Groshell, a former Seattle-area fourth-grade teacher, had to laugh: “Nobody knows me here in the U.S.,” he said in an interview.

But in Britain, lots of teachers know his name. An in-demand speaker at education conferences, he flies to London “as frequently as I can” to discuss , his 2024 book on explicit instruction. Over the past year, Groshell has appeared virtually about once a month and has made two personal appearances at events across England.

The reason? A discipline known as cognitive science. Born in the U.S., it relies on decades of research on how kids learn to guide teachers in the classroom, and is at the root of several effective reforms, including the Science of Reading.

In nearly a dozen interviews, educators and policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic said that while it’s caught fire in England, from the classroom to the halls of government, the idea has made little traction in its home country. Benjamin Riley, founder of , a Texas-based group that has pushed to make cognitive science more central to U.S. teacher training programs, jokingly refers to it as a “reverse Beatles” effect, with British educators pining for American insights.

“Cognitive science gives you a vocabulary and a language, a common framing, to talk about how minds work,” said Riley. “That is one of the hallmarks, typically, of professions: There’s an agreed-upon body of knowledge that constitutes the things that professionals need to know in order to be practitioners in that space. And education, at least in the United States, has never really done that.”

The result, observers say, is slow, steady academic progress for 9 million English students, even as U.S. results falter.

From 2011 to 2021, English students’ average scores in the International Benchmarks of Reading Achievement, a key global comparison, rose six points, placing them fourth worldwide, while U.S. students’ dropped eight points, ranking the U.S. just below England. Essentially, American fourth-graders in 2021 read nearly as well as English students did .

In the bargain, English schools cut students’ gender gap in reading by more than half.

Other commonwealth countries have taken notice, with policymakers in , and working to duplicate England’s progress.

Is U.S. system ‘too big for things to catch fire’?

Developed in the 1950s, cognitive science essentially explains how we learn, think, remember and process information. Applied to education, it allows teachers to maximize learning by incorporating key principles, among them:

• working memory and cognitive load: Students have limited capacity to remember several important things at a time, so teachers should break down complex information into smaller chunks to avoid overwhelming them. For instance, a teacher introducing a lesson on multiplying fractions should first ensure that students’ recall of multiplication facts is solid and that they can multiply numbers automatically in their heads.
• spaced practice and retrieval: Rather than cramming a lot of information into a single session, teachers should space out learning over time and regularly ask students to retrieve information from memory via review sessions and low-stakes quizzes.
• prior knowledge activation: Teachers should explicitly connect new concepts to students’ existing knowledge and experiences before introducing unfamiliar material. For instance, in a lesson about how seeds grow into plants, teachers should begin by asking students if they’ve ever planted seeds in a garden and what they noticed.
• metacognition: Teaching students to “think about their thinking” helps them become more effective learners. For instance, in a lesson that features a word problem, a teacher might say, “Let’s slow down and figure out what to do first, second and third.” When students make errors, a teacher can ask, “Walk me through your thinking. What steps did you take?” 

In England these days, said Groshell, the Seattle teacher, such jargon is now mainstream: “It’s impossible now to find a teacher who doesn’t know about retrieval practice, cognitive load theory or explicit instruction.” 

What began as a grassroots movement among teachers coalesced into national policy around 2010, when a series of structural reforms made it easier to embrace cognitive science.

That is when Michael Gove, education secretary under Prime Minister David Cameron, allowed virtually any public school to convert to “academy” status — British educator Dylan Wiliam calls them “charter schools on steroids.”

Freed from local authority, but funded centrally, these schools can pool resources to hire research advisors, directors of teaching and learning and the like. “These people have really engaged with the research,” Wiliam said.

In an interview, former Minister of State for Schools noted the irony that most of these ideas are American-made, developed by U.S. researchers. In 2006, Gibb recalled first encountering . Authored by E.D. Hirsch, a University of Virginia scholar, it argued for a content-rich curriculum, traditional math and phonics-based reading lessons.

“It just explained everything I was instinctively feeling about our school system,” said Gibb, who recalled that English schools at the time were steeped in more progressive methods. He made everyone he met read the book — including Gove, the education secretary.

“That really formed the basis of our reform programming from 2010 onwards,” said Gibb. It gave rise to universal phonics screening and adoption of the more traditional, step-by-step . 

The movement really bloomed in 2013, when Scottish educator Tom Bennett created the first in a series of affordable research conferences for teachers. Dubbed , the conferences, which continue 12 years later, have built an international appetite for scientifically proven classroom practices.

In 2019, the government introduced an for teachers, which standardized training on “very practice-focused” principles, said Wiliam, the British educator. Since then, every school that recruits a teacher out of a university training program must report how well they succeed in classrooms. If programs don’t get positive reports about trainees, they can lose accreditation.

“There’s a really strong alignment between the needs of the system and what is being provided in initial teacher preparation programs, in a way that doesn’t actually happen in the U.S. at scale,” he said

It’s a source of frustration for Wiliam, who now works as an independent consultant in northern Florida. Despite the movement’s success in England, he said, just 10% of his work is based in U.S. schools. “I find it quite difficult to get any American school districts to engage me,” he said. But he’s got three scheduled trips to Australia this year, among others. 

Riley, the Deans for Impact founder, noted that American public schools are governed by 50 different state agencies that rarely row in the same direction. The U.S. may just be “too big for things to catch fire” the way they can elsewhere, especially in centralized systems like the United Kingdom.

Beyond state control, he said, most U.S. teachers’ colleges “are not designed with learning science principles at their core — quite frankly there’s just a lot of stuff in schools of education that is not very good from a research standpoint, but that nonetheless has become ingrained. It’s a generational battle to try to change that.”

Like Groshell, Riley laughed at the contrast with the U.K. “I am beloved over in England, and increasingly [in] Australia, in a way that just is simply not true here in the United States,” he said. 

Sarah Oberle, a Delaware first-grade teacher who is active in research and training, said U.S. teacher prep doesn’t typically focus on cognitive science because many think it favors a kind of “authoritative and cold” approach. “But when you really understand science, you realize just this knowledge gives me the power to make changes within my practice that will actually protect and support my students.”

