RIVETING RESULTS, LLC...

Getting High School Students To Read  and Enjoy Complex Texts!

From Chuck Cascio: In my ongoing search for unique, ground-floor solutions to the rapidly changing teaching and learning environment, I was fortunate recently to learn about Riveting Results, LLC, and its CEO Arthur Unobskey, a longtime teacher, administrator, superintendent, and education reform leader. Riveting Results (https://www.rr.tools) is a program that deserves significant attention from educators, business leaders, and anyone committed to meaningful education reform. I am pleased to present details about Arthur and Riveting Results’ unique approach to learning.

About Arthur Unobskey: After thirty years as a teacher, principal and superintendent, Arthur Unobskey partnered in Riveting Results. After building systems and structures to support his students’ daily progress, he wanted to provide middle and high school teachers with the specific tools that they needed to teach all of their students to read-and enjoy-grade level text.

Throughout his ten years as a middle and high school teacher, Arthur strove to engage every one of his students in deep and rigorous study. As an administrator in both urban and suburban schools, he built and supported teacher and administrative teams that analyzed formative data to determine which teaching approaches unlocked students’ potential, particularly for reluctant students. As a superintendent in Wayland, Massachusetts, he guided the district to embrace the needs of underperforming students, integrating best practices from Social Emotional Learning and Culturally Responsive Teaching to improve student engagement and performance.

About Riveting Results, LLC: From 1994 to the present, Arthur co-founded, co-directed and served as the Board Chair for The Writers’ Express (now SummerInk), a non-profit summer writing camp for middle and high school students. During this time, The Writers’ Express developed an instructional model that helped campers from a wide variety of backgrounds find their voices as writers.

Arthur notes that at a time when 69% of entering 9th grade students read below grade level, Riveting Results' 9th and 10th grade comprehensive English/Language Arts solution transforms students' classroom experience. It enables teachers to accelerate their skill development so the entire class can read and enjoy the same rigorous, engaging books. Requiring minimal professional development, its software-based curriculum enables a teacher to seamlessly implement four high-leverage literacy activities that provide students with the precise practice and feedback they need for rapid and sustained skill development.

Arthur’s responses to questions delving into details about Riveting Results, LLC:

>>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today?

The hold that divisive local politics has on our public schools limits collaboration between researchers and educators, stymieing innovation. District leaders cannot risk the immediate fallout of giving different services to different children, a necessary feature of the randomized controlled studies that have led, in the medical field, to the rapid spread of effective practices. 

With no widely accepted “gold standard” for efficacy, impressive results from another district are met with skepticism. Curriculum committees often privilege programs and approaches that they already know even if they are not impactful. Those districts that seek to be innovative often turn to their teachers to do the impossible: create an in-house solution that is adaptable for all teachers and students while each of the teacher-curriculum developers simultaneously tend to the needs of 25 to 150 of their own students. In such a scenario, no one has the brainspace to effectively determine the impact of their work on student achievement.

>>>What specific "ground floor" education/learning issues does Riveting Results help address?

Recently, a groundswell of mainstream media attention has spotlighted how districts across the country are changing their instruction to incorporate a more structured approach, summarized as techniques that align with the rigorously researched “Science of Reading”. This change in reading instruction will result in more students learning how to read elementary texts. It is a very exciting shift. The media, however, has paid far less attention to adolescents and what literacy instruction they need. The structured literacy approaches used in elementary schools, no matter how systematically implemented, will not enable most high school students to read grade-level texts, shutting them out of the classes they want to take and that prepare them for college.

Text changes significantly between fifth and sixth grades. Students begin to see complex sentences, and by ninth grade, almost all of the text they see is made up of these types of sentences. They are longer, making use of clauses to link multiple ideas. When students see these new types of sentences, they trip over them. The ability to read fluently (smoothly and with expression), which they developed in elementary school with simple sentences, deserts them. Reading becomes laborious and students don’t have the leftover mental energy necessary to process the meaning of these sentences.

The literacy research of the past twenty-five years is overwhelmingly clear that middle and high school English teachers need to make fluency practice a consistent part of a larger literacy program. Fluency practice provides a bridge to complex text that enables students to read more automatically, become engaged and then dive deeper with subsequent research-based reading activities. But getting adolescents to read out loud is hard. And, how does a teacher with 30 students in a class give feedback so that each student can improve their fluency? How can teachers integrate fluency practice into a highly engaging reading and writing curriculum so that it does not feel remedial?

Programs that claim to provide fluency practice for adolescents use methods developed for elementary students that adolescents roundly reject. Commonly recommended choral or echo reading doesn’t work in a high school class because adolescents are much less compliant than elementary school students and will often fake participation. Current fluency software solutions that do track individual performance measure words read correctly per minute, marking students down for each mistake. Speed is not a good measure of fluency with complex text because it requires changes in pace and the careful emphasis of certain words. And, adolescents disengage from instruction that focuses attention on their mistakes.

Riveting Results makes practicing reading out loud joyful. Activities guide students to become comfortable with complex sentences and to notice the impact that their reading has on others. Teachers use the software to assign each of their students individualized fluency practice on the same section of highly engaging, complex text. Not only do students receive feedback on their recordings from remote scorers, but they share their readings with their classmates. The classroom community that emerges from this shared fluency practice enables each student to establish what Gholdy Muhammad calls “literary presence,” (Muhammad, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, p.28), the sense of agency that supports adolescents from historically marginalized communities as they dig into understanding complex text.

After approximately fifteen minutes of fluency practice, students develop an initial understanding of a particular section of complex text. Riveting Results’ software then guides students through three subsequent high-leverage literacy activities in which they work with a partner and their entire class to deepen their understanding of the text. Because they no longer have to provision activities or spend class time explaining directions to students, teachers can focus on eliciting their students’ best work, giving students’ immediate and actionable feedback, and harvesting student ideas for dynamic classroom discussions.

We are implementing our 9th and 10th grade comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum in schools in New York City, Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Texas and California and are getting extraordinary results.

>>>Recalling your own life as a student, going back as far as you would like, what personal experiences did you draw upon while creating Riveting Results?

I believe that a classroom can be magical! The tension during a debate; the laughter at a peer’s wit; the grunts when a task is difficult; and, ultimately, the momentum when everyone is leaning in: a nurturing classroom is both raw and gentle. As an educator, I gravitated toward adolescents because they not only crave such a setting, but also respond to it by discovering that they have the agency to impact everyone around them.

At the same time, building such a classroom community, particularly a high school classroom whose students have widely divergent reading levels, cannot be done by a teacher acting alone. Teachers need tools to enable all of their students to succeed. Riveting Results seeks to provide teachers with those tools: beautiful, engaging literature and a set of practices, tested and refined for 30 years, embedded in software so that teachers can reach every student.

For more information about Riveting Results, LLC, go to https://www.rr.tools.

