Education Excellence

Kristina chats with John Melville , director of biology at Vernier Software & Technology, which develops creative ways to teach and learn STEM using hands-on science, about data collection technology. Melville notes that data collection keeps students' attention, (there's more reality to it than writing on a chalkboard). In addition, he says, students, particularly biology students, perform much b...

Kristina chats with eight members of the NASSP (National Association of Secondary School Principals) Digital Principals of the Year Advisory Board about digital technology and innovation at their schools. The principals cite a variety of apps, programs, and tech tools, including Headspace; Instagram; Mood Meter; Flipgrid; Leaving Anchors of Appreciation; CANVAS; Twitter; and Google Suites. This is...

Kristina chats with Houston Kraft, co-founder of Character Strong, an organization that provides curriculum and trainings that transform the way schools teach the Whole Child. That approach, Kraft explains, includes social-emotional learning, character education, and equipping educators with practical tools to create a compassionate culture. Character Strong has worked with more than 1000 schools...

Kristina chats with Helene Becker, director of English Learner Education in the Norwalk, CN, Public Schools, who has taught ESL to all ages in Connecticut, New York, and Hawaii. When students come from a different country or culture or speak another language at home, it's always a challenge to learn English, Becker notes. However, many K-12 students come from countries in Central America and have...

Kristina chats with Jessica Baghian, Assistant Superintendent with the Louisiana Department of Education (LADOE) and Mike Nesterak, Vice President of Research and Development at NWEA and Senior Director of NWEA's Product Innovation Center about Louisiana's assessment pilot. Baghian leads assessment, accountability, and improvement for the LADOE and oversees improvement efforts of early childhood n...

Kristina chats with Annie Slease, Director of Advocacy and Education at National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Delaware, where she is responsible for programming, outreach, and advocacy for the statewide agency. Slease notes that the stigma of mental illness is the result of the lack of pertinent information. Early intervention is critical to dealing with mental illness in students and young a...

Kristina chats with Michael McLaughlin , superintendent of the San Leandro Unified School District in California since 2013 and Mike Teng , CEO and co-founder of Swing Education, a tech-enabled marketplace that connects substitute teachers with schools in need.  McLaughlin talks about rebuilding the infrastructure of the school district, including the introduction of new technology and the concept...

Kristina chats with April Gower , Chief Operating Officer for CHADD, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Gower has worked in the ADHD area for the past five years focusing not only on supporting parents with children with ADHD, but educators as well. CHADD has a variety of valuable resources to support educators, parents, and students who are dealing with ADHD...

Kristina chats with Rhonda Lauer, president and CEO of Foundations, Inc., about the importance of "heart" and passion in educational leadership. (Before Kristina came along, Rhonda was the youngest school principal ever in Philadelphia.) When you take care of the hearts and happiness of your school leaders, it translates into improved student achievement, Lauer says. Everyone collects data, Lauer...

Kristina chats with Jolene Levin, a director at NorvaNivel, an education company founded in Australia in 2010, and Troy Moore, head of Mariners Christian School in Orange County, CA, about the importance of matching classroom design to today's and tomorrow's pedagogy, especially in these times of increasing inclusion and meeting the needs of the "whole" student. Levin explains that "form follows f...

Kristina chats with Stacie Freeman, co-executive director at Bright Light Volunteers and associate professor of sociology at Bethel University in Tennessee about global citizenship. Bright Light Volunteers is dedicated to fostering the common humanity in the global setting and how individual students and others truly can make a difference in the world. When Freeman began offering global learning t...

Kristina chats with Joseph Jones, director of assessment and accountability in the New Castle (DE) County Vocational and Technical District, and T.J. Vari, assistant superintendent of secondary schools and district operations Appoquinimink School District, the fastest growing school district in Delaware. Jones and Vari are authors of the new book, Candid and Compassion Feedback, published by Routl...

Kristina chats with Luvelle Brown, superintendent of the Ithaca (NY) Independent School District and author of Culture of Love. Love is more than an emotion, Brown says, but rather is embedded in action that administrators and teachers can take to better educate their students.  It's important to have structured, intentional education with students, he says. Reflection informs that structured educ...

At the AASA meeting in Los Angeles, in the midst of Valentine's Day, Kristina interviews school superintendents and other educational leaders asking one transcendent question: What's love got do with education? In this brief special episode, find out what these leaders have to say about why love and happiness are vitally important as a practical concept in education today.

Kristina talks with Keith Frome, the co-founder and CEO of PeerForward and Gary Linnen, Managing Director for Program Innovation and Operations, about the history and mission of PeerForward, which in its original incarnation (College Summit) was founded on the principle that the most influential person to a 17-year-old was another 17-year-old. The guests discussed the Youth Activation Summit, whic...

Kristina chats with Michelle Fleming, principal at Lake Park Elementary School in the Palm Beach School District in Florida, the 10th largest school district in the country, although the Lake Park Elementary School (which Burt Reynolds attended) is relatively small.  The school is 98 percent minority, including with 33 percent of the student body being Haitian Creole, she notes. The school has imp...

In Special Episode #1, Kristina chats with Sen. Tom Carper from Delaware about repurposing the GM plant in Delaware for STEM education, the importance of happiness, and why emphasizing potential in education is paramount. Sen. Carper also describes why charter schools and public school choice are important concepts. He explains why putting together a consortium of science companies, including DuPo...

Kristina chats with Rick Jetter, co-author of the book, Let Them Speak!, and co-founder of Pushing Boundaries about student voice, one of the "new," "cool" terms in education. Student voice isn't really "new," and shouldn't be viewed as just a "cool" buzzword, he notes. Really, Jetter says, student voice is about partnerships with students and asking them what they think about lessons, programs, o...

In this inaugural episode, host Kristina MacBury chats with Dwight Carter, a former high school principal in Central Ohio and NASSP Digital Principal of the Year. Carter, a co-author of several books on education, is currently an Effectiveness Coach for Dynamix. Carter describes his education excellence mission as doing something every day to positively impact students. In his book, Leading School...