Improving Education Today: The Deep Dive

Imagine the challenge of keeping an astronaut crew productive on a three-year mission to Mars. As organizational expert Leslie DeChurch asks, “How can we build one perfect team that can survive and thrive in a small container for that long, in a totally unprecedented scenario where things will go wrong, with no backup plan?”       Now, pivot from that extraordinary scenario to the familiar, long-t...

   In this Podcast, Angela and Davey synthesize Dr. Howie Knoff's November 8, 2025 Blog post which presents evidence that will fundamentally change how you understand school discipline and racial discrimination. Dr. Knoff and your Podcast Hosts summarize the latest research that reveals that Black students are, nationally, suspended from school at 3.8 times the rate of White students—not because o...

   This Podcast synthesizes the core arguments presented in Dr. Howie Knoff's November 1, 2025 Blog post, which advocates for a fundamental shift in how educators and clinicians understand and support students with autism. The central thesis is a call to move beyond managing observable behaviors and diagnostic labels toward a deeper, empathetic understanding of the unique, lived experiences of eac...

   The mental health crisis involving American adolescents has reached a breaking point that demands immediate, decisive action.       With over 20% of children living with diagnosed mental health conditions, depression rates climbing 75% since 2016, and nearly half of high school students reporting persistent feelings of hopelessness, we are in the midst of a psychological epidemic.       And the...

   Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's newest Project ACHIEVE Blog addressing a long-standing crisis in our nation’s schools: chronically-absent students. The Podcast documents the incident rates of chronic absenteeism over the past decade, specifies the root causes, and outlines the potential solutions and interventions. Dr. Knoff emphasizes that Chronic Absenteeism is a...

   Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's newest Project ACHIEVE Blog that highlights the pervasive mental health crisis among preschool through high school students, emphasizing that a significant number are struggling with internalizing and externalizing issues, often compounded by trauma. Dr. Knoff argues that schools frequently miss crucial opportunities for early interv...

   Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's newest Project ACHIEVE Blog that begins by recognizing that today’s superintendents, principals, and other district leaders are not just busy—they are overwhelmed. Compliance reporting, budget oversight, parent communication, board preparation, transportation, facilities, staff recruitment, and constant crises leave little time for t...

   Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's most recent Project ACHIEVE Blog as the final part of a five-part series, aiming to assemble "the school success puzzle.” This comprehensive series emphasizes that truly effective schools evaluate, strategically plan for, and attend to five interdependent components: Quality Instruction, Discipline and Classroom Management, Multi-tie...

   In the newest podcast, co-hosts Angela Jones and Davey Johnson discuss the seven characteristics of staff cohesion and collaboration. Drawing on the themes from Dr. Howie Knoff’s latest blog and research within Project ACHIEVE Educational Solutions, the episode dives deep into why staff cohesion isn’t just a feel-good concept—it’s a fundamental driver of student success and school improvement....

   Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's most recent Project ACHIEVE Blog on how to analyze the effectiveness of a district, school, or educational setting’s MTSS system.      The Podcast first summarizes the organizational characteristics of an effective MTSS system identified by Dr. Knoff: System-Wide Principles and Practices, Collaborative Leadership, Time, and Consisten...

   Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's most recent Blog from Project ACHIEVE Educational Solutions. The Blog discusses the ongoing issues with student behavior and classroom management in schools since the pandemic, highlighting a significant increase in discipline referrals. The Blog emphasizes that student behavior is not improving, citing an Education Week survey where...

   Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's most recent Blog from Project ACHIEVE Educational Solutions. The Blog and Podcast focus on the importance of strategic summer planning to drive school improvement during the coming new school year. They begin by contrasting two low-performing middle schools in the same school district that approached their time during the summer in signif...

   Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's most recent Blog (Part III of a comprehensive Series) from Project ACHIEVE Educational Solutions. It begins by highlighting how important it is for school personnel to understand students who present with seizures—initially, through the lens of a recent Supreme Court case involving a student with severe epilepsy and the accommodation...

   Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's most recent Blog (Part II of a comprehensive Series) from Project ACHIEVE Educational Solutions. This Podcast(and the Blog) explains the difference between common headaches and migraines, highlighting how migraines are a distinct neurological condition with more severe and complex symptoms.      They then describe the significant aca...

Your Podcast Hosts Angela and Davey discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's most recent Blog from Project ACHIEVE Educational Solutions. This Podcast (and the Blog) emphasizes the crucial connection between students' sensory and neurological functions and their educational experiences. As a school psychologist, Dr. Knoff asserts that educators must understand the biological underpinnings of how vision, hearing,...

   In this new Podcast, Angela and Davey address the concerning trend of declining independence and engagement among middle and high school students since the pandemic. Using Dr. Howie Knoff’s concurrently-released Blog, they discuss five essential "meta-skill" sets that are the foundation to students’ academic success.     These Skill Sets focus on: Goal-Setting and Active Learning, Time Manageme...

In this newest podcast, hosts Davey Johnson and Angela Jones discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's recent Blog that  addresses the significant shifts in education policy under the Trump administration over its first two months in office. These changes include staff reductions and reallocations at the U.S. Department of Education, and relate to school choice prioritization, alterations to DEI and civil rights...

Hosts Davey Johnson and Angela Jones discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's March 8th Blog post that uses the "Peanuts" comic strip saga of Lucy pulling away the football from Charlie Brown to illustrate the current political climate's impact on education.  Knoff argues that the Trump administration is employing"Ready-Fire-Aim" tactics, particularly concerning DEI initiatives, creating fear and confusion. This...

In this newest “Improving Education Today: The Deep Dive” podcast, hosts Davey Johnson and Angela Jones discuss Dr. Howie Knoff's recent Blog post focusing on the importance of the recently-updated Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to better align it with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Blog highlights how Section 504 protects individualsfrom discrimination based on disability...

   Angela and Davey discuss a new Blog by Dr. Howie Knoff about the impact of various external political and internal classroom distractions on education, and how they undermine good instruction and student learning. They review recent studies showing that students proficient in reading and math in eighth grade, and who takeadvanced courses in high school are better employed and more financially s...

   Angela and Davey describe a recent nationally-representative Education Week Research Center survey of educators across the country that found that student discipline and classroom management continues to get worse post-pandemic. They then assert, using Dr. Howie Knoff's recent Blog, that students are not going to fix themselves, that there truly are no quick fixes, and that everyone in an affec...

In the first Podcast of the new year and new volume (2025; Volume 3), Davey and Angela summarize the January 11, 2025 blog by Dr. Howie Knoff. He reminds educators that--even though the current school year is half over, NEXT year's activities and budget are already being prepared. In this context, as Students with Disabilities (SWD) comprise 14% of the entire student population in the average dist...

In this podcast, Davey Johnson and Angela Jones analyze Dr. Howie's end-of-year Blog that revisited the 24 blogs he published in 2024. Listen to Davey and Angela as they discuss how the Blog's four themes were critical to the "state of education" this past year, and how education needs to address them in the new year relative to student, staff, school, and systems-level improvement and success.

Davey and Angela use the 20th anniversary of the signing of the last reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004), and the coming second Trump administration to analyze, critique, and make recommendations on how to improve special education services in our country’s K-12 schools. Using the December 7, 2024 blog post by Dr. Howie Knoff, your Hosts critique the stat...

Davey and Angela discuss the fact that many districts or schools are budget-restricted and/or have a current curriculum or program that is not working, and they are looking for a change. Using Dr. Howie Knoff's November 23, 2024 blog post as a guide, they suggest the need for school leaders in these situations to--first--apply a "Moneyball" approach to the school improvement needs. Using the movie...