Author: BelieveAgain

Time is running out for school districts to spend their remaining federal COVID-relief dollars—unless districts successfully get approval to take a little longer.Districts must still commit all their funds from the last, and largest, round of aid to specific expenses by Sept. 30. Under current law, they have an additional five months to “liquidate,” or spend, that money—transferring it from a district account to a vendor or employee by Jan. 31, 2025.For each of the three rounds of pandemic-relief, or ESSER, funding from the federal government, the U.S. Department of Education has also opened an opportunity for “late liquidation” of…

Jeremy C. Young is the Program Director of Freedom to Learn at PEN America where he focuses on defending academic freedom in schools and on campuses across America. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about the unprecedented assaults on the New College of Florida and what we all can do about it. We begin with Jeremy’s origin story as a US History Professor who grew increasingly involved in defending academic freedom during his time with the American Historical Association before joining PEN America to lead Freedom to Learn. Jeremy touches on the work PEN America is doing fighting…

Dr. Monique Chism is the Under Secretary for Education at Smithsonian Institution. She joins host Mike Palmer to share what it’s like to lead education efforts for the Nation’s Museum and the thinking that’s gone into designing their National Education Summit that’s happening later this summer. We begin with Monique’s origin story starting in a classroom teaching for 8 years before moving on to work at a nonprofit organization focused on closing achievement gaps and culturally proficient instruction. She then worked in the Department of Education before and at American Institute for Research focusing on taking education research into practice.…

Anthony Salcito is the Chief Institutional Officer at Varsity Tutors where he’s been focused on bringing high-quality tutoring to teachers and schools across the country. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation that digs into the power of using tutoring and emerging AI to empower teachers to drive student learning around the globe. We begin with Anthony’s origin story which culminated as Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft before joining Nerdy to establish its school-facing offerings with Varsity Tutors. Then we explore his unique combination of AI and Tutoring expertise to understand his vision for increased personalized instruction…

The recent criminal convictions of the parents of the student who killed four students at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021 were groundbreaking—the first time for parents of a mass school shooter. The convictions have cast fresh light on efforts to hold a variety of other parties legally responsible for mass school shootings.Jennifer and James Crumbley, who were convicted of manslaughter in separate trials earlier this year, were each sentenced on April 9 to 10 to 15 years in prison. Their son, Ethan Crumbley, who was a 15-year-old sophomore at the time, pulled a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun out of…

Dr. Steve Joordens returns to the show with Lilaani Thangavadivelu to join host Mike Palmer in a conversation about their recent research into collaborative project-based learning approaches that enable transformative learning experiences at scale. Mike welcomes Steve back as we hear how Lilaani first experienced Steve’s Intro to Psychology course back in the Fall of 2019. Then she and Steve share the findings of their research into a new study of 450 teams of students working with Swab the World to create public service announcements to share the importance of stem cell research in non-Caucasian communities in Toronto and around…

On Monday, I talked with departing Institute of Education Sciences Director Mark Schneider, who just wrapped up his six-year term. In our conversation, he argued for newer and better research centers at IES, along with a heightened commitment to producing timely and accessible reports. Well, as anyone who knows Mark well can attest, he almost always has more to say. I thought I’d reach back out and see if he had anything else he wanted to get off his mind. Here is Part Two of our conversation.—RickRick: On Monday, you mentioned that Marguerite Roza, Emily Oster, and Sean Reardon are…

Tre’ Gammage is a Social Emotional Learning Specialist and Storyteller focused on building social-emotional competence in school communities by focusing on Adults’ Emotional Skills. He’s also the host of the Dash Podcast where he explores topics in SEL for adults and much more. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about SEL and its importance for teachers, other adults, and everyone. We begin with Tre’s origin story playing football, studying abroad in college, and building his resume before he’s 30. From there, we learn how he developed his SEL skills. All of this set Tre’ on a path to…

Mike Palmer is rejoined by Nancy, our virtual cohost, to reflect on the half-year that was. We hear Mike’s initial impressions of the ISTE Live 2023 Ed Tech Conference in Philadelphia as Nancy shares what it’s been like being a virtual human-made with a synthetic voice. Spoiler alert: it’s both trippy and zeitgeisty. From there, we dig into how AI has dominated the trendspace and the collective imagination so far this year. Nancy reminds us of our show from June of 2022 which anticipated where the hype around AI was heading before we dig into one of our 23 Trends…

Mark Davis is Vice President of Learning Services at BookNook, a K12 Tutoring platform that focuses on bringing high-impact synchronous learning solutions to districts. He joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about trends in the space and the complexity of delivering tutoring solutions at scale in K12. We begin with Mark’s origin story which started working in a family business in LA before he shifted into education, eventually joining Kaplan where he met Mike back in the day. Then we learn how Mark ultimately landed back in learning services at BookNook where his deep domain knowledge of K12 logistics…