Holidays bring celebration, rest and, for many families, long stretches of indoor time. For some, this means on kitchen tables. Games provide opportunities for learning mathematics actively.

When 19-year-old Aleysha Ortiz told Hartford City Council members in May that the public school system stole her education, she had to memorize her speech.

Ortiz, who was a senior at Hartford Public High School at the time, wrote the speech using the talk-to-text function on her phone. She listened to it repeatedly to memorize it.

That鈥檚 because she was never taught to read or write 鈥� despite attending schools in Hartford since she was 6.

Ortiz, who came to Hartford from Puerto Rico with her family when she was young, struggled with language and other challenges along the way. But a confluence of circumstances, apparent apathy and institutional inertia pushed her haphazardly through the school system, according to Ortiz, her attorney and district officials.

Those officials, in statements that her attorney says display 鈥渟hocking鈥� educational neglect, have acknowledged that Ortiz never received instruction in reading.

Despite this, she received her diploma this spring after improving her grades in high school 鈥� with help from the speech-to-text function 鈥� and getting on the honor roll. She began her studies at the University of Connecticut this summer.

Ortiz can鈥檛 read even most one-syllable words. The words she can read were memorized during karaoke or from subtitles at the bottom of TV screens and associating the words she saw with what she heard, she said.

鈥淚 was pushed through. I was moved from class to class not being taught anything,鈥� Ortiz told The Connecticut Mirror during a series of interviews. 鈥淭hey stole something from me 鈥� I wanted to do more, and I didn鈥檛 have the chance to do that.鈥�

Ortiz was diagnosed with a speech impediment and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in early childhood and has been classified as a student with a disability for 鈥渁s long as I can remember,鈥� she said.

Ortiz also wasn鈥檛 taught how to tell time or how to count money. She can barely hold a pencil because of unaddressed issues with hand fatigue and disputes about school-based occupational therapy, she and her attorney said. She learned basic math, like addition, but has no other math skills.

Accommodations in her Individualized Education Plan, which spell out what services students will receive that school year, allowed her to audio-record classes and meetings with school leadership because of her inability to read or write in high school.

In recordings shared with the CT Mirror, made from March through June of this year, district officials acknowledged that in 12 years, Ortiz never received reading instruction or intervention. The CT Mirror also reviewed Ortiz鈥檚 educational records, including her recent IEPs and other documents.

鈥淚n my review of Aleysha鈥檚 IEP, she was never provided reading instruction,鈥� Noreen Trenchard, a special education administrator for the district, said at a May 29 Planning and Placement Team (PPT) meeting. 鈥淲hat is most concerning to me, honestly, at this time, is 鈥� with all of that information prior to today, no direct reading instruction was provided for her, and no PPT was requested to add that to an IEP. 鈥� That鈥檚 very concerning, very, very concerning.鈥�

Trenchard did not respond to a request for comment.

Ortiz said her mother鈥檚 ability to advocate for her was limited because of language barriers, insufficient translation services, and because the family didn鈥檛 know their legal rights to challenge district decisions.

Ortiz filed for 鈥渄ue process鈥� against the district in late June, which is a legal procedure in special education that鈥檚 triggered when families feel their rights were violated.

Ortiz鈥檚 lawyer, , said the young woman鈥檚 story may be one of the 鈥渕ost shocking cases鈥� of educational neglect she has seen in 24 years.

鈥淚t is really shocking, and it should never have happened and shouldn鈥檛 be happening,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淗er whole future is going to be impacted.鈥�

Ortiz repeatedly described her special education experience with one word: traumatic.

She said she was unlawfully restrained, spent months in classrooms without a special education teacher or paraeducators, and was ridiculed by untrained staff who would laugh at her.

Her time in Hartford Public Schools was defined by feelings of isolation and loneliness as she sat in the back of classrooms for years and wished she would be able to do what the other kids were doing, she said.

While other students made friends and learned basic math and reading skills, Ortiz said she was stuck tracing letter worksheets on her own from first grade well into her middle school years.

Since first grade, she said, teachers, school leaders and district administrators failed her.

In a recording of a June 6 meeting with Trenchard, the district鈥檚 special education administrator, Ortiz can be heard saying she was denied the right to a fair education when teachers didn鈥檛 teach her how to write, when disability testing wasn鈥檛 done accurately and when she felt shamed by educators after she brought up how her IEP wasn鈥檛 being followed correctly.