To contact Arthur Unobskey directly, email at arthur@rr.tools.

To contact Chuck Cascio directly, email at chuckwrites@yahoo.com

Copyright: Arthur Unobskey and Chuck Cascio, all rights reserved.

RACE IN AMERICA,

FEATURING THE THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES OF BRIAN ALLEN

FROM BRIAN: I am an ambassador of positive energy...people connector...mortgage advisor..former college athlete...casual triathlete.  I’ve lived a very fortunate life, growing up all over the country…Joliet, IL, the home of The Blues Brothers; New Jersey; Dallas; Houston; and Northern Virginia/DC.  It allowed me to nurture healthy relationships with a multitude of people and cultures.  I played college basketball for Penn State, and I currently work as a mortgage advisor.  More than the issue of race being a crucial topic today, the way it is being used to threaten our democracy is what is of utmost concern to me.  That is my reason for sharing my thoughts.

NOTE:   I will often use “Black” and “White” not because either term is a real human distinction, but because it is a real construct in our country. I personally prefer to be referred to as Black rather than African American because it is one syllable and simple.

“ME! WE!”

Why I Think Democracy Will Win

By

Brian Allen

Muhammad Ali, when speaking to Harvard’s graduating Class of 1975, was asked from the audience to recite a poem, and “Me. We.” is what he came up with.   This is known as the world’s shortest poem, but it does pack a punch.  (See what I did there?)

In explaining it, Ali said, “… what I gained was the ability to see the world in something like the way God must see it. To understand that there are no distinctions of any real importance in the affairs of men, that there is only one time and one place and one person and one truth. And that we are all contained in that time and place and person, and that the truth contains us all.”

Who represented “One World” more than Ali?  It is the message of community and togetherness, what Ali stood for, that inspired me to share my thoughts on where we are as a country in the two years that have passed  since George Floyd lost his life to police violence.  This was a time, like 9/11/2001, when this country was “We.”

From that tragedy, I learned that I had numerous allies (members of the dominant caste), who with sincere intentions, wanted to know how to do better.  COVID took away people’s ability to look away, to ignore, and to rationalize what happened to Mr. Floyd, and it is important that we stay vigilant toward anti-racism.  It is no longer acceptable to stay silent, or even neutral.  My message to the multitude of friends looking for guidance was to improve their racial intelligence, because it creates empathetic ears, which leads to ally behavior.  

In order to manage this overwhelming demand, I actually started a private Facebook group called “My Allies” to provide a safe space to ask questions and discuss things without judgment, and to share ideas on how to fight racism.  If we can’t talk about it, we cannot eradicate it.

The more sinister form of racism is the unseen, which produces outcomes detrimental to people of color.  That ranges from written policy/laws to silence in the face of racism…when good people do nothing.

The most disappointing or disheartening exercise for me, especially during the previous administration, has been with people who I know love me and would probably take a bullet for me.  It has been their inability or unwillingness to try to figure out why, on a daily basis, I was not only more aware of my Blackness, but also more afraid because of my Blackness for the first time in my adult life.  They know my even temper, empathetic nature, and open-mindedness.  Why, when I would suggest ways to understand it more, would I just experience radio silence?  Is it shame, embarrassment, or denial?  Whatever it is, I’m not going to give up on them, because they are me, and I’m trying to get them to “we.”

Understanding Racism and Institutional Racism

Whether it’s people I know, or talking heads on TV, one of my pet peeves is a lack of true understanding of racism, which is a subset of institutional racism.  The often-used definition of racism revolves around intent and looks like the person wearing a hood, burning a cross, terrorizing people of color.  That is the easy-to-see definition, popular until the decade I was born when it became quite distasteful to suburban America.  It made it easier for people to absolve themselves of “that” disease or to deny they are taking part.  It had to evolve and become less obvious.

ACTION ITEM: PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELF ON INSTITUIONAL RACISM, RACISM, AND ANTI-RACISM 

The FBI Criminal Behavioral Analysis

Within the FBI, there is a position called a Supervisory Special Agent in the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), agents who are trained in deception detection.  In layman’s terms, they are human lie detectors.  They use training, verbal, and nonverbal cues to determine whether a suspect is telling the truth.  They are a vital and very respected profession within the organization.  It is a process that takes 7-15 years to even apply.  

Think about all the knowledge you gained between 1^st and 10^th grade.  Then, take those 7-15 years of experience, and add 20, 30, or 50 years to it.  But, instead of using that talent to fight crime, you use that talent to avoid professional roadblocks, micro-aggressions, physical harm, or even death. That is the Black experience when it comes to detecting racism.  It’s not 100% foolproof, but you get the point.  By instinct, I can walk into a room and pretty much pick out the allies as well as the others  who may not have my best interest at heart.  Thankfully, in most cases the latter are few.  

Getting back to the FBI Profilers.  Yes, I have some basic knowledge on whether someone is being truthful, but I would not sit in a room, with see-through glass and tell a Deception Detector if the subject is lying.  So, it is probably best to leave racism detection to those who have the years of knowledge and experience.

Let me expound.  From American history, personal-lived experiences, and statistics, my every day latent fear of terrorism has a White face, not a Brown, or Middle Eastern one.  But that same lived experience precludes me from assigning a negative stereotype to all White faces.  

Those White teenagers who threw firecrackers at me in elementary school were offset by the big Texans with the cowboy boots, and big belt buckle, cursing out other adults with White faces who said something derogatory to me in a Dallas hotel lobby.  Before that I was trembling inside because I had heard “How they are in Texas,” and learned a lifelong lesson at age 11. 

The White teenagers who chased me down the street in their car in Houston, TX, when I was 14, were undone by the Taylor family, a White family who took me and my brother in as if we were their own, when my single father had business trips. The Taylors taught me how to water ski and to love Austin.

The White teenagers during my senior year in high school, who called me the N word, and told me to go back to Africa, and threatened my well-being, were immediately negated by the White faces of my high school friends, who without a word, waited on a bus stop bench with me, letting me know they had my back and were ready to rumble if those guys returned.  These lived experiences have given me a heightened ability to be able to recognize allies and enemies adeptly.

I try to explain it to my friends of the dominant caste by starting with my favorite definition of White Supremacy.   What I say goes something like this…  

“You could go your whole life without meeting a Black person and be very successful.  The same is not true for me; I could not go my whole life without ever meeting a White person and thrive.  In fact, any successful person of color has had to interact on a “10,000 hour” level to succeed in a White world.  Until I was 14, I went to all White schools all over the country, but still had to endure the N word, threats to my life, firecrackers thrown at me as a child, and multiple driving-while-Black incidents, so my life experiences have made me “racially bilingual.”  Because there has been no need for you to live in my Black world, there is a natural blind spot for you.”

