Talking Out of School

EPISODE 20: Paper CEO Phil Cutler

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? 

Focus on Fluency: The Neglected Goal of Reading Instruction

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.

Episode 19: Why K12 branding and marketing are more important than ever

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.

EPISODE 18: Closing the digital access divide

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.

EPISODE 17: Andy Farley, 2024 National Principal of the Year

In this episode, we sit down with the NASSP's 2024 National Principal of the Year Andy Farley to learn more about his leadership philosophy and his advice for current and aspiring principals in this age of the principalship.

EPISODE 16: How the teen brain works

Tiffany Shlain's new documentary, "The Teen Brain," looks through the lens of neuroscience to help teens—and their parents and teachers—better understand the upsides of an intense period of growth and development.

Episode 15: Sandy Hook Promise—How to spot students who need more support

Preventing violence in public schools has been Sandy Hook Promise co-founder and CEO Nicole Hockley’s mission since 2012, when her son Dylan was among the 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. She and the team at Sandy Hook Promise are now a leading voice on making schools safer places and providing mental health support for students by focusing on "upstream violence prevention."

Episode 14: Educating tomorrow's superintendents

Pamela Shetley and Doug Anthony head the University of Maryland's Education in School System Leadership Ed.D. program, which challenges aspiring superintendents to take on a district’s real-time wicked problem, diagnose its root causes and find the solution.

Episode 13: Javaid Siddiqi

Recruiting more aspiring educators of color will not only fill teacher vacancies but also propel student achievement and improve school climate, says this week's podcast guest, Javaid Siddiqi, the president and CEO of The Hunt Institute.

Episode 12: Teachers need 'professional authority'

Teachers quit the classroom when they lack control, choice and collaboration, says Becky Pringle, president of the NEA teachers union.