鈥淧eople didn鈥檛 forget about me 鈥� no 鈥� people chose not to [educate me]. People chose not to [change] my IEP. People chose not to do this and that and this and that,鈥� Ortiz said at the meeting. 鈥淚鈥檓 the one paying the consequences, while those people are still getting their checks.鈥�

Ortiz tried to teach herself and make up for the areas her formal education lacked, but through those efforts, the 19-year-old said, she also lost the chance to just be a kid.

鈥淏asically [in high school], I would go to class. I would record and try to memorize everything the teacher said and what I wanted to write. Then, when I went home, I would stay and hear the recordings. I basically went to school two times in one day,鈥� Ortiz said.

鈥淚 wanted to join clubs, but I couldn鈥檛 do that because I didn鈥檛 have the time. 鈥� To this day, I鈥檝e never been out to the movie theater with friends, ever,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have time to have fun. It was either enjoy myself or fail my classes, and maybe if I was more ahead in reading or writing, I would鈥檝e had time [to make friends].鈥�

Ortiz鈥檚 story can鈥檛 be defined as a student who fell through the cracks 鈥� several people knew how her education was being neglected and did nothing, Spencer said.

鈥淪he鈥檚 had so many teachers. I don鈥檛 know how everybody failed her,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how the district could have passed her through. I don鈥檛 understand how this happened. It鈥檚 negligence, in my opinion.鈥�

The district declined to 鈥渟peak specifically to student matters,鈥� because of 鈥渟tate and federal legal obligations,鈥� after requests for comment by the CT Mirror, particularly in regards to why it took so long to find a problem with Ortiz鈥檚 academic progress and whether officials were aware of similar situations happening with other students in Hartford.

But in a meeting on June 6, Trenchard acknowledged that educators may have violated Ortiz鈥檚 IEP, which is a legally binding document under the  and outlines the services and accommodations that will make a student with a disability successful in a classroom.

鈥淎nd truthfully, from what I鈥檝e seen, I see that you didn鈥檛 even have an appropriate IEP,鈥� Trenchard said.

鈥淧eople got to you too late, which has been the story of your life here,鈥� a Hartford Public High School administrator can be heard telling Ortiz in the recording from the meeting on June 6, despite Ortiz saying she had raised concerns for several years and they were never formally addressed.

Ortiz was able to graduate because she had met all her credit requirements, but she says she was only able to 鈥渟urvive鈥� high school through the use of speech-to-text applications and a calculator.

And though limited, the accommodations helped Ortiz become an honor-roll student and led to her acceptance to several colleges, including the University of Connecticut-Hartford, which she began attending part-time in August.

Ortiz鈥檚 success may be unique, but her challenges in the district are not, several current and former staff members from the school district told the CT Mirror.

鈥淚 think this happens a lot through Hartford schools,鈥� said a Hartford paraeducator who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think a lot of kids in Hartford get their services. She鈥檚 not the only one. 鈥� Any school [in the district], you鈥檒l find kids, even that are not in special ed, that don鈥檛 even know how to read and write 鈥� they just pass them over.鈥�

鈥淯nfortunately, the way the district runs, it鈥檚 short-staffed. It鈥檚 fast-paced,鈥� said a social worker who worked with Ortiz in high school and also requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. 鈥淲hile Aleysha is a very sad and touching story, it is one of many in the district that get overlooked.鈥�

Ortiz and her attorney think so too.

鈥淥ne of the reasons I didn鈥檛 drop out was from anger 鈥� and knowing that I might not be the only one, but you don鈥檛 hear it around,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淲ith me, people knew about it and didn鈥檛 want to do their job, and knowing this 鈥� it must be happening in other places.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 happening all the time, and it鈥檚 not just Hartford,鈥� Spencer said.

Aleysha鈥檚 story

At the age of 32, Carmen Cruz decided to migrate from Puerto Rico to the South End of Hartford with three of her four children, including Ortiz, who was 5 at the time, the second-youngest.

Ortiz鈥檚 mother declined interview requests, but Ortiz said her family came to the United States because services for students with disabilities were limited in Puerto Rico.

鈥淲e heard Connecticut had the best education and things like that, which is one of the reasons we came to Hartford,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淲e came to get better opportunities.”

In testimony to state lawmakers for more school funding earlier this year, Ortiz described preparing for her first day of first grade at Burr School, when the school educated grades K-8. That day was full of nerves but also tinges of excitement.

Ortiz only spoke Spanish, and learning English with a speech disability would be challenging. But Ortiz said her mother thought she would get the proper services and support to make sure she was successful.