Oberle stumbled upon cognitive science about five years ago, when the Science of Reading movement started building momentum in the U.S., and wondered why she never learned about it during her training. She went back to school and earned a doctorate in education science.

“Our business is learning,” she said. “How do we facilitate learning when we don’t understand how learning happens?” 

‘Comrades in arms’ 

While much of England’s progress is traceable to shifts in national policies, several British teachers described moments early in their careers when, like Oberle, they got a taste of cognitive science and began questioning their training.

Daisy Christodoulou, a former London high school English teacher, began her career in 2007 as a member of , the international iteration of Teach For America. She had an inkling that much of her training wasn’t just unhelpful but wrong, with discredited ideas held up as best practices with little evidence they worked. “I was just looking at [them], going, ‘Really? Is this really best practice?’”

In 2010, she came across Daniel Willingham’s book Subtitled, “A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom,” it revolutionized how Christodoulou thought about her work. Over the past 15 years, Willingham’s book has been “enormously influential here,” she said, turning the genial scholar into another American celebrity.

In an interview, Willingham agreed that many U.S. teaching candidates are exposed to views about how children learn that aren’t all accurate. For instance, he said, “This phrase that you hear so often, ‘Every child learns differently,’ is, in one sense, true. But it’s kind of true in a trivial sense, and in a more important sense, it’s really not true.”

Peps Mccrea, a former teacher in Brighton, on the southern British coast said blogs written by colleagues have become another way for educators to share research, finding “comrades in arms” in a movement that continues to grow. More than 20 years after he first entered a classroom, Mccrea hosts a that unpacks research-based teaching methods. 

And Gibb has taken to touting England’s advances more widely. Last month, he met in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Education Secretary , raising hopes that the British reforms might find an audience here. A spokesperson for McMahon did not reply to a request for comment.

Actually, said Oberle, the Delaware teacher, the Trump administration is moving in the opposite direction from U.K.-style national policies, pushing to abolish the U.S. Education Department and creating the potential for “even more individuality between states.”

If we’re ever to see cognitive science advance here, Oberle said, it’ll take both a top-down and bottom-up approach: word-of-mouth influence among teachers, via events like researchED, as well as federal and state pressure on training programs to bring the research to teachers. 

“Once they have it clearly and don’t have misconceptions about it, the benefits they will see in their own practice very quickly will make them want more — will make them demand more. It’s just gaining that entry point.”

But she added, “It’s such a long process. There are so many minds to change.”

In working with some 115 schools around the country, we’ve seen that PLCs are effective only if they foster a culture of continuous improvement in which educators learn together as a team. As they work through multiple cycles of improvement, they build collective confidence in the belief that they, as a group, are having a positive impact on student learning. 

This process starts with taking a strengths-based approach that focuses on what students know and can do, and how to use those strengths for further development. If a PLC devolves into just another department meeting, its potential to create meaningful change is lost. Rather than focusing on questions such as “What are we going to do about these kids who aren’t paying attention?” a strengths-based PLC might begin by asking, “How are we learning together as a team to engage students?”  

To move the conversation from the abstract to the specific, effective PLCs include one or more — teachers or coaches who have completed training in how to maintain the group’s focus on learning together. By emphasizing the team’s strengths as well as its members’ shared responsibility for student success, activators cultivate a supportive environment that makes teachers feel that they are part of something important, effective and bigger than themselves.

When teams first come together, they tend to set relatively easily attainable goals for themselves, so one of the activator’s roles is to encourage the PLC to establish appropriately challenging aims for the group. The activator monitors how the team works, always with an eye toward getting the most efficient use of the team. As members develop procedures and norms together, they build trust in one another and in the group as a whole, which leads them to set increasingly challenging goals for themselves.

In our work, we’ve seen some PLCs get off to a strong start but become less energized as the year goes along. Teachers, like students, are more engaged when they’re working on something they’re interested in, so the specific teaching challenge that the group addresses can make an enormous difference, as can the length of time spent focusing on it. At in San Diego, where we serve as teacher leaders, our PLCs are teams of six teachers who work in nine-week cycles. During the first cycle of the year, every group focuses on one topic that the entire school has prioritized, such as multilingual learners. To shift from collaboration to innovation, every group meets weekly for the first eight weeks. During the ninth week, all the groups come together to share what they’ve learned. For the second cycle, teachers can propose an area they’re interested in learning more about, and peers who share that interest are free to join a group that’s exploring an issue they care about. 

For teams to maintain their momentum throughout each cycle, teachers need to see and share direct evidence of improvement in their classrooms. Educators in successful PLCs build their agendas by bringing student data to meetings. In our school, we provide matrices for teachers to use to assess their collective learning and impact on students. These resources support them in answering two fundamental questions: “What was the impact that your work had on students?” and “Was the effort worth the results you got?”

A truly effective PLC includes the entire school, not only the six teachers sitting around a table at a meeting every Wednesday afternoon. Those six people may have a strong collective efficacy and develop some innovative practices, but without a forum for them to share what they’re learning, they can’t spread that innovation. The school leaders’ role is to create regular opportunities for teachers to learn from one another, as they do in the ninth week of our PLC cycles. For teachers, knowing that they will be presenting what they’ve learned to their colleagues fosters a sense of accountability and motivation to stay engaged — as do the occasions when they learn something they can use in their own classroom.  

This collaborative learning empowers educators to take risks. A thoughtfully managed PLC provides a framework in which they can gather evidence that some aspect of their teaching has to change and show proof that the change is having the intended effect. When that innovation results in improved learning, the whole school deserves to celebrate what they, as a professional learning community, have learned together.

With roughly 160 students — nearly two-thirds of them low-income — the rural Charleston County school recorded well below district and state averages. One-third of students were chronically absent, and school climate was ranked low by teachers.

“The school was a failing school, and it had been a failing school for a few years,” Smalls said.

Smalls’s first year coincided with the school’s acceptance into the University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education, a program that helps improve low-performing schools through administrator training and professional development. 

Frierson Elementary is one of three schools that transformed from struggling to succeeding because of the turnaround program. After one year, the school went from an unsatisfactory to excellent rating, the in the state’s report card system. 

