Talking Out of School

Over the years, Director of Purchasing Gary Kerbow has been tasked with daunting construction projects when helping Hurst Euless Bedford ISD expand. Once, the board of trustees needed a recently acquired building up and running as quickly as possible, but copper thieves had looted the entire infrastructure, requiring extensive rewiring. Another time, Gary had to determine the full scope of repairs when creating offices for new management staff in an existing warehouse space. Most construction veterans would consider these requests near impossible, and they would be if Gary didn’t have certain procedures and tools in place. In this podcast, Gary will speak about the lessons he’s learned from these and other projects at a number of school districts in North Texas. Key Takeaways:  What superintendents need to know when assigning similar time-sensitive tasks Best practices for vetting vendors to ensure difficult projects are completed on time When procurement directors need to reconsider where and how they procure critical parts How staffing levels and needs impact renovation/construction projects How to streamline construction projects through collaboration and communication Ways to innovate the scope of work for all contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers  Speakers Gary Kerbow, Director of Purchasing, Hurst Euless Bedford ISD 817-399-2036 garykerbow@hebisd.edu   Will Leisure, Account Manager, Gordian w.leisure@gordian.com 817-964-7441   RESOURCES K12 Contact: K12Team@gordian.com https://www.gordian.com/solutions/industry/k-12/

On the latest episode of District Administration's Talking Out of School podcastI, FETC featured speaker Kimberly Zajac share ideas for using the efficiencies of artificial intelligence to make instruction ever more inclusive.

Today, we're joined by Francie Alexander, senior vice president of efficacy and consulting research at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), to discuss the pressures placed on edtech companies to produce results in school districts around the country. She also shares her advice for those in charge of selecting edtech tools for their districts and how to choose the most effective product.

You’ve probably heard about AI's large language models. But what is a "small language model" and why might this fine-tuned version of artificial intelligence work better in K12?

An incendiary presidential election, compounded by social media and cable news, is pushing us further away. But as superintendents and community leaders, we can bridge the gap, Katy Anthes says.

In this episode, we're by Sasha Rabkin, the chief of program strategy and innovation for the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research and development in K12 education. Today’s discussion is on philanthropy and its role in K12 education initiatives and how leaders can implement more inclusive models of philanthropy while utilizing equity-focused research and development to inform these discussions.

Can school district leaders afford not to make media literacy a pillar of their instructional programs? Teaching the subject effectively is key to graduating students who are productive citizens, Superintendent Shari Camhi, says.

Jeremy Anderson walks us through how the National Math and Science Initiative is connecting districts with state and federal programs to close opportunity gaps and increase college access through advanced STEM education.

Many districts are challenged by outdated, costly and inefficient processes when it comes to the purchasing and procurement of instructional resources, which can frustrate teachers and staff and create significant waste. In this podcast, the recently retired superintendent of the Spring Grove Area School District (Penn.) will discuss how the district found ways to better support teachers and staff with the educational resources they needed, which had a direct impact on student academic outcomes, while reducing costs and improving visibility and efficiency. Speakers: Dr. George Ioannidis Superintendent (Retired) Spring Grove Area School District (Penn.) Brett Tuson Director of Education Amazon Business business.amazon.com/education

Lauren Morando Rhim, executive director of the Center for Learner Equity, details her organization’s pivotal two-year study of how charter schools support students with disabilities.

In this episode, we sit down with Bill Salak, the CTO/COO of Brainly, who explains why we might be "under-informing" our students by prohibiting smartphone use in schools.

Mike Duncan, CEO of Battelle for Kids, guides district leaders in developing a portrait of a graduate that offers students more more meaningful learning and durable skills.

In this episode, you'll hear from three leaders from the State College Area High School in Pennsylvania who take us behind the scenes of their award-winning PBIS program, which has successfully reduced suspension days and improved the overall school climate.

We’re talking music and other topics with Craig Witherspoon, a former band teacher who is now superintendent of Richland County School District One in South Carolina. He was just namwed ssuperintendent of the year by the South Carolina Alliance of Black School Educators

"Emotional intelligence" is not only a vital part of Superintendent Atiya Perkins' leadership philosophy, it's how she stays in touch with her own humanity.

CAST's Lindsay E. Jones shares how the Universal Design for Learning is helping educators personalize rigorous instruction for an ever more diverse population of students.

What do you learn when you sit down to chat with 15 superintendents at all stages of their careers and from districts of all shapes and sizes?

In the District Administration podcast, literacy experts Dr. Lynn Kulich and Dr. Robert Zewiecki from Renaissance Learning stress fluency's importance for reading comprehension and proficiency. Despite frequent assessments, fluency is rarely taught explicitly. The podcast covers evidence-based fluency practices, its impact on multilingual learners, and insights from the book "The Fluency Development Lesson: Closing Reading Gaps." Key points include the stagnant progress in reading proficiency over the past 40 years, worsened by the pandemic, and the need for equitable access to complex texts for marginalized students. The discussion highlights the interdisciplinary nature of the "science of reading," debunking the misconception that it solely focuses on phonics. Dr. Kulich uses the acronym CAP—Comprehension, Accuracy, Automaticity, and Prosody—to outline fluency's components, emphasizing that fluency bridges decoding and comprehension. Effective fluency instruction involves teaching these components and includes a balanced approach with decoding and context clues. Research shows that 75-90% of students struggling with high-stakes reading tests have issues with word recognition and fluency. Improving fluency can significantly enhance reading comprehension, accounting for 20-70% of variance in comprehension from grades one through nine. Effective methods include interactive read-alouds, choral reading, echo reading, phrase reading, partner reading, and repeated reading. Dr. Kulich's book, "The Fluency Development Lesson," offers five-day units tied to poems by David L. Harrison to improve fluency through diverse and engaging activities. The book targets teachers, literacy coaches, parents, and caregivers, providing structured lessons and a framework for customized instruction. It integrates phonics, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension, and has been successful with multilingual learners and diverse classrooms.

If you’re a superintendent or administrator trying to tackle public relations, this week's guests on District Administration's "Talking Out of School" podcast are here to help. Lynette White is the district and community relations coordinator at the Banning Unified School District and Renae Bryant is the director of plurilingual services at Anaheim Union High School District.

In this episode, we have a chat with InnovateEDU's founder and CEO Erin Mote, who shares some exciting news in the edtech space and advice for leaders on closing the digital access divide for students.