鈥淭he first day of school, I was holding my mom鈥檚 hand and didn鈥檛 want to let go,鈥� she said in the testimony. 鈥淚 finally did, and I believe it was the biggest mistake of my life. 鈥� From the first day, I struggled so much.鈥�

Despite bringing a signed document from the Puerto Rico Department of Education outlining the need for occupational therapy, the service was never provided to Ortiz in Hartford Public Schools, according to her IEP and audio recordings.

For many of her primary school years, Ortiz admits, she struggled with behavioral issues, including throwing things in a classroom, screaming and running away. As she鈥檚 grown older, Ortiz said, she realized those behaviors were rooted in anger that manifested from an inability to communicate.

Throughout elementary school, Ortiz was often isolated from classmates and engaged in activities that didn鈥檛 pertain to learning, including organizing books, sweeping, resting her head on the desk and drawing pictures in the back of the room, she said. Through fifth grade, the only school work she was assigned was tracing letters on worksheets.

鈥淚nstead of teaching me, they would tell me 鈥楬ere, you go play games over there.鈥� And I鈥檇 see the other kids and would get angry,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淚 would just look and stare at the other kids doing their work. 鈥� It got to a point where I was the bad kid, and it felt good 鈥� because even though I was not like the other kids, at least I was something. And that, for me, was what mattered. I was something to someone [even if it meant getting in trouble].鈥�

Ortiz described several instances where she was removed by security guards by force, including a prone restraint practice where she would be forced onto her stomach and a knee was put on her back to the point that, she said, she couldn鈥檛 breathe.

Harford Public Schools did not comment on Ortiz鈥檚 allegations, but said, in general, 鈥減hysical intervention and seclusion are only used as a last resort and emergency intervention, by certified personnel, for students, after other verbal and nonverbal strategies have been attempted and only when the student presents immediate or imminent injury to the student or to others.鈥�

Ortiz said that wasn鈥檛 her experience.

鈥淚nstead of the security guards trying to have a conversation with me, they would literally just remove me by force,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淚 remember the principal came in, and she was like, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 not how you do it! That鈥檚 not how you do it! Check if she has marks.鈥� 鈥� I was traumatized. 鈥� and I was [thinking] 鈥榃ow, this is how America is?’鈥�

When Ortiz began to learn more English skills in third grade, she said, she developed a relationship with a homeroom teacher, but her communication efforts were shut down after hearing educators discuss how they couldn鈥檛 understand her.

When another teacher asked the homeroom teacher if they knew what Ortiz was saying, the homeroom teacher responded, 鈥極h, I don鈥檛 understand what she鈥檚 saying, I just say yes to whatever she says,鈥� Ortiz said.

鈥淛ust because I鈥檓 a special education student doesn鈥檛 mean I鈥檓 deaf 鈥� it鈥檚 why I stopped talking,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淭hose things made me feel trapped, insecure and everything. I thought I could talk to someone, then that happened.鈥�

In fifth grade, intervention efforts were short-lived because there wasn鈥檛 enough extra staff support, Ortiz said, adding that she didn鈥檛 receive her first paraeducator until sixth grade and, even then, she spent most of her middle school career without a special education teacher.

By seventh grade, Ortiz recalled that principals said they 鈥渟hared custody鈥� of her because she spent more time in the front office than a classroom.

鈥淚nstead of sending her to class, the principal had her with her all the time,鈥� the paraeducator told the CT Mirror.

That year, Ortiz was in a classroom 鈥渘ot a lot, maybe four times,鈥� she said.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit at the end of Ortiz鈥檚 eighth-grade year.

Throughout the summer, preparing for high school, Ortiz went to local libraries and tried to use picture books to teach herself how to read. When she wasn鈥檛 successful, she got through online learning during her freshman year with Google Translate, which can scan a photo and read the text out loud.

鈥淭he way I did assignments was very difficult. When I was given something to read or write, I would use Google,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淚f the teacher said 鈥楢leysha, can you read this aloud?鈥� 鈥� I would turn my computer off and pretend like it died, so I didn鈥檛 have to read it. 鈥� Or with the camera off, I would repeat [what the translate app said]. That鈥檚 literally how I survived ninth grade.鈥�

Sophomore year changed everything.

It was Ortiz鈥檚 鈥渇irst time doing the same work as everybody else,鈥� she said.