Since 2004, the partnership has worked with more than 900 schools from 33 states. Roughly half achieve double-digit gains in reading, math or both, within three years of starting the program.

For two to three years, administrators receive professional development at the university and coaches visit their schools to help brainstorm ways to improve academic achievement, attendance and culture. Districts must apply and, if selected, pay roughly $90,000 for program costs.

Leighann Lenti, the program’s chief of partnership, said the key to transforming a low-performing is to work with district and building administrators to make systemic changes that will lead to improved student outcomes.

“They’re given a chance to think about the design and the decisions they’re making in their buildings and in their school district,” Lenti said. “[They] think about their highest priorities and the root cause of what hasn’t worked, so they can solve those problems differently — not just keep doing the same things over and over — and see tangible results for kids.”

A 2016 found that 20 Ohio schools that participated in the program saw statistically significant academic improvement that persisted even two years after completion. 

The program focuses on four areas of school improvement: system leadership, support and accountability, talent management and instructional infrastructure. 

During the first year, University of Virginia staff work with district and school leaders to develop a plan for their school. They try to find root causes for low performance and create goals that are revised every 90 days.

Administrators at Schoolfield Elementary in Danville, Virginia, started the program before the 2023-24 school year and finished in January. Principal Kelsie Hubbard and her colleagues created a 90-day plan with three main areas of focus: professional learning, classroom instruction and teaching strategies.

Educators began professional development twice a week to make sure instruction and activities matched existing rigorous academic standards. They also worked to ensure students were being taught the same way in every classroom, so they didn’t have to relearn strategies if they changed grades or teachers.

“Coming out of COVID, we were seeing a lot of our students performing below grade level, and so a trend we started to notice is that our instruction was not meeting the rigor of the standards,” Hubbard said.”We were teaching lower level because we were assuming that students needed that intensive intervention. … But we were holding and keeping them further and further behind.”

At the end of the program, Schoolfield — a building of 500 students, with 85% low-income — improved its from 68% in 2023 to 78% in 2024. Math proficiency went from 68% to 73%.

Similar gains were observed in Alabama’s Florence City Schools, a district of 4,500 students that recently finished the program. Three of its lowest-performing elementary schools that participated all reported improvements in reading, math and chronic absenteeism.

Superintendent Jimmy Shaw said principals met with reading and math teachers to brainstorm why academic scores were lacking. 

For example, they found in Weeden Elementary that third graders had a hard time with geometry and other math topics while taking state assessments. Teachers began to give 10-minute mini-lessons daily to help students master specific skills.

“It’s been beautiful work to be able to build the capacity of our leaders and our research teams. To us, that’s what it’s about,” Shaw said. “It’s not about having some dynamic leader, but it’s about building the capacity of a group of adults who can understand system structures and processes to be able to attack a problem.”

Smalls’ 90-day plan for Frierson Elementary began with a list of goals such as improving school climate by training educators and ensuring they got enough classroom time to teach the? curriculum. She also delivered a “state of the school” address for families to explain Frierson’s unsatisfactory rating and what steps were being taken to fix it. Teachers hosted literacy and math nights to get parents more involved in their child’s learning.

“I felt like I created an environment, a climate or a culture where everybody was valued and everybody was seen as a leader,” Smalls said. “[The program] is very effective. It is very self-provoking, very reflective, very action-based and action-oriented. I really believe in it.”

Fourth-grade teacher Megan Lovins would study the county’s curriculum guides each year to piece together the best science lessons possible. But in 2021, bulky, blue crates arrived at her classroom door in Hudson Elementary — and a new way to teach science practically fell in her lap.

Her district had agreed to participate in to study the impact of new curriculum and professional development on student achievement.

A Newton’s cradle to demonstrate physics. Empty tin cans to help illustrate static electricity. Measuring cups, tape, rulers and more. As Lovins emptied the crates, she realized she had all the equipment needed to teach tangible science activities.

“I am a hands-on teacher, so I fell in love with it instantly,” she said.

The materials were part of a five-year randomized controlled study by the that launched in the 2019-20 school year. With a $4.5 million federal grant, the center provided its own high-quality science curriculum and professional development to 37 schools in North and South Carolina to study how combining the two impacted test scores.

Researchers found that pairing the curriculum, “Smithsonian Science for the Classroom,” with high-quality professional development improved students’ science, math and reading test scores. The study also showed positive results in science for students who are typically underrepresented in STEM fields, such as girls and children of color.

“There’s no other randomized controlled trial study that’s done this in elementary school using these standards,” said Carol O’Donnell, the center’s director. “So this is a big deal for the field.”

The trial followed 1,600 students in third through fifth grades over the course of three academic years. Of the 37 schools, 19 were classified as “treatment” and given the Smithsonian curriculum and professional development, while 18 were assigned to a comparison group and continued like normal without any intervention.

Amy D’Amico, director of professional services for the Smithsonian center, said the pandemic made it more difficult to get schools on board. In a world that was changing daily, superintendents were being asked to say yes to hefty commitment — with no guarantee they would receive the new curriculum.

“Typically, people want to be in the intervention group,” D’Amico said. “And we’re asking people to sign on for five years, not knowing what the next week or month was going to look like.”

Lovins said that at first, she was hesitant about participating in the study. The main focus in her fourth grade classroom was to keep her students healthy during the pandemic.

“When school did go back in session, we were in session every other day with half of our students for a long period of time. That mental toll made it challenging to pick up a new curriculum,” she said. “But I’m a huge fan now.”

Many of the schools selected were rural and high-needs, with large numbers of students who were low-income, had Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) or were classified as English learners. In Caldwell County Schools, a district of nearly 11,000 students 70 miles northwest of Charlotte, eight schools participated in the trial, including Hudson Elementary.

Because of COVID-19, the treatment schools didn’t begin to receive professional development until spring 2021. At that point, teachers learned how to implement the curriculum by going through lessons as if they were students. 

D’Amico said the professional learning was uncomfortable at first for some of the elementary teachers, because many didn’t have a science background. 

