Podcasts

As head of the nation's largest teacher's union, Becky Pringle understands the need to have courageous conversations on equity, inclusion and race. "We are leading a movement to reclaim public education as a common good as a foundation of this democracy and investing in it in a way that reflects that," she says. "We can't stop there, though, we have to transform it into something it was never designed to be, a racially and socially just and equitable system that prepares every student everyone to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world."

Diana D’Amico Pawlewicz, Ph.D., a historian of education and social policy, researches school policy as social policy, focusing on fundamental questions around equity, race, power, and the role of institutions in creating or disrupting inequality. Her first book, Blaming Teachers: Professionalization Policies and the Failure of Reform in American History, explores the history of the public school workforce and the creation and maintenance of racialized ideas, policies, and practices.

Fatigued by School Reform, a new book by Jack Jennings, argues that school reform has been both wrongly targeted and oversold. Efforts should be focused on helping lower and middle income students to overcome any disadvantages from their families’ socio-economic status and also on recruiting more teachers with high verbal and cognitive skills. In addition, politicians and “experts” have peddled the wrong-headed view that the schools alone can solve society’s problems.

Kerensa Wing, 2020 NASSP National Principal of the Year and principal of Collins Hill High School in Suwanee (Gwinnett County), Ga., believes a classroom teacher has an enormous impact on student growth. She talks about hiring, retaining, and training the best teachers and how bringing high-quality

Whitney Nash Young, an assistant principal at W.J. Cooper Elementary School in Loganville, (Gwinnett County) Ga., discusses the schoolwide professional learning plan, including a new teacher induction and mentoring program, that her school has implemented. The school built a collaborative learning team to help teachers focus on a few critical, measurable areas to improve student learning and accountability.

As director of professional development for one of the nation's largest teachers' unions, Walter Taylor sees an urgent need for restorative practices, including cultural competencies, critical race theory, and trauma-informed mindset, in schools and teachers' professional development. He explains the Quest Center's work in advancing educational opportunities for students and professional development for teachers. 

As the Chief Technology Officer for the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township, a high-poverty school district, Pete Just helps students reach their full potential and find the best pathways for college and careers. Just, a former teacher, gives tips for for training staff to use tools that are always evolving and finding the best resources, and how to adapt to a challenging and constantly changing environment. 

National Distinguished Principal Tracy Hilliard discusses her strategies for building culture and instilling a mission and vision in a school, and how she helps her elementary students (aka scholars) grow and achieve. Her latest career move is planning for the opening of a new elementary school as part of redistricting in fast-growing Frederick County, Md. 

Laura Ross, who was just named the 2020 National Counselor of the Year, chats about her middle school and the initiatives she's pushed to help all students feel welcome at school. She also discusses strategies for all educators and parents to better understand the impacts and strengths of diversity in public schools.