鈥淚 love learning because I never had the opportunity to learn. People be like, 鈥楢leysha, why do you like to go to school all the time?鈥� And it鈥檚 because it鈥檚 something new 鈥� the amount of times I did the same thing over and over, it鈥檚 crazy,鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淪ometimes I do complain, because we learn something new every day and it鈥檚 hard to get it, but it鈥檚 better than doing the same thing every day.鈥�

Small wins in the classroom built her confidence enough that it allowed her to open up to trusted adults in positions she once felt betrayed by in elementary school. As more people learned her story, a team of staff members gathered behind her and pushed for more services, intervention and support her junior and senior year.

But by then, she was always told any intervention was 鈥渢oo late.鈥�

鈥淪ince [my junior year], I told my case manager, I want to learn how to write, and she鈥檇 tell me, 鈥業n college, they don鈥檛 do that. They go in there, record and leave, they do the same thing you do,’鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淚鈥檇 say 鈥榊eah, but I still want to know how to write. It鈥檚 my right. I wanted to learn,鈥� but [I was told] there wasn鈥檛 time, and there weren鈥檛 teachers to sit down and teach me.鈥�

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of students, and unfortunately, there鈥檚 situations like Aleysha, where she has a village behind her, advocating, pushing 鈥� and [proper services] still [were] not happening,鈥� the social worker said.

A district鈥檚 failure

Ortiz has recorded more than 700 audio files on her phone.

In her last four months in the public school system, more than a dozen of those audio recordings were either PPT meetings, requests for disability testing or administrators reviewing the results of Ortiz鈥檚 academic progress with her.

The conversations were often riddled with , with several instances of people speaking over one another or Ortiz leaving the room in tears.

鈥淭here was a lot of pushback stating that [the district doesn鈥檛] provide that at the high school level, that they would need to get creative in how they could provide these services to her, and there was always kind of a lingering talk of something would be done, but there was never anything proactive being done,鈥� the social worker said.

Meetings particularly ramped up as Ortiz got closer to graduation and as she was trying to navigate her transition into higher education.

But it always felt like there wasn鈥檛 enough time for intervention.

鈥淚 feel like right now people are like, 鈥榃ell, she鈥檚 graduating,鈥� and they just move on. They just forget about [what鈥檚 happening to me],鈥� Ortiz said in a PPT meeting on May 29. 鈥淚鈥檝e been asking, I鈥檝e been doing everything for years and years. I sat here for 12 years. And right now it鈥檚 like 鈥榃ell 鈥� we should have done this 鈥� but we didn鈥檛.’鈥�

One point of contention centered around school-based occupational therapy.

For years, Ortiz had complained of pain in her hand and an inability to hold a pencil for longer than a few minutes. In March, Ortiz鈥檚 case manager agreed to consult with an occupational therapist to see what recommendations they had.

But by May 29, district officials declined to have a formal occupational therapy evaluation.

In an emailed statement to the CT Mirror, a spokesperson from Hartford Public Schools said, 鈥淚f there is no relevant data to support a request for an evaluation, a PPT can determine that a particular type of evaluation is not appropriate at that time.鈥�

鈥淭he purpose is to be able to function in a school environment, which Aleysha has been able to do,鈥� a district official said at the May 29 PPT, despite protests from teachers and school staff that Ortiz is only able to perform in a school environment with 鈥渋ncredible difficulty.鈥�

At the meeting, district officials recommended that Ortiz type assignments on a computer going forward.

鈥淧eople expect me to use a computer for the rest of my life,鈥� Ortiz said.

The underlying concern in all the meetings, in addition to her inability to write, was also the lack of progress in her reading ability.

Ortiz and other staff members repeatedly requested dyslexia testing with the notion that, if she couldn鈥檛 receive intervention, then at least having the diagnosis could open the door to more resources after high school.

Those requests were declined by administrators, who instead reviewed previous data, then completed a series of comprehensive testing to 鈥渒now exactly where we鈥檙e at in instruction,鈥� Trenchard said at a meeting on June 13.

In May, Trenchard, the district鈥檚 special education administrator, began to review Ortiz鈥檚 case. When she went over reading results that were conducted earlier in the school year, she called them 鈥渟urprising.鈥�

鈥淸The scores] are low low, like they were surprising to me. It would make sense that reading is hard for you, but it looks like things pretty much across the board are hard,鈥� Trenchard said at a meeting on May 20. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 know how to [read, write or do math] because nobody ever taught you. 鈥� I wish we met each other earlier 鈥� because it bothers me to hear about it and to just see that for years what was missing.鈥�

Trenchard, at a meeting on May 29, said Ortiz鈥檚 difficulties in , which are the processes of using letter/sound knowledge to write and read words in a text, could be 鈥渟ymptomatic of dyslexia鈥� but could also be 鈥渟ymptomatic of not having received instruction.鈥�

鈥淎nd in my review of Aleysha鈥檚 IEPs, she was never provided reading instruction,鈥� Trenchard said, adding that she didn鈥檛 believe Ortiz was dyslexic because 鈥渢here are many missing pieces toward even leaning toward that diagnosis.鈥�

Spencer, however, argues that the district violated its legal obligation to provide dyslexia testing because there was a reasonable belief that it could have been an issue.