Then I follow that up with…

“When George Floyd died, so many of my good friends came to me for answers, I had to go back to school to get my ‘Race Masters Degree.’  I was almost embarrassed at how much I did not know about race in this country…how much was intentionally left out.  So, if we all went to the same schools, and I, as a Black man, was embarrassed about how much we didn’t learn in high school, is it possible that there might be room for you to become more informed?”

ACTION ITEM: INSTEAD OF TRYING TO PROJECT YOUR IDEAL OF WHAT RACISM IS OR ISN’T, RECEIVE THE PERSPECTIVE OF THOSE WHO HAVE THE LIVED EXPERIENCE

 Who Is “Us,” and Who is “Them?”

“Explaining racism to a White person is like trying to explain water to fish.” – Tim Wise

“Race” is such a complex word because, as it applies to DNA, it is a manmade construct created in this country in the 1600’s, when the plantation owners realized they were far outnumbered by the enslaved.  They had to create a social construct to engineer a “White” majority with those who, before then, were no better off than the enslaved and only categorized by their country of origin…English, Irish, German, Italian.  

These indentured servants were given horses and guns and were motivated by fear that the Black and Brown people (“them” from earlier) were the threat, not the power elites.  The reality was that the slaves and the White indentured servants had more in common (economic insecurity) than the indentured servants had with the plantation owners.  

Tim Wise, author of White Like Me, is considered to be one of the foremost intellectuals on anti-racism.  If you listen to any of his lectures, he usually discusses “the greatest hustle” the wealthy used on the others who looked like them. My favorite heartfelt lecture from Tim can be found on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_IBE94hh9s

This hustle is still alive and well today. The plantation owners and power elites have been replaced by politicians and power elites, who seem to maintain a caste system motivated by power and White supremacy.  I’m talking about the 1% of the one-percenters.  Think Trump, McConnell, Graham, DeSantis, Gaetz, Holly, Cruz, and those that support their supremist agendas.  It’s business suits instead of the “Colonel Sanders” outfits.

If we had a better grasp of our history, those people who stormed the Capitol on January 6^th would see that they were being used by the power elites, just as those who stormed the Capitol in Wilmington, NC in the 1890s, and those who fought in the Civil War to maintain the slave states for those power elites who benefitted most.

People of color, like me, and pretty much anyone not of color I know would be the “us,” even though the economic net is much wider than it was in the early stages of our country’s founding.  I have no one in that highest tax bracket that I break bread with.

ACTION ITEM: INSTEAD OF LABELING SOMEONE A REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT…CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL, START DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE 1% OF THE 1% VERSUS THE REST OF US.  VOTING RIGHTS. GUN LAWS. HIGH GAS PRICES.  ABORTION BANS.  WHO BENEFITS AND WHO DOESN’T?

Zero Sum Gain

The generations-long practice of divide and conquer as it applies to race is getting those of the dominant caste to believe that if consideration is given to the subordinate caste, then those in the dominant caste give up something, or a lot of something. To those fighting diversity or social programs, giving to the marginalized makes the piece of the pie smaller for those who are advantaged.  Diversity, in my opinion, would produce a bigger pie.  Of course, my opinion is based on studies on economics (larger tax base), neighborhoods (multi-cultural enrichment), and education (better test scores and social awareness) that have all shown that diversity produces positive outcomes.

I contend that the piece of the pie does not get smaller with diversity.  I contend the pie gets bigger.

ACTION ITEM:  START ACKNOWLEDGING THE MEGA-WEALTHY IS WHERE PEOPLE’S IRE SHOULD FOCUS, NOT INTERETHNICALLY. 

 Living With Grace – What if We (dominant caste) become Them (subordinate caste)?

I’ve been under the tent long enough to know one of the major motivating factors of the extreme right movement is the fear of becoming the “minority” in this country.  Knowing exactly what the sentiment is about, I give the simple answer first: 

That would make those who fear being a minority, actually be one of “us” and we would all be in it together. 

Or is it… “I don’t want to become the minority because I know how I’ve treated them, or at the very least, how many have treated them”?  

Throwing away the obvious unintended self-admission, it tells me they have no one significant in their lives who has been marginalized.  

For the sake of this blog, I’m going to stick with what I feel about it.  To endure all that we have endured, and still thrive, it cannot have been done without grace.

                  Macro level – All of those kids who desegregated public schools showed grace in the face of rocks, spit, and racial epithets thrown at them.  Even as adults in hindsight, they reek of grace. 

              Micro level – My high school friend, whose parents disinvited me to his birthday party, is a current Facebook friend of mine and we correspond periodically.   To explicitly disinvite me because of ethnicity takes a special kind of racism.  They could have come up with 10 other excuses.  But even in the moment, I knew it wasn’t his decision.  If my ethnicity was an issue with him, I never would have been invited.  I’m sure the hurt and embarrassment of that stung him like it did me because it was perhaps the first time someone in his life did something he knew was not right.

So grace has been imbedded in our DNA since that first ship hit Jamestown in 1619.  Once the dominant caste becomes the minority, no one is going to start following you around in stores, or stopping you in your car for doing nothing, as we have endured.

Why Can’t We Just Move On And Stop Talking About The Past?

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is not just a quote from philosopher George Santayana when referencing the horrors of The Holocaust.  Those in the dominant caste, who are uncomfortable acknowledging our country’s past, conveniently want to celebrate the 4^th of July, and enjoy time off on “Columbus Day,” but talking about the dark side of our history often becomes taboo.  

That’s like buying a business because of its assets, but totally ignoring the debts.  

In my line of work people pay thousands of dollars for title insurance and hundreds of dollars for an appraisal to make sure there is nothing catastrophically wrong with a home.  But our country has had a shaky foundation since before it was a country, and many prefer not to talk about it, or just choose to ignore it like it’s going to go away.

ACTION ITEM:  LEARN YOUR REAL AMERICAN HISTORY BECAUSE IT IS DIRECTLY AFFECTING OUR TODAY AND OUR TOMORROW.

THERE ARE NO ABSOLUTES

The human condition seems to be, for things to make sense, that we have to pigeonhole people…put them in neat categories…prejudices.  The goal should be to acknowledge those prejudices, address them, and grow.  The world does not operate in the Black and White.  It operates in the gray.

My father’s favorite saying growing up was, “Racism should be a pebble in your shoe, not an albatross around your neck.”

CONSERVATIVES AND “STOP BLAMING THE WHITE MAN”

One of my problems with conservatives of any ethnicity are tropes like “You can’t blame the White man for your problems…you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps…you have to strive for Black excellence.”

I contend that the two are not mutually exclusive.  Any person of color who has excelled has not only acknowledged institutional racism but has adeptly circumnavigated it.  Any person of color in my immediate circle provides living examples that  racism is real, but it isn’t going to stop them from thriving.  

My basketball analogy is of my 6’ 10” teammate saying, “Stop blaming the tall people for your struggles in basketball!”