“We had to get in and get dirty and use our hands and learn those lessons,” Lovins said. “It’s amazing how many adults are scared of science — scared to teach science, because you’re afraid you’re going to say something wrong — so to be able to get in and use your hands to learn how to teach it made the teachers feel a lot more comfortable about implementing the curriculum in the classroom.”

The Smithsonian science curriculum was phenomena-driven, meaning students actively investigate and try to explain real-world events. They collect data, ask questions, experiment with materials and draw conclusions as part of hands-on activities.

In one elementary school lesson, students observed changes in the night sky to figure out how Earth’s orbit around the sun influences which constellations are visible throughout the year. 

“If students ask questions about the world around them, you will get students to improve their interest (and) their self-confidence,” O’Donnell said. 

Lovins said she noticed over time that as her students used the Smithsonian lessons, they were able to retain information much more easily because they were using their hands to learn abstract concepts. She also saw a lot more joy while teaching science in the classroom. 

“They would say, ‘When’s our next science class?’ ” Lovins said. “They were begging for the next lesson because they were having so much fun with the hands-on (activities).”

The University of Memphis Center for Research and Educational Policy evaluated the trial, testing students before and after the study while conducting classroom observations. The researchers evaluated the students’ science achievement with the (SAT10) while assessing reading and math achievement on state tests.

At the end of the study last year, students in the treatment group showed statistically significant gains in science relative to the comparison group. Overall, the comparison group ranked in the 50th percentile while the treatment group ranked in the 57th percentile in science on the SAT10.

Girls and students of color scored 7 points higher in science than children of the same demographic in comparison schools, while low-income students scored 6 percentile points higher and children with IEPs scored 15 points higher than comparison students with the same demographics.

Students in the treatment group also scored 4 points higher in reading and 6 points higher in math on their state assessments than those in the comparison group, the researchers found. 

The results suggest that student achievement in reading and math can improve through science instruction that uses real-world problems, where students have to “read, write, argue from evidence and make calculations,” according to the study’s

But it’s not just the curriculum; O’Donnell said it’s important to implement the professional development piece along with it. “Because you would never give teachers just the curriculum — the intervention is the curriculum with aligned professional learning,” she said. “That’s our expectation in the field — that teachers get the support and the development of expertise they need, as well as the materials.”

Lovins said teachers at her school are relearning Smithsonian curriculum this year to continue to implement it next fall. 

“It’s so good and it needs to be in every classroom,” Lovins said. “It’s a great program. I hope it stays around.”

On a recent afternoon, Caroline Able, a first-grade teacher at North Frederick Elementary School in Frederick County, Maryland, sat in a small office with her principal, Tracy Poquette, carefully practicing the next day’s math lesson.

Able, who is in her third year teaching, walked through each step, demonstrating how she was going to present comparisons between two numbers, then what students would do. She sometimes stopped to focus on granular details: Should she go over math vocabulary words like sum and difference beforehand, or will her students remember what they mean? Should students write down problems and answers in notebooks, or on mini-whiteboards?

Poquette recommended the whiteboards. “You’re going to ask them to hold them up,” Poquette coached Able, miming holding a whiteboard in the air. “Then you can see their answers, and how they got to that. Every student is responding.” 

Giving students multiple chances to “respond,” or provide answers, is a learning strategy , and part of why Able is here — to ensure that she’s incorporating evidence-based practices into her teaching. The sessions are meant to accelerate student learning and take some of the guesswork out of becoming an effective teacher, part of a larger district plan to incorporate research from the fields of neuroscience, educational psychology and cognitive science — often referred together broadly as the ‘science of learning.’

Frederick County, situated about 50 miles north of Washington, D.C., and 50 miles west of Baltimore, is a diverse district , and one of only a handful to use learning science research to try to improve schools at scale. Launched in 2015, it’s the centerpiece of a school improvement plan, and leaders say the goal is to raise academic achievement overall, as well as shrink stubborn gaps between more advantaged students and their less advantaged peers. 

“As a district, we’ve been talking about achievement gaps for a long time,” said Margaret Lee, Frederick County’s director of organizational development who has led the charge toward the science of learning. “I’ve seen it in every role that I’ve had, always looking at what could make the difference. Like every district in America, every silver bullet that people thought up had been peddled to us. It started to frustrate me that none of these things were making a difference, and that was a catalyst that led us here.” 

The district is seeing steady progress in a positive direction, even when accounting for pandemic-related learning loss. Third-grade , for example, on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program test, rose from 49.5% proficient in 2018, to 60% proficient in 2023 — 12 points above the state average. In math, students from disadvantaged groups have also seen steady gains. African-American third graders were 38% proficient in 2018, but rose to 43.8% by 2023; over five years, low-income Title I third graders slowly grew from 32% to 37.6% proficient. 

Amid a of learning science and a spotlight on curriculum reform, experts are beginning to look to districts like Frederick County to gauge whether it can be a model for academic improvement. Unlike more common state plans reforming how , or increasing support for struggling students, the Frederick County plan is tackling learning as a whole — across subjects and grades — to systematically alter the paradigm of how teaching and learning happens throughout its schools.

Training adults on how the brain learns

Frederick County’s plan turns on a single premise: who work with kids don’t know how the brain learns, and haven’t been exposed to the body of research on which teaching practices are more likely to support it. 

that applying cognitive science principles and strategies to classrooms are “significant factors affecting rates of learning and its retention in many everyday classroom situations,” with certain caveats regarding the limitations of what scientists currently know about when and where to implement them. But within universities, scientific research on learning has historically been separate from teacher training, and misunderstandings about how learning happens are common in the field of education. They’ve led to such disproven ideas as children having “,” like being a “visual” or “kinetic” learner, or using the to teach reading, prompting students to try to guess at unfamiliar words using context clues like looking at pictures. 

The district has made educating faculty and staff on cognitive science a top priority. In 2017, Frederick County formed a partnership with and began training teachers, instructional coaches and leaders in the , including an understanding of how memory works and its pivotal role in academic learning; creating classroom environments that reduce obstacles and distractions while maximizing student memory; and creating effective ways to test whether students have learned the needed material.

