiety, depression, suicide and insomnia among teens and young adults, here and abroad. While providers entice students with more game-like digital learning — possibly an extra blow to students’ mental health — parents are paying consultants substantial sums to reverse screen addiction.

Yet investment continues in online learning and digital tools. (Note: Neither Public Impact nor the authors invest in or provide digital learning tools.) That’s partly because there’s potential profit to be made, but there’s also a potential benefit for students: Digital tools can help meet each student’s learning needs, especially important for those whose needs are poorly met in traditional, one-size-fits-all classrooms and those who need non-traditional hours for learning.

So, what’s the missing killer app that could help digital learning tools fulfill their promise at large scale — for educators, students and digital providers — without ravaging students’ mental health?

The answer is old-school: human connection. Not just any connection, but well-orchestrated teamwork among adults teaching the same students.

[Read more…]

In September, Public Impact convened its Opportunity Culture Fellows for collaboration and learning, featuring sessions on tools to help educators personalize instruction, the science of reading, strategies of multi-classroom leaders and principals for team leadership and leading schoolwide change, and effective advocacy within schools and districts. On the Opportunity Culture blog, writer Margaret High is sharing some of what we learned in a series of blog posts. Check out the recent posts:

Multi-classroom leader panel at the Opportunity Culture panel

• How can multi-classroom leaders (MCLs) build the cohesion of their teaching teams? A panel of five Opportunity Culture Fellows tackled this question—a hot topic among MCLs­—with suggestions that focused on the joy of team leadership as well as how to address challenges with team members. Read more in Building Team Cohesion: Opportunity Culture Fellows Share Strategies.
• Leading change and developing leaders: Opportunity Culture principals must know how to do this for student and teacher success, and Opportunity Culture Fellows are hungry for tips from their colleagues who do it well. At the Opportunity Culture Fellows Convening, a panel of principals highlighted strong hiring and communications as two keys among many to success. Read more in How Opportunity Culture Principals Lead Change and Develop Leaders.
• Opportunity Culture Fellows closed the 2019 convening by brainstorming solutions to this scenario in a session on the keys to effective advocacy—one of their most-requested topics. Effective advocacy means building support for an idea and getting others to act. That requires sharing information, exposing others to new information, or helping them see the known in a new way. Read more in the blog Advocating Effectively for Opportunity Culture: The Key Elements.
• In conjunction with the advocacy session, Public Impact has published a four-page guide on Opportunity Culture advocacy, which includes a common scenario in Opportunity Culture for discussion and brainstorming: Key Elements for Opportunity Culture Advocacy.

See the first two blogs here. Keep an eye on the blog for more posts, or subscribe to the RSS feed here!

In September, Public Impact convened its Opportunity Culture Fellows for a day of collaboration and learning which featured sessions on tools to help educators personalize instruction, the science of reading, multi-classroom leader & principal strategies for team leadership and leading schoolwide change, and effective advocacy within schools and districts. On the Opportunity Culture blog, writer Margaret High is sharing some of what we learned in a series of blog posts. Check out the first two:

• The Learner Variability Project, created by Digital Promise, an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit, was created to translate the growing body of research on learning for educators and parents. Digital Promise created a whole-child framework that feeds into its free tool, the Learner Variability Navigator, which guides users through the factors they need to address for each student and strategies to match. Read more in Strategies for Personalization: Learner Variability Tool Can Help .

Digital Promise’s Jessica Jackson (left) and Wendy Xiao (right) explain the Learner Variability Navigator at the Opportunity Culture Convening.

• Kelly Butler, CEO of the Mississippi-based Barksdale Reading Institute, condensed the science of reading into a one-hour overview presentation, issuing a clarion call for educators to follow the science of reading, focusing on phonics, brain development, the five components of reading, and the simple view of reading. Butler’s efforts to spread the word have helped move Mississippi’s reading growth to the top of state rankings. Read more in To Teach Reading Right, Understand the Science of Reading.

Kelly Butler, CEO of the Barksdale Reading Institute, speaks to the Opportunity Culture Fellows Convening.

Keep an eye on the blog for more posts, or subscribe to the RSS feed here!

This blog was first published on Education Next on October 22, 2019.

A charismatic charter network leader reminded us recently of his high-poverty schools’ laudable learning results. His secret sauce? Wooing the best teachers and principals away from surrounding districts.

We call this a “Talent Hog” strategy, and its prevalence explains, in part, why reforms that succeed in some schools fail at scale—leaving cities, states, and their children, back where they started. There is a better way, but it requires a policy solution.

For the record, this leader isn’t alone; many districts boast of the same strategy. Sometimes, we’ve even helped them plan and execute it. After all, teacher and principal quality are the top two factors within schools’ control that affect learning outcomes. New reforms—curricula, teaching methods, professional development, technology, governance, and so on—succeed or fail based on how well educators actually use them.

[Read more…]