There was absolutely nothing physically I could do about it, so I used my physical “deficiencies” to my advantage…to blow by the taller players…to increase the arc…to make eye contact. my shorter stature could help him…get him the ball in the paint because he can’t dribble.  T-E-A-M!

The Southern Strategy and Its Grip on Society Today

As a country, we have had a history of White backlash with the progress of the Blacks.  Reconstruction brought The Black Codes, record lynchings, and the construction of statues and memorials to The Confederacy to demonstrate White supremacy.  The Civil Rights Movement brought about The Southern Strategy in the decade when I was born.  

As I have mentioned, blatant racism became unsavory to American sensibilities.   The triumvirate of George Wallace, Barry Goldwater, and Richard Nixon were the transition from bullhorn racism to dog-whistle racism, moving it into the gray palatable areas.  The politicians started using code words to appeal to that segment of the population who did not in favor the strides Blacks were making, especially with the Civil Rights Acts of 1964/1965.  That is the inflection point when Democrats (Dixiecrats) started moving over to the Republican Party.  Even candidates for governor, like Ronald Reagan, were the “early implementers,” using words like crime…tough on crime…law and order…young bucks…jungle paths…welfare queens…individual property rights…forced busing…states’ rights…immigration…illegal aliens…liberal.  

The backlash was in the form of the largest campaign of mass incarceration of people of color our country has ever seen, which continues today.

Please do not take my word for it.  Lee Atwater, a political consultant to Reagan, and Bush 41’s campaign manager 1988, spilled the beans in this interview he thought was off the record.:  https://youtu.be/X_8E3ENrKrQ

A protégé of Lee Atwater was Stuart Stevens, a Republican Political Consultant, and Media Advisor for Bush 43’s 2000 Campaign.  Showtime is currently running a 5 episode series that shows the through line of 50 years of dog-whistle politics.  Stevens, had a mea culpa, when faced with the presidency of Donald Trump, and created The Lincoln Project, a group of former Republican strategists whose sole purpose became to insure 45 wasn’t re-elected.  They definitely had an impact on the result of the 2020 election, but it was his introspection that was so revealing:

The Lincoln Project Episode 1/Minute 24 - “It’s all about race.  But, the whole Republican Party is all about race.  They seem to have given up pretending otherwise…The Republican Party has become a white grievance party.  There’s always been this element in the party.  I don’t think Trump made people more racist.  I think he made it ok to be racist.”

The Lincoln Project Episode 1/Minute 53 - “[Lee Atwater] He would hire somebody like me to really do the racism.  My first lesson in racial politics was in The Southern Strategy.  All politics is, at least certainly in the south, is played in the key of race.  So, our path to victory is to maximize White vote…It was playing the race card if I’m honest about it.  But, you’re able to convince yourself, that the danger of the other side, is greater than the flaws of the side that you’re for…I think that in many ways, we [The Lincoln Project] feel a sense of personal responsibility.  Who would believe this party, like this thing that you worked in, turned out to be, to some not insignificant degree, a force for evil?  I can’t say it’s not my fault.  The firm that I started was the most successful firm. I helped elect more than anybody else.”

What we are witnessing today is a direct result of the third major event of Black progress…the election of Barack Obama.  Pushback that brought about the Tea Party, the MAGA Movement, and all of the other far-right groups we are seeing today.  The lexicon of the dog whistle has been expanded with more “boogie man” terms like…”liberal media…radical left…build that wall…Black Lives Matter…woke…critical race theory.”  The last three were positive terms, and movements, in the Black community that were appropriated and weaponized by politicians.   

Critical Race Theory was the political response to the inarguable facts of George Floyd’s murder.  As a side note, anyone demonizing The 1619 Project hasn’t read it, because it discusses the heroes of all races fighting for freedom and equality.  When has critical thinking ever been a bad thing?  Why does adding “race” create hysteria?  When has banning books or not telling the truth ever been a good thing?  Answer: When elites who wanted to maintain power decided it was.

The hands of the Democratic Party are definitely not clean, but there is only one party that is a clear and present danger TODAY to this experiment called Democracy.  There is a segment of the population that will be unmoved by this blog post, but there is the majority of the population, I believe, who fear for the democracy, and the rights that are being taken away.  They/we just need to be empowered and encouraged to do something about it. 

By those charged with election security, 2020 was the most secure election ever. In four particular cases of voter fraud that I heard of, all voted for 45.  One of the four was a woman of color, a former felon, who was told she could vote by the election board, but then had it rescinded.  Which one of the four was put in jail? 

VOTE the election deniers out!  DON’T VOTE for the election deniers currently in office!  It’s never been about Democracy for them.  It has been about power.  We as citizens have the power to save this country from autocracy, and if Kansas is a bellwether, I truly have hope that we will do the right thing…be on the right side of history.

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What has been most enlightening to me in these last 2+ years is the readily available facts about our history, that were suppressed in my public education.  It is a history that scholars have been documenting since the ‘60’s.  Here is a list of the books I have read since the murder of George Floyd, and the multi-cultural authors who have reinforced things I knew, and confirmed certain things I felt:

White Like Me – Tim Wise

Caste – Isabel Wilkerson

The 1619 Project – Nikole Hannah-Jones

The 1619 Project Born in The Water – Nikole Hannah-Jones

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man – Emmanuel Acho

Dog Whistle Politics – Ian Haney Lopez

The Sum of Us – Heather McGhee

The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander

White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo

White Rage – Carol Anderson

Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Myth of Race – Robert Wald Sussman

What Unites Us – Dan Rather

A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zen

Everything Trump Touches Dies – Rick Wilson

The End of Policing – Alex Vitale

The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson

Critical Race Theory: An Introduction – Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

Critical Race Theory – Caldwell Wagner

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? – Beverly Daniel Tatum

The Essential Kerner Commission Report – Jelani Cobb

Born A Crime – Trevor Noah

Copyright: Brian Allen, all rights reserved.

Contact Brian at Brian.Allen30@gmail.com

See. Think. Act.

by

Chuck Cascio

     If you have not yet seen the movie Just Mercy, you should put it on your "must do" list, especially during Black History Month. It is a true story that provides viewers with reminders of past injustices, the realization that injustices still exist, and the sense of how much must be done to eliminate those injustices in the future. 

     Be prepared to feel uncomfortable but in a meaningful, important way when viewing Just Mercy. And the movie will also make you aware that there are people who truly commit their lives to eliminating injustice...and those people are the real, little-known heroes of history.

     Just Mercy is the story of African American Bryan Stevenson (played powerfully by Michael A. Jordan), a young, Harvard-educated attorney, who in the late 1980s goes to Alabama to defend prisoners wrongly imprisoned and those not provided proper representation. The movie focuses on one case in particular--that of Walter McMillian (played by Jamie Foxx, in a moving performance), an African American in Alabama sentenced to die for the murder of an 18-year-old girl despite abundant evidence proving his innocence. The movie captures the racism and the legal and political obstacles Stevenson encounters while fighting for McMillian's life and the lives of many other prisoners.  