The training homed in on how to translate findings from cognitive science and educational psychology into classroom practice, including in learning new material, meaning direct instruction heavily guided by the teacher, and why students need to understand what they read and form connections to new learning. Classroom changes also include specific learning strategies like retrieval practice and interleaving, in which teachers go back to learned material in multiple ways, spaced out over time, which has been students’ memory of what they learned. 

The training has changed the way the district is approaching content subjects like math. Stacy Sisler, a secondary math curriculum specialist for Frederick County, credits increased knowledge of learning research with steady gains middle schoolers have seen in math across the district. She first learned about the science of learning through the district training, and admits she was initially reluctant to adopt the changes. The more she learned, however, the more Sisler began to think the research made sense, and was applicable to every math classroom.

“As I started to learn more and gain a deeper understanding, then it became — how does instruction change because of this?” Sisler said. “We don’t just say it and it magically happens, so what does that actually look like?” 

Under her leadership, curriculum and instructional practices were re-designed to better reflect the research. Middle school math teachers have been trained in practices like teaching math more directly using example problems, checking student work multiple times during class time to gauge student understanding and incorporating more math practice both into each lesson and across lessons. 

Lee said even when considering how hard it often is to pinpoint what caused learning gains, the instructional changes coincided with significant improvements for students in Frederick County. Over five years since implementing the changes, middle school math students’ benchmark assessments have grown, in some schools by as much as 20%, especially among students of color and English learners. Over the same five-year period across the state of Maryland, students of color and English learners’ math proficiency has declined. In 2023 for example, only 8.2% of Black middle school students were proficient in math, down 8 percentage points from 2018. 

‘Using the time we do have differently’

New teachers across the district are onboarded in a three-year science-of-learning coaching program, which includes lesson coaching like first-grade teacher Caroline Able’s, but also group study. The aim is to give new teachers evidence-informed knowledge and tactics to decrease some of the trial-and-error that comes along with being a beginner. 

First-year eighth-grade math teacher Elizabeth Sypole’s monthly training is currently focused on evidence-based classroom routines that foster students’ attention.

Sypole has learned techniques like , a simple hand motion followed by a pause meant to help students get quiet quickly. Previously unaware of the technique, Sypole said it has been instrumental in her classroom management. “Literally within two days of doing it, everybody is quiet. It’s so much less stressful than trying to get everybody to quiet down. They know exactly what to do now and it’s just the routine.” 

Leaders get the training, too — principals, assistant principals and supervisors are focused on equity, and how schools can eliminate learning gaps between groups of students. Kent Wetzel, the district’s leadership development specialist, trains leaders in researcher , which include presenting new material in small, manageable steps and providing extra support for students if the task is especially difficult. The idea is to make learning as accessible as possible to everyone. 

The training, book studies and coaching sessions focused on the science of learning make up the heart of the district’s professional development, and therefore don’t require tons of extra funding or extra time for educators and leaders outside their contract hours, said Lee. In the past, professional learning brought in from outside vendors were “one-off” learning experiences not tied to any bigger picture or goal. Now all professional learning must meet a set of district standards for being “evidence-informed and equity-driven,” ensuring the entire district is swimming in the same direction. 

“We haven’t made extra time, we are just using the time we do have differently,” Lee said. 

While much of the district training is mandatory—like district-wide professional development and leadership training—other parts are optional or opt-in, like teacher book studies and principal coaching. The district is hoping that by making the science of learning training something gradual that takes hold naturally, it will win buy-in from the most experienced staffers over time because it was not a one-and-done push. 

Bernard Quesada, the veteran principal at Middletown High School, has embraced the science of learning approach to teaching. He said the organic approach and long-term picture has been key to its success at his school of mostly accomplished, veteran teachers. 

“When these things become mandates, and schools have to comply, you get a lukewarm reception,” Quesada said. “Schools get initiative fatigue.” 

Middletown teachers have adopted the new learning, Quesada said, because administrators have been intentional to connect the research to what teachers are already doing well. Quesada quoted learning researcher and retired University College London professor — a speaker he heard at a recent science of learning conference. 

“Wiliam said, ‘There’s no next new, big thing. It’s a lot of old, small things that work and are boring,’” Quesada laughed. “That’s about as true a statement as I’ve heard in my life.”

‘Guilty of chasing the next greatest thing’ 

On the other side of the country, in rural Delta County, Colorado, teachers are working on asking students better questions to get them thinking stronger and deeper — moving beyond basic factual answers to more “how” and “why” questions that require students to think not just about the answer, but how they got there.  

Like Frederick County, the small southwestern Colorado district with one-quarter English language learners and 65% low-income students has been training all their teachers and school leaders in the science of learning. Also like Frederick County, the district has taken a “no-silver-bullets” approach and has revamped professional learning, putting learning research at the center, with deep dives for teachers and leaders into cognitive science principles like “,” a technique where teachers design lessons that require students to evaluate, provide reasoning and detailed explanations for learned material. 

The district’s science of teaching and learning lead, Shawna Angelo, said she’s looking to help teachers “align how the brain learns with how we are delivering instruction.” 

The focus on effortful thinking was supported by , an organization that has worked for nearly a decade to improve teaching by getting the scientific principles of learning into more classrooms.  

Executive Director Valerie Sakimura sees districts like Frederick County and Delta County as models for improving academic achievement in more school systems across the country. “The priority for our work is helping teacher preparation programs and partnering districts trying to support teachers around the science of learning,” she said. “Our particular focus is aspiring and early-career teachers.” 

Deans for Impact is also brokering partnerships between school districts and local universities, offering coursework and training on cognitive science principles for student teachers. Teacher training facilities as varied as the and are breaking down the longstanding barrier between teacher training and research science, teaching future educators about how learning happens long before they step into a classroom. 

Frederick County has partnered with Hood College, where many local teachers get their degrees, to design coursework and provide instruction based on the science of learning for student teachers. District instructional coaches and mentor teachers work with teachers in training as well, giving them a chance to watch evidence-informed techniques in action and practice them in their student teaching.

Michael Markoe, deputy superintendent for Frederick County, said through all this work, the district is trying to create a throughline, where all teachers, coaches, principals — everyone is moving in the same direction, speaking the same language, all based on the research. When school leaders recently inquired about personalized learning, for example, where students progress and master subjects at their own pace, Markoe reminded them that the district is, for the time being, focused on only one thing: evidence of effectiveness. 

