In Episode 4, we hear from Melinda Young, superintendent of Steubenville City Public Schools, Kayla Whitlatch, Steubenville’s treasurer, and Lynnett Gorman, the district’s federal grants administrator, about how ESSER funds are allowing Steubenville to construct a STEM building connected to the high school, which they view as a long-term investment in students’ dreams and post-pandemic economic growth. “This is the […]

In Episode 3, leaders in two states explain how they are using ESSER funds to pursue statewide improvement efforts. In Delaware, recently retired state superintendent, Dr. Susan Bunting, along with Dr. Michael Saylor, education associate for school leadership initiatives, and Dr. Jackie Wilson, director of the Delaware Academy for School Leadership, note that their state has developed a leadership pipeline […]

In Episode 2, we sit down with Tricia McManus, superintendent of Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools, who says that her district is making the most of its relief money by using it to address pressing needs and invest for the future. She’s spending on everything from COVID mitigation and new curricula to contracting with community “violence interrupters” to help mentor and […]

How are educators using the $189 billion in federal #COVID relief funding? What does it take to retrofit old buildings to keep students & staff safe from illness? Karin Chenoweth talks with Phyllis Jordan of Future Ed, Dr. Luvelle Brown, a superintendent in Ithaca, New York, and Dr. Corey Miklus, a superintendent in Seaford, Delaware.

Are you wondering how school districts are spending the money the federal government sent them to get through the COVID crisis? Karin Chenoweth, a writer-in-residence at The Education Trust, has been talking with educators around the country for Season 5 of ExtraOrdinary Districts. Karin explores how this once-in-a-generation investment in education is being used to meet the immediate needs of students during the pandemic and to set up long-term strategies to address inequities.

In the final episode of this season of ExtraOrdinary Districts, Tanji Reed Marshall interviews her co-host Karin Chenoweth about Chenoweth’s new book, Districts that Succeed: Breaking the Correlation Between Race, Poverty, and Achievement, which will be published May 25 by Harvard Education Press. Be sure to subscribe to ExtraOrdinary Districts to be notified of new episodes when they come out.

In this episode, ExtraOrdinary Districts co-hosts Karin Chenoweth and Tanji Reed Marshall chew over what they heard and what they learned from five previous episodes that explored different aspects of reading instruction. They connect the question of reading instruction to our historical moment in which we as a nation are deciding whether to be a democracy in which all citizens […]

When Tennessee showed no progress on the last results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress and Massachusetts actually declined, both states were spurred to make some major changes to improve the reading instruction in their states. In this episode, Dr. Lisa Coons, chief academic officer of the Tennessee State Department of Education, Dr. Heather Peske, senior associate commissioner, Massachusetts […]

Most elementary schools teach reading with either a basal reading program, a teacher-developed curriculum, or a balanced literacy program like Fountas & Pinnell or Teachers College Units of Study. But the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), in calling for a national improvement in reading instruction, has called upon all state superintendents and commissioners to encourage schools and districts […]

The last results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed no progress and some indicators even declined, meaning few children are reading at an advanced or proficient level. Partly because of those disappointing results and partly because of a series of podcasts by American Public Media’s Emily Hanford, a growing number of educators, parents, advocates, and policymakers have become […]