   The film is produced by Participant, a media company committed to developing entertainment that inspires positive social change, and the story succeeds in encouraging viewers to recognize the inequalities that existed in the era of this movie and those that still exist today. For me, a Boomer who moved from Brooklyn to Northern Virginia as a kid in the 1950s, the movie brought back uncomfortable memories from my youth. And it reminded me that, 30 years later during the years in which Just Mercy takes place, those injustices were still evident...and that too many still exist today albeit in less immediately obvious ways. Some of the realities the film brought back to me from my childhood:

     >>> Seeing signs above restrooms and water fountains and elsewhere that said, "Coloreds" and others that said, "Whites."

     >>> The street signs on motels that specified, "Coloreds not allowed."

     >>> Raw anger rippling through some classmates as Northern Virginia started to integrate schools.

     >>> The time an African American musician friend of mine was given a different menu at a restaurant from the one I was given, the prices on his menu several times more expensive than the prices on mine. We walked out, and as we were leaving someone behind us said, "Well, you can't say that we refused to serve him."

     And, sadly, there are many more from my 1950s-60s childhood. Incidents that confused me, incidents that my parents made sure I recognized as wrong, incidents that still run through my head. They are especially vivid when I see a movie like Just Mercy, so much so that I believe the movie should be shown to high school students and discussed in depth with them. The story is ideal for a conversation around racial injustice, where it has been, where it exists today, and what needs to be done about it in the future.

     As Just Mercy reveals, Bryan Stevenson did more than commit himself to a couple of years worth of work for the unjustly incarcerated. He formed the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989, a nonprofit organization that, as stated on its website (www.eji.org),

“…provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. We challenge the death penalty and excessive punishment and we provide re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people.” 

     There is much work to be done. According to the Pew Research Center, African Americans represent only 12% of the U.S. adult population but 33% of the sentenced prison population. Hispanics make up 16% of the adult population and account for 23% of inmates. Whites comprise 64% of adults and 30% of prisoners.  

     In these swirling, fast-paced times it is important to remind ourselves of the realities of past injustices, to take time to look closely at the current lives of minorities, and to take steps for a more equitable future. So here are three things to consider doing, any one of which will stimulate thinking and expand the much-needed conversation:

1) Just see the movie.

2) Think about, document, and/or discuss your own experiences regarding racism.

3) Go to the Equal Justice Initiative website (www.eji.org) and explore it, looking especially at the various materials developed for classroom use, which can also be used  in less-formal discussions with today's youths.

   Doing any of these will stimulate thoughts about where we were, where we are, and where we are headed. Sometimes mercy emerges from discomfort.

Copyright Chuck Cascio; all rights reserved.

Recognizing the Sounds of Progress in Reading Fluency

(Comment by Chuck Cascio, owner of Blog On!: This piece is extremely important to consider in the ongoing discussion about how to creatively address the ongoing challenges of engaging students in reading and measuring their progress. I am honored to reprint it here. For more information about the unique work being done by Riveting Results, go to https://www.rr.tools)

Jessica Tess is the Assessment and Student Work Coordinator at Riveting Results. Prior to joining Riveting Results, she was a teacher and teacher-leader for 10 years in the Milwaukee area. 

In her role at Riveting Results, she directs a team of former teachers who score Fluency recordings in which high school students read complex text aloud. Within 24 hours, Jessica and her team of scorers return quantitative and qualitative feedback to students.In this post, Jessica discusses what happens to a student’s understanding of a text when they practice emphasizing certain words as they read aloud:

At Riveting Results, we score each recording based on just one feature of reading fluency. One of these features is the ability to emphasize certain words. We have found that students need to be able to show emphasis in order to ultimately read complex text with prosody, or expression. 

When teachers first utilize the Riveting Results Fluency Tool with their students, they are often confused by a positive score on an emphasis recording: “This doesn’t sound fluent to me—she overemphasizes the words—she sounds unnatural.”

That’s a totally fair comment. Teachers are used to looking for mastery—and, its opposite, any sign of a mistake.

Yet at Riveting Results we have found that practicing emphasizing words—even to the extent of overemphasizing them— helps high school students recognize how to change and manipulate their voices in a way that allows for more nuanced expression later on. 

Take, for instance, what we hear in Nicole’s First Recording, when she reads from page 304 of Langston Hughes’s The Big Sea. In it, you can hear her emphasize three words: “book,” “dormitory,” and “characters.” She emphasizes these words in a way that her teacher initially saw as signs of disfluency. 

But, if we aren’t so worried about Nicole’s mistakes, we can hear her start to show signs of expressive reading. Hear how she adds a syllable to “book” by rippling her voice. Hear her volume surge when she encounters “dormitory.” Finally, notice that her pitch heightens when she gets to “characters.” 

Nicole’s experimentation and practice, like jotting on scratch paper in math class, isn’t pretty yet, but it enables her to understand the impact of modulating her pitch, pacing, and volume. Over a couple of weeks of practice, she gains more and more control over her breathing and more ease in her expressive choices.  

Listen to this later recording in which Nicole emphasizes the words “ill,” “hated,” and “stomach.” Her confidence draws you in. She almost sounds sick herself when she emphasizes the word “ill.” Nicole’s bitter tone shows that she understands how much Langston Hughes hated his father. 

Practicing emphasis has enabled Nicole to build a bridge between reading the sounds of words on a page and the feelings that these words and phrases evoke in her. 

So let’s revisit that question: “What if the emphasis doesn’t sound natural?” My answer is: Practicing emphasis is part of a longer process of experimenting with reading aloud. Making these sometimes awkward recordings help students connect the sounds of the words to their meaning, and ultimately to their impact. Students who keep practicing reading with emphasis soon become better able to read fluently in a way that reveals the meaning and power of the text.

Copyright: Riveting Results, all rights reserved.

Questions? Comments? Write to chuckwrites@yahoo.com

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION TODAY

(First in a Series of Interviews with  Leaders in Education)

Featuring Dr. Kurt Landgraf

Note from Chuck Cascio: Given the difficult issues facing educators today in the USA, I am presenting a series in which I contact established educators and request their insights, in their own words, on a number of vitally important education issues. Readers who would like to comment on the views expressed may email me at chuckwrites@yahoo.com. My Twitter handle is @ChuckCascio. Not all comments will be responded to by me and/or the individuals interviewed but all will be read and, if appropriate, forwarded to others engaged in meaningful education reform. I am pleased to present as the first interview in this series of “Transforming Education Today” the views of Dr. Kurt Landgraf, whose profile follows:

Dr. Kurt Landgraf is a retired President of Washington College in Chestertown, MD. Kurt was also President of Educational Testing Service for 14 years, and President and CEO of DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals. His personal academic career includes a BS in Economics from Wagner College, a MS in Economics from Pennsylvania State University, a MEd from Rutgers University, an AMP from Harvard University, and five honorary doctorates. 