“I’ve been in education almost 30 years. I’ve been guilty of chasing the next greatest thing,” he said. “If we are going to advance personalized learning, we have to see the research behind it and ensure it’s the right thing for our children.” 

Getting the entire district on board is long, slow work. Because there are no mandates, some schools haven’t embraced the science of learning, or have chosen to focus on other priorities, despite leadership’s wholesale commitment to the methodology. 

But Lee, the district’s organizational developmental director, isn’t deterred.  

“I compare it to moving an aircraft carrier. To move the ship, you are making lots of tiny moves in the same direction. If you spin a wheel in a school system, you will throw people off the ship,” she said. “Public education isn’t patient. Everyone wants to fix it tomorrow, but those things don’t work.” 

Delta State University has launched a new to help STEM teachers in the Delta.

The Collaborative for Rural STEM Education program provides resources and professional development. Its comes from a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

This year’s program has 22 teachers from 12 districts, including Clarksdale Municipal School District and the Holmes County and Sunflower County Consolidated school districts.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for �鶹��Ʒ Newsletter

Each teacher receives specialized training and resources based on a needs assessment. They’ll also receive support throughout the year and stipends for travel and lodging each summer.

“The need for STEM teachers in the Delta is crucial due to their relevance in today’s society and workforce,” project director Jessica Hardy  said in a statement.

Teachers and instructors spoke highly of the program and its potential.

“The power of this program is in the growth of teachers and their capacity to develop and enhance not only STEM content, but also STEM dispositions and skills in students,” said faculty instructor Daphne Smith.

Said Yazoo County Middle School teacher Melanie Hardy: “I am honored to have been selected to study alongside so many outstanding Mississippi Delta educators, and I look forward to implementing all of the resources provided by the CRSE into my middle school math and science classes.”

The program will run throughout the year until summer 2025.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska and Google are entering a new partnership designed to further Nebraskans’ education and support state workforce needs.

Interim NU President Chris Kabourek announced Tuesday that the university will soon offer in a variety of fields. is open now on a first-come, first-served basis and will begin with the 2024-25 academic year. Three cycles will be offered — in August, December and April — with 2,500 seats available in each.

Kabourek said “it’s a win” when more education is brought directly to Nebraskans and students.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for �鶹��Ʒ Newsletter

“As a native of rural Nebraska myself, I believe strongly that every Nebraskan should have access to quality, affordable educational opportunities no matter where they live or what their personal circumstances are,” Kabourek said in a statement.

The goal of the partnership is to provide opportunity, not make money, Kabourek added in a text. NU will retain all revenue raised through enrollment in the certificates, which will cover administrative costs and any associated technological needs.

Learn at their own pace

Google experts teach the programs, which are vetted by leading employers. NU students, alumni and Nebraska residents can get a special first-year rate of $20 per enrollment.

Students learn at their own pace over three to six months of part-time study in multiple courses:

• Cybersecurity
• IT support
• Data analytics
• Digital marketing and e-commerce
• Project management
• User experience (UX) design

Advanced certifications are also available, tailored for learners with multiple years of experience or as a next step after completing an entry-level certificate:

• IT automation with python
• Advanced data analytics
• Business intelligence

U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., endorsed the partnership as providing affordable access to education and as “yet another pathway for Nebraskans to pursue their dreams and expand their career horizons.” He said he looks forward to seeing the positive impact it will have.

“Developing Nebraskans to take the jobs of the future is one of the cornerstones of growing Nebraska’s economy,” Flood said in a statement.

A 2023 report from the American Association of Colleges and Universities found that employers are generally in strong support of these “microcredentials.” In the report, two-thirds said they would prefer college graduates with microcredentials for entry-level positions.

More than 250,000 people in the United States have earned a Google certificate, 75% of whom had a positive career impact, such as a new job, promotion or raise, according to Google.

“We’re committed to investing in Nebraskans to ensure that they have the tech and other job ready skills to enter the workforce and reach their full economic potential,” said Lisa Gevelber, founder of Grow with Google.

More postsecondary credentials

Kabourek said the new partnership advances a 2022 legislative goal, which NU supported, to increase the percentage of Nebraskans with postsecondary credentials by 2030 to 70%.

State Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont, who was then chair of the Legislature’s Education Committee, shepherded the 2022 and through the Legislature .

Tim Jares, dean of the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s College of Business and Technology, described the new partnership as “terrific” and said it adds to the work faculty are doing to support students and alumni “amplify their marketability.”

“From our perspective, the more opportunities for education we provide, the better,” Jares said. “I’m proud that the University of Nebraska is playing a leadership role in creating access for Nebraskans and growing a skilled workforce for our state.”

Other leading U.S. institutions already offer career certificates, including Syracuse University, the University of Texas system and two fellow Big Ten members — the University of California-Los Angeles and Rutgers.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on and .

High-quality leadership pipeline programs can supply exactly these kinds of professionals. 

In California’s Long Beach Unified School District, that fact is being proven every day. 

What started as a single program to support has grown over 17 years into a . It now features 16 certified programs, each with their own curricula, series of hands-on learning experiences and coaching. Interested personnel , according to their . For example, the Future Administrators Program is designed for proven teacher-leaders who wish to prepare themselves for a job as an assistant principal or similar leadership position. The Exploring District Leadership Program develops sitting principals who are interested in working in the central office.

More than 200 district employees are on these pathways, rising from teacher leaders to aspiring central office administrators. Another 100 nonteaching personnel are pursuing teacher certifications, providing the district with a new and diverse candidate pool. 

Fully 100% of principal and assistant principal vacancies are filled from the pool of program participants, on average about seven to 10 positions a year.  On the district level, 88% of current certified directors went through the Exploring Leadership pipeline. 

To further improve leadership capacity in the central office, the district has who report to the chief academic officer, chief business and financial officers, and deputy and assistant superintendents. What started as a way to hear how these top managers experience the system and its leadership has evolved into an ongoing forum where programs and priorities are discussed in detail and these leaders are given new management responsibilities. Providing these “stretch” assignments helps them grow professionally and more effectively delegates the workload of Long Beach’s chiefs and assistant superintendents. As a result, the district has aspiring leaders who are now better prepared for their next steps and top officials who are more resilient, less burned out and better able to focus on the biggest priorities. 