>>>Recalling your own life as a student, going back as far as you would like, what do you remember as the most positive and most negative educational influences for you personally? I went to a lower socioeconomic city school  system in New Jersey. High school was actually on triple sessions because the town would not pass an  educational bond issue. Not much was expected of students. Very few went on to college. I was lucky because I  was recruited by Wagner College on Staten Island, New York, to play baseball there.

>>>Can you identify an educator (or educators) who provided you with uniquely positive insights into subject matter as well as teaching style? If so, please explain what made them unique. Professor William Maher, my Economics professor at Wagner, changed my life. He saw potential in me that no one else ever did. He encouraged me to start taking college seriously and to go for an advanced degree in Economics. 

>>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today? In K-12 education the major challenge is the differential funding by economic area. Often referred to as the Zip Code Differential, it impacts students in lifelong ways. That differential and the growth of non-public schools are increasingly disadvantageous to K-12 public education. In higher education, the costs associated with attending college are soaring and with it student debt. This reality is changing who wants to go--and/or who can go--to college. Every higher education sector, except select “elite “ institutions, is seeing enrollment declines, increased dropout rates, etc. Many colleges are facing serious financial pressure, with some even facing liquidation.  The community college group of schools is increasingly moving to a more technical education curriculum, but they are still struggling. 

>>>What do you consider to be the appropriate line between politics and education--including the role of Federal, state,and local governments as well as school boards--in establishing standards, content, and policy, particularly in K-12 public education?  I strongly believe in national standards for K-12 education, as is done in most of the developed countries of the world. The National Governors Association tried to implement basic standards but, after establishing them, they were undermined at the state and local levels. The United States Constitution does not mandate education but unless national standards with return on investment criteria are implemented, the US will continue to fall behind the rest of the world in student achievement. I would also argue that establishing a state board of education would be a positive influence as compared to the current environment of many local-based school boards.

>>>What can be done to encourage people to go into teaching or other areas of education? Pay a meaningful salary!!! Current compensation is still based upon the model where teachers were second family-income earners, primarily from women. By increasing pay, you will get more really good people attracted to teaching and staying in education for their careers.

>>>Should high school and college students be encouraged to participate  in internships to help enrich their learning? If so, what can be done to stimulate this participation?   I think internships at every level, high school through Doctorates make a huge difference!!! These internships require partnerships with government, corporate, and other private sector organizations.

>>>What would you consider to be the single most important key to positive transformation of education in the US?  For me, the single most important thing is to reduce the role of socio-economic standing in determining resource allocation to education providers. Equal opportunity needs to become reality, not just a stated, well meaning goal. 

Copyright: Chuck Cascio and Kurt Landgraf; all rights reserved.

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION TODAY
(Ninth in a Series of Interviews with Education Leaders)
Featuring Peggy Brookins--

President & CEO of

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

Note from Chuck Cascio: Given the difficult issues facing educators today in the USA, I have been running a series in which I contact established educators and request their insights, in theirown words, on a number of vitally important education issues. Readers who would like to comment on the views expressed may email me at chuckwrites@yahoo.com. My Twitter handle is @ChuckCascio. Not all comments will be responded to by me and/or the individuals interviewed, but all will be read and, if appropriate, forwarded to others engaged in meaningful education reform. I am honored to present as the ninth interview in this series the views of Peggy Brookins, President & CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (www.nbpts.org) who has dedicated her incredible career to all aspects of education. Peggy's profile appears below:

     Peggy Brookins is President & CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and a former NBPTS Board member. Her long career as an educator includes many national leadership positions and accolades. In July 2014, President Barack Obama named Peggy as a member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Peggy came to the National Board from the Engineering and Manufacturing Institute of Technology at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida, which she co-founded in 1994 and where she served as director and as a mathematics instructor. 

     In addition to being on the NBPTS Board from 2007-2011, Peggy has served on the board of the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences Ad Hoc Committee on Teachers as Professionals; the Content Technical Working Group for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers; as a commissioner on the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP); the P21 Executive Board; and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Teacher Prep Commission.  She has been a national trainer for AFT (Thinking Mathematics K-2, 3-6, 6-8 Common Core, collaborator, and national trainer for Thinking Mathematics 6-8). 

     Peggy also currently serves on the Advisory Board of Digital Promise; the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) Executive Board; the Fund for Teachers Executive Board; the Out Teach Executive Board; Bowie State University and the STAR Program Advisory Board; the National Geographic Education Audit Advisory Board; the Eddie and Jules Trump Foundation of Israel Advisory Board; the Class Strategic Advisory Board; the Learning Variability Project Advisory Board; the Global Teacher Leadership Advisory Board; and Teach Plus.  

     Peggy achieved her certification in Adult and Young Adolescent Mathematics in 2003 and renewed in 2013. She was inducted into the University of Florida Alumni Hall of Fame in 2009, received the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) “Woodie Flowers” Award in 2016, is a Florida Education Association “Everyday Hero,” and received the association’s Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2013, Peggy was named an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar. 

>>>Recalling your own life as a student, going back as far as you would like, what do you remember as the most positive and most negative educational influences for you personally?

     These two things actually occurred at nearly the same time. When I was in the 4th grade, we integrated a school in Florida, which was a foreign thing to me. At this particular school, there were only a few of us who were children of color – myself and my two brothers. You can only imagine the insults that were thrown at us every single day, and there was no punishment for the children, and adults, throwing those insults. I was told that those people in my new school “just need time to get used to this.” 

     Even as a child, I saw right through that. I saw the overt racism for what it was. But from the minute I walked out of the door, to when we got on the bus, to arriving at the school campus during the school day, and finally, taking the bus home–it was constant. One of the worst parts of those experiences was having a teacher say out loud, “You people shouldn’t even be here with us.” To this day, it horrifies me that an adult would say that to a child.  It was unbearable almost to a point, but my parents would sit us down constantly and we would discuss why this was necessary and the better option for our education, and really for our community, in the long-run.

     But the best experience, still at the same school, was my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Cooter.  She was a new PE teacher at the school. I thought she was just beautiful; she had blonde hair and blue eyes. And she was married to a Black man and was treated terribly by her peers because of it. She became an ally and a champion, and my brothers and I knew we could find her at any time of day when we needed support and safety and someone we could trust. She met us at the bus each morning, she walked us to the bus after school, she looked out for us and other students who faced discrimination because of how we looked. 

     We could have just said “no” and gone to a different school, but my parents knew it belonged to us just as much as anyone else. And thanks to the positive influence of great educators, we were able to not just exist but to thrive.

>>>Can you identify an educator (or educators) who provided you with uniquely positive insights into subject matter as well as teaching style? If so, please explain what made them unique.

     I had a 6th grade English teacher, who I have since continued to see and keep in touch with as an adult and as an educator myself. Again, I was the only child of color in the classroom. She loved Shakespeare and loved teaching French phrases (even though she spoke them with a Southern accent). In 6th grade, we were learning Shakespeare; we even performed the play, Macbeth. I loved it. I loved the history and the poetry. I memorized every word and I wanted desperately to be in that play. My teacher sat me down and said, “I know you can play Lady Macbeth. But you also know why you can’t play the part.” And I knew what she was referring to. There would be pushback from within my school and throughout our community – there was still segregation and discrimination that impacted these decisions. But she explained why I would be great at playing a different, still important, role. 

     I can still recite lines from Shakespeare. We were reading what high school students were reading and connecting all of the stories of Macbeth and Shakespeare to real life. And as an educator myself down the road, that’s what I did in my own classroom. I connected with students on an individual level, and I excited students about learning and impacts inside and outside of the classroom.

     Then, I had a chemistry and physics teacher (and S.T.E.M. is what I would eventually teach). He was my first teacher of color, and we were the only two people of color in the room. His class was filled with who were thought to be, and were labeled, “advanced” White children, and they very clearly discounted his presence and experience to be teaching at a “high level.” He would set up labs and stay after classes with me to dig deeper into the science. He gave me perspective of how huge the universe is and how small we all are in comparison. This was during the start of the U.S. space program and it evoked a love for science, space and chemistry. 

     We dwell on things that are so absurd in the big picture, but he connected your head with your heart and your hands and taught us how to apply information in many different ways – and those are life lessons you carry with you.  

>>>What inspired your career as a leader in education?

     Hands down, what impacted me most were my own experiences, and making sure that people in my presence had a different one. I was determined to make sure my students always felt challenged, and had someone who believed in their ability and gave a sense of belonging. And this is why I became a National Board Certified Teacher and am proud to lead the organization today. Those tenets of teaching are the 5 Core Propositions of NBPTS. It’s about building meaningful relationships. It’s your job to make students feel welcome, challenge them, push them. In order to do that, you have to do that for yourself. And you have to lead by example, even when it may not be comfortable. I was fortunate enough to see that in some of my teachers and in the example my parents set for me and my brothers, and it’s why I do what I do. 

>>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today?

     There is no shortage of challenges that educators in this country face, especially right now. People think we’re on different pages or different sides of an issue. Everyone wants an incredible education for their children; a respected, well taught, safe environment with a sense of belonging. But it’s a problem when some people think others don’t deserve that. When we start dividing who deserves what, we have a problem. Truth has to be a part of anything we put in front of children, even if that truth is different from untruths they have been told over the years and causes them to begin to examine real truths for themselves.
     And, teacher recruitment and retention continues to be an issue, especially with the challenges of COVID, but it is one that can be mitigated. Teachers deserve to be respected, provided with the resources they need, fairly compensated and given a seat at the decision-making table. We value and advocate for these things at the National Board, and Board Certified teachers feel better supported and prepared to face the challenges we face. During the pandemic, as we saw the highest educator burnout and turnover in recent memory, NBCTs had higher than average retention rates and felt more prepared.

>>>What can be done to encourage people to go into teaching or other areas of education?

    Elevating and respecting the profession; increasing teacher pay to a liveable wage; working conditions that listen to those of us doing the work; ongoing support and professional development; a seat at the table – just to name a few. These are all things that Board Certification addresses and works toward.  If every teacher were a Board Certified teacher, we would solve many of the barriers to entering the profession as well as elevate the profession appropriately. We need the increased and ongoing support of parents, community and our leaders.

>>>What makes you optimistic about education when you look ahead for the next 3-5 years and what concerns you the most over that time period?

     The National Board makes me optimistic because there’s nothing stronger than an accomplished teacher. National Board Certification is the most respected professional certification available in education and provides numerous benefits to teachers, students and schools. It was designed to develop, retain and recognize accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing improvement in schools nationwide. We are lifelong learners. We build respect and relationships. And we prepare our students to be good stewards and citizens. 

     A concern is not having access to those educators. It’s taking people too long to figure out that teachers need pay, support, resources, etc. Teachers deal with the most precious capital we have--children. 

>>>What would you consider to be the single most important key to positive transformation of education in the US?

     That’s an easy one: full funding for every teacher in America to be Nationally Board Certified! 

Copyright: Chuck Cascio and Peggy Brookins; all rights reserved.

Comments? Please write to chuckwrites@yahoo.com

AND BE SURE TO VISIT: www.nbpts.org for more info about the incredible work of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards!!!

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION TODAY
(Tenth in a Series of Interviews with Education Leaders)
Featuring Hollee Freeman,

Education Reform Innovator

Note from Chuck Cascio: Given the difficult issues facing educators today in the USA, I have been running a series in which I contact established educators and request their insights, in their own words, on a number of vitally important education issues. Readers who would like to comment on the views expressed may email me at chuckwrites@yahoo.com. My Twitter handle is @ChuckCascio. Not all comments will be responded to by me and/or the individuals interviewed, but all will be read and, if appropriate, forwarded to others engaged in meaningful education reform. I am pleased to present as the tenth interview in this series the views of dynamic education reform innovator Hollee Freeman, whose profile follows:

     Hollee Freeman, PhD, is a career educator specializing in Science Technology Education and Mathematics (STEM), equity, and educational access. Hollee is the Executive Director of the MathScience Innovation Center in Richmond, VA, where she combines her love of STEM content with curriculum development and hands-on programming for students and adults. 

     Hollee owns and operates Freeman Educational & Business Consulting where she provides writing services for individuals and businesses. She also conducts creative writing classes, book studies, and more. Hollee has authored numerous professional book chapters and articles focused on educational reform, teaching, gender equity and STEM. Hollee is a self-published author of a children’s book entitled Muddy Ballerinas (available in English and Spanish). Her just-published books, Muddy Ballerinas and the Big Bowling Party and Beekeeping Besties--An Apiary Adventure, are available on Amazon and at https://holleefreeman.com

     A hobbyist photographer who specializes in nature-based images, Hollee has shared her photography in art shows and cafes including: The Nutty Buttery Café, ArtWorks, Rigby's Jig, and The Broad.  Hollee is also a beekeeper, cyclist, and voracious reader. She dances with Claves Unidos and volunteers on several the community boards of several organizations including ArtSpace, Bridge Park, The Richmond Public Library, and The Innerwork Center.

     You can learn more about Hollee by watching her TEDx talk (https://youtu.be/ZEi03HojVi8) and by visiting her website https://holleefreeman.com/.

>>>Recalling your own life as a student, going back as far as you would like, what do you remember as the most positive and most negative educational influences for you personally?

     I remember spending a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm in Prince George, Virginia. I really came to

know the value of farming but also the value of environmental education and nature. I learned how to make

things grow and how to take care of flowers, fruit, vegetables, and animals. I learned to look closely at weather

 patterns, temperature and goings-on in nature.