This pipeline has created in the administrative ranks, increased the percentage of leaders of color and bolstered the presence of women among the district’s highest positions. That would not have been possible without taking a close look at historical bias within the district’s hiring and promotion policies, as well as in talent identification and promotion. After all, even the best developed and supported aspiring leaders cannot ascend a career ladder filled with that hold back women and educators of color.  

In an era of generational challenges to student success, public schools, districts and state agencies are experiencing a leadership brain drain. Too many of the best leaders are and doors. More than 1 in 5 superintendents left their jobs in the nation’s 500 largest school districts last school year, according to the ILO Group’s . Between 2019 and 2023, the superintendent turnover rate in these districts grew by a stunning 50%. It’s a widely shared problem, as both rural and urban districts with leadership turnover.  

Making a bad trend worse is the underrepresentation of women in district leadership. Though women comprise nearly 80% of public school teachers and more than half of school leaders, just 30% of district superintendents are female, and even fewer are women of color. Bias in hiring and promotion policies and procedures thwart the rise of talented and qualified women to the superintendency at a moment when their expertise is most needed.

The past five years have seen unprecedented challenges for schools and students. From interrupted learning to behavioral health needs, education leaders are being tested mightily. shows that principals are the second largest in-school influence on student learning. Similarly, stability in leadership and school district success , according to peer-reviewed research. Continuity in school and district leadership is vital even in the best of circumstances; in times of crisis — or crises, like today — great leadership is the difference between success and failure. 

Long Beach’s experience shows that taking on the leadership challenge is possible, but it means creating systems that identify, prepare and support current and future leaders. Building such pipelines also means creating and promoting systems to identify and prepare aspiring leaders — especially . These pipelines can take the form of traditional leadership programs but are most effective when coupled with coaching, sponsorship and networking experiences that are focused on advancing the professional practice of those in the programs. 

When initiatives like this exist, school and district leaders have the skills and support to succeed and stay in their positions. They feel that their district has invested in them as professionals and, in turn, feel more invested in the district’s long-term success. The result: less turnover, more growth and, ultimately, better outcomes for students.

It’s time to identify, understand and discuss the under-the-radar issues that are hindering student success and revisit practices that could help solve four of the most critical. Addressing them now can help improve student outcomes for years to come.

There are learning barriers ed tech cannot break through. When children in historically marginalized and under-resourced communities walk into the classroom, many are already steps behind their peers. For families who struggled to meet basic needs before COVID, the pandemic only exacerbated the difficulties they faced, including homelessness, food insecurity and a lack of affordable child care. Four years later, many children have yet to feel , which has increased academic disengagement, chronic absenteeism and learning loss, especially in economically challenged areas.

But when schools offer a learning environment that like bright lights and loud noises, and teachers focus on self-regulation, trust and empathy as much as they do on math and reading, children are better able to navigate and focus on learning. Even one stable and committed relationship with a trusted adult . The more supportive the classroom, the less likely students are to show , the primary stress hormone.

Professional development is failing to address a key factor in student success. Each year, school districts invest millions in professional development. However, , especially for educators working with English learners and students with disabilities. There’s that professional development strongly correlates with student achievement.

Instead of focusing their training budgets on current trends, districts can offer professional learning and evidence-based coaching centered on fostering meaningful interactions to build the teacher-student bond and close achievement gaps. This is particularly where educators lack the support and resources to focus on interactions that build vital social-emotional learning skills.

When teachers’ powers of observation are strengthened, and they cultivate the skills to respond appropriately to each student’s needs, they build healthy bonds that help children feel safe and secure. For instance, a by the U.S. Department of Education found that ongoing, evidence-based, one-to-one coaching helps educators boost student achievement. This is especially true for teachers with less than five years’ experience and those with weak instructional practices. These in literacy, vocabulary and self-control.

Accountability systems aren’t measuring the most important elements of students’ experiences. One notable example comes from early childhood education, where almost every state has its own Quality Rating and Improvement System — and each measures success differently. Some look only at factors related to the learning environment, such as the number of books in a classroom or assurances that safety measures are in place.

Accountability systems can dig deeper by using interactions as the key indicator of whether the school is delivering the best outcomes. By classifying and measuring educator-child interactions across three domains — emotional support, instructional support and classroom organization — states can gain the information needed to guide focused, ongoing improvement that . 

In Louisiana, where lacked critical kindergarten skills, the state set its sights on an interactions-based model that can both provide essential accountability data and identify areas for student improvement. Through the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, the state helped teachers identify where they struggled and provided personalized guidance and professional development aligned with their needs. As a result, Louisiana tripled the number of sites with the highest performance rating on its quality measurement scale.

Development of critical skills is sacrificed for standardized testing. While there continue to be calls to reform standardized testing, districts are under mounting pressure to demonstrate student progress post-pandemic. Clearly, a focus on math, science and reading is warranted, but educators must also make space for core skills needed for success in school and in life. These include the : critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication and citizenship. Equipped with these tools, students can think more deeply about their experiences, learn from others and engage in civil discourse with their peers.

Play-based, project-based and deep learning allows students to dive into different concepts and creatively apply their knowledge to real-world issues. In addition, educators are able to connect with curious students through their interests, observe their actions and formulate open-ended questions around them, helping build that critical educator-child bond. Countless studies demonstrate the of investment in these core skills as they return strong academic outcomes, attendance, school engagement and behavior.

Amid all the cutting-edge solutions that are capturing attention, it is important not to lose sight of the proven power of life-changing interactions between teachers and their students. Ed tech resources are powerful tools, but they can’t replace the impact of supportive relationships. Teachers must have the training and resources that make them possible.

Waipahu High School’s Integrated Academy Learning Center brings together different career academies under the same roof, a first of its kind in the state, Department of Education superintendent and former Waipahu High principal Keith Hayashi said at its opening last month.