      I have carried this love of science and math and a deep connection to nature with me for my whole life. I also vividly remember fishing, doing artwork, and making wallets and belts out of leather.  These experiences all contributed to my love of learning and creating, and I work hard to create spaces for students to have similar experiences as well. 

     When I was in high school, I really learned the value of being a leader and engaging in independent and self-sustaining learning experiences. I'll never forget doing research for a class on African-American poets; my teacher accepted my proposal and developed a full-fledged class that was added to our repertoire! 

     As a high school student, I also took classes at the Math & Science Center, where I am now the Executive Director. These classes were built on a deep exploration of math and science ideas and learning in community (our own Math & Science community and the community at large). The classes had a deep and profound impact on the kind of educator that I am to this day. 

     The only difficult learning experience that I had during my formal educational experience was when I went to Columbia University. Coming from a very progressive high school and simply seeing the university’s architecture (Lowe Library in particular, filled with names of authors of the so-called great works) on the frieze was enough to throw me into full-blown imposter syndrome. I knew how to learn but I did not enter Columbia with the requisite knowledge that many other students had in high school regarding the "great works" as well as how to navigate a hierarchical way of working and being.  I made my way through close friendships, tutoring to “catch up” and independent learning, but it wasn’t until I started my Masters degree at Bank Street (and doctorate at Boston College) that I really felt like my learning style and way of working was valued again. 

     I continue to be a learner and engage in activities where I learn something new and also where I can create space for students and adults to explore their connection to the world, to each other, and to themselves. 

>>>Can you identify an educator (or educators) who provided you with uniquely positive insights into subject matter as well as teaching style? If so, please explain what made them unique.

     Fortunately, I started interning at the Columbia Greenhouse Nursery School and then was offered my first teaching job by Julie Diamond at the Westside Community School (a progressive school within a school in NYC). These experiences on-boarded me to the academic (and more technical) aspect of the learning style and philosophy that I learned with my dad and in other earlier learning experiences. 

      I remember sitting down and going over my curriculum unit with Leslie Alexander, Director of the Muscota New School (NYC) where I worked as an elementary classroom teacher. While talking about my ideas for my science curriculum, she continued to ask me questions about reading, art, music, culture, etc. that I could incorporate. This conversation gave me pause and made me think more deeply about making cross-curricular connections for myself and for students. 

     While at Muscota, I was part of the North Dakota Study Group and the Prospect Center for Education and Research. These experiences provided a diversity of thought around educational issues and also demanded that we observe student work closely and to work from an asset model rather than a deficit model of understanding students, what they think and how they orient themselves to learning. 

     I have had a whole lineup of amazing educators who have been role models, mentors and colleagues. I have worked at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the Technical Education Research Center, the Boston Teacher Residency, and consulted/led learning experiences in public, private, rural, suburban and urban schools across the United States. Each of these experiences added more specific and unique tools to my toolbox while affirming my role and stance as a progressive educator. 

>>>Identify a couple of accomplishments that you and/or members of your school and/or organization achieved that you feel have had a lasting impact on education.

     When I was preparing for an interview with the Math/Science Innovation Center, I decided to call the organization to see if I could get a tour. I did not share that I was an interviewee. I simply asked if I could have a tour to get a better idea of the programming and space. I was told that a tour was not possible since I was not a member of the consortium. So I elected to drive by a few times to take a look (from the outside) at how and who was using the space. 

     I was awarded the job as Executive Director a few weeks later, and I vowed to myself and the Governing Board that the conversation I had about a tour would never happen again for ANY member of the community—not the consortium, but the community because I believed that this regional STEM center should be open and available to all. 

     During my 10-year tenure at the Math/Science Innovation Center, the team and I increased the number of Black and Latino students who had access to the programming and other (vast) resources that the Center offers. We created satellite centers in communities that were further away in order to mitigate the issue of transportation to put STEM programming in their own neighborhoods. This included libraries and schools. We created programming delivered in Spanish and partnered with HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) to create a pipeline of STEM students in undergraduate education and careers.  We partnered with Career and Technical Education Centers, NASCAR, and other organizations to create a space for learning that did not necessarily explicitly exist for all students in the region. 

     To do this work required developing trusted partnerships and raising capital. I was hard at work on a grant to provide access for 200 K-12 students in an under-resourced town in Central Virginia to participate in our summer programs held at a local community college. When I was notified of the grant award, I rushed to my secret spot (my bathroom) and cried. I was so overwhelmed with joy that these Black, Indigenous, and People of Color(BIPOC) students, in particular, would have access to robust, engaging STEM programming, where they otherwise would not. 

     During the program, I remember seeing a White student from a rural town and a Black student from the city lying on the floor, side-by-side working on a rocket project. It was not just the project that stopped me in my tracks but the fact that they were talking about lots of other topics as well. I thought to myself, were it not for this program, right here at this time, these students, and other students like them, might never have met. Furthermore, they would not have had an opportunity to get to know each other. As we talk about multicultural, multi-talented teams in the workplace, experiences like this will get us there and make our products better, our work places better, our humanity stronger. 

>>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today?

     I see the major challenge in education today as being the extreme dichotomy that communities have regarding access to educational resources. This dichotomy has always existed. However, the issue has been made more clear with the onset of the pandemic when we saw which families had the resources to mobilize learning pods for their neighborhoods and which families did not. Consequently, this severe difference in educational access to resources has also shown the very present through-line concerning the connection between chasms in technology access, use of time, health and wellness, transportation and workforce issues, to name a few. 
>>>Has the remote learning that started as a result of the pandemic become entrenched as a new direction that education will take and, if so, could it have a positive impact?

     I’m not convinced that remote learning will become entrenched as a new direction for education. Remote learning may be more readily offered post-pandemic, but I hesitate to say that it will be a long-term, viable modus operandi for K-8 education. While, I know that remote learning provides a type of ease for some students who perform better and are more comfortable using remote learning platforms, it leaves many students in an untenable situation. 

     A large part of schooling is socialization. That is greatly diminished through remote learning. In my own experience teaching remotely, there is a different (and for me, unwelcomed) part of teaching in which you are interacting with blank or black squares rather than students' own faces. Moreover, even when all students are “video-on,” the level of interaction is stunted. It is more difficult to use body language to convey information and working in cooperative groups just isn’t the same. Technically, remote learning allows instructors and teachers to convey information but the adaptive portion of teaching is not (and cannot be) built into remote learning platforms. 

     All of this is to say that, yes, remote learning has provided positive impact and outcomes for some students. However, many students have been negatively impacted given the lack of in-person support that instructors and other faculty in schools provide. I think that most teachers and students want to return to in-person schooling. I, for one, do so as well. 

Copyright: Chuck Cascio and Hollee Freeman; all rights reserved

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