The three-story building accommodates the culinary and natural resources academies, two of the six career pathways available at the school. 

“It’s an opportunity to begin to integrate academy design and really focus on purposeful learning that’s relevant, that’s rigorous, that’s connected to the industry and prepares students for life after high school,” Hayashi said.

All students at Waipahu High School are enrolled in a career academy, said principal Zachary Sheets. Students take core academic classes while also gaining practical experience in future careers, Sheets said, adding that he hopes most students have career-related internships by their senior year. 

Hayashi said he hopes the building will encourage teamwork among students across the academies, building the collaborative skills they will need to use in their future careers. 

Plans for the $29 million learning center emerged around 2016, when architectural and planning firm WRNS Studio began working with the DOE to design the center, said senior associate Rochelle Nagata-Wu. 

Nagata-Wu said the building accommodates hydroponics and aquaponics on its lower levels and a dining room and teaching kitchen on its top floor. Students in the natural resources academy can provide produce to their peers in the culinary pathway, who can then prepare and serve the food in the same building, she added. 

In addition to promoting collaboration across the high school, principals also hope to see more partnerships among schools in the Waipahu complex.

Sheldon Oshio, principal at Waikele Elementary, said exposure to careers should start at an early age. 

He said that, as early as kindergarten, his elementary students take classes aligned with the professional pathways available at the high school. Many then go on to Waipahu Intermediate School, which offers a series of elective classes that can inform students’ academy choices in high school. 

“If a student is coming to Waipahu, they have a lot of opportunities,” said Waipahu Intermediate School principal Alvan Fukuhara. 

At Waipahu High School, students are allowed to change academies one time. But, Hayashi said, he hopes students’ experiences in the academies provide them with professional skills and experiences that can help them succeed, regardless of the career path they ultimately pursue. 

“It’s a cultural shift, raising the expectations of what our students do,” Hayashi said of the new building. “It also helps to continue to raise the expectations that our community has of our public schools.”

“I’ve seen this across systems, not just Aspire, where we have these great educators in our schools, who just need support in accessing credential programs,” said Aspire Charter Schools senior special education director Lisa Freccero. “They’re invested in our schools; they want to work with our kids; they want to work in special education.” 

reported special education teacher shortages for the 2021-22 school year. With declines growing , states have rolled out cash incentives to retain and recruit more special needs teachers in recent months.

Facing similar vacancies, Aspire is acting fast to scale up their small grow-your-own program. So far, seven educators across their network of 36 California sites have participated. 

Now in its third year, Aspire’s Education Specialist Intern Sponsorship program creates a pipeline of school volunteers and classroom aides “already in the door,” Freccero said, providing a pathway for uncredentialed staff, predominantly Black and Latino adults — who also reflect the network’s 15,000 students — to stay with the school community.

Aspire staff are hired on as first year teachers at a salary of $56-59,000. Through one-on-one coaching with administrators — including feedback from senior teachers on recorded lessons — specialist interns learn by doing, applying strategies with students in real time, with daily guidance from their senior mentor. 

, Aspire’s Bay Area and Central Valley schools had persistent staff vacancies in special education. The last year saw specialist vacancies grow in their Los Angeles schools, where the Sponsorship program is now being expanded.  

One East Oakland site is operating with three full-time special education aides, about half of their usual team of five to six. Their Bay Area schools have the highest shortages, currently filled by contractors or substitutes, though all regions have vacancies in every special education role — from speech pathologists and specialists/teachers to school psychologists. 

“It’s a high turnover profession… We were trying to solve for that,” Freccero added. “When we talk to them, for the vast majority, [the] barrier was having to either stop their current job or simultaneously figure out a way to pay to go back to school and do a credential program.”

Michelle Ciraulo, a teacher in one of Aspire’s 36 schools in East Oakland, was planning to do just that: save up at least $10,000, while working full-time, to enroll in a credential program. If certified, she’d have a better chance of staying with her caseload of 10th- and 11th-graders and earn higher wages.

“The cost was a hindrance. I wanted to become an ed specialist next year, but I would have probably ended up having to do that with an emergency certification, which you can only do for one year,” she said. “[This] definitely sped up the process.” 

Ciraulo said she is also more in tune with general education teachers who she partners with in an inclusion class. Students with IEPs are assisted in general education classrooms.  

The connection between teachers is necessary, she said, to make stronger lesson plans and better support students. The program enabled her to form deeper connections with students, too.

“It was really a big incentive for me to just become a specialist but also to stay at this school site and continue to work with my kids and get to know them really well — and their families,” Ciraulo said.

Colleagues say that the model can also help prevent burnout many career educators experience around their fifth year. After juggling student caseloads, paperwork and learning to teach — often with little feedback or support networks — many feel overwhelmed from year one. Aspire’s model cuts down on learning curves via multiple mentors and gradually-increasing caseloads.

“Where do you think we should go next … What data do you want? What data do you need? What assessment should you use? … It takes a while to get that knowledge,” senior special education teacher Suzanne Williams said. “When you already have somebody right there next to you who has that knowledge, it’s beautiful, and it benefits the students the most.”

A parent of students with disabilities who started out as a volunteer in her childrens’ schools, Williams added that the first three years are typically the hardest for new teachers she’s witnessed in Modesto, a small city southeast of San Francisco. Williams said her mentee Stephanie’s first years were a success because of the Aspire model.

“She didn’t have to guess — she had somebody right there to ask. When she was writing her lesson plan, she was actually writing lesson plans that she was using each and every day […] She was all in 100% from the get go. We gave her a light caseload and then she worked her way up,” Williams said.

Stephanie would record general education teachers’ classes and her own instruction, and the three educators would pour over them in detail, providing and adapting to feedback. And in built-in “dry runs,” Williams roleplayed students as Stephanie practiced lessons. 

The mentorship took out the guesswork that typically comes with being the only, or one few, special education specialists at a site. By the end of the one-year program, Williams said it felt like her mentee had gained  three years of experience.

“She’s not focusing on all the things she needs to learn and needs to be. She already has that mentor right there, working hand in hand […] The person is going into that situation prepared or feeling confident,” Williams told �鶹��Ʒ. “A confident teacher brings confidence to the students.”