鈥淚f she was showing no reading issues, and all the testing showed she was fine, and she was on grade level, and she just wanted to get the testing 鈥� then they could have an argument,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淏ut, when it鈥檚 a suspected area, it must be tested. 鈥� There鈥檚 no way a reasonable person would have overlooked this.鈥�

Ortiz received a comprehensive reading evaluation on June 6 and scored 鈥渧ery poor鈥� in every category. Ortiz needed to be taught every reading and spelling skill, according to the test results.

And beyond failing to provide basic education, the district may have also failed to provide an appropriate IEP, and with the limited accommodations that were written, they were not consistently implemented or provided, Trenchard said in one of the recordings.

At Ortiz鈥檚 last PPT meeting on June 14, just two days before graduation, district officials recommended that she defer her diploma and take 100 hours of reading intervention over the summer at the district鈥檚 central office.

Without speaking to Ortiz鈥檚 case, Hartford Public Schools told the CT Mirror that recommendations are made 鈥渙n an individualized basis by the student鈥檚 PPT,鈥� and that a student鈥檚 exit criteria could be reviewed or revised 鈥渦p to and including the day of graduation if necessary.鈥�

Ortiz and several of her teachers shared a hesitancy about the deferment plan, especially in regards to uncertainty from the district about who would provide direct instruction to Ortiz if she stayed back amid millions of dollars of budget cuts in the upcoming school year.

鈥淭he bigger question is who is doing this? 鈥� As of right now, we are working with very minimal staffing, and our special ed staff is doing everything they can, but there鈥檚 no one here,鈥� a teacher at the PPT meeting said.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 require me not to take my diploma and expect me to go along with whatever you say, knowing damn well we don鈥檛 have the people here,鈥� Ortiz said at the meeting. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e saying we have the teachers training, we have the people here 鈥� where are they? If they are here, and they are training, where are they?鈥�

Ortiz was also set to begin a mandatory transition to college program at UConn that ran from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. throughout the summer. The district did not provide any further accommodations or compromise for reading intervention, according to the audio recording of the meeting.

Ortiz ultimately decided to accept her diploma. By the time she had graduated from Hartford Public Schools, she hadn鈥檛 been tested for dyslexia and had never received reading intervention.

Systemic shortfalls

At the same time that Ortiz, her advocates and district leaders met about additional accommodations and intervention services, the district also announced a looming  for the upcoming school year.

 200 special education teachers, 360 paraeducators and 150 counselors, social workers and school psychologists were employed across the district鈥檚 schools in 2022-23.

At Hartford Public High School, which Ortiz attended, there were 21 special education teachers, 19 paras and about 15 social workers, counselors and school psychologists in . With over 109 students with disabilities enrolled at the school, social workers could be assigned dozens of cases.

鈥淎t the end of the 2022-23 school year, we were short-staffed multiple social workers in the building. Myself, alone, was required to service 50 or more students,鈥� said Ortiz鈥檚 former social worker, who added that she ultimately left the district because of the workload.

鈥淸A big part of why I left] comes down to not being able to fully provide children with what they need, and becoming a part of the failure,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was part of that team of service providers who didn鈥檛 always meet Aleysha where she needed perfectly every month. 鈥� There were times I wouldn鈥檛 see her for two weeks. 鈥� It wasn鈥檛 fair to her, but due to the system of the school and the district, we did the best we could, but that鈥檚 not the answer we should be giving, especially for students like Aleysha.鈥�

Ortiz was assigned a handful of different social workers during her time at Hartford Public High School because of staffing turnover, the social worker said.

鈥淭here鈥檚 plenty of students who are kind of slipping through the cracks,鈥� she added.

When asked about student-teacher ratios in special education, Hartford Public Schools said 鈥渃aseloads are specific to each school,鈥� and depends on 鈥渆ach PPT according to each student鈥檚 individualized needs.鈥�

With the expiration of federal COVID-19 relief funds in September, the district cut school staff by 8% by eliminating 229 roles, a majority of which were temporary or non-certified employees like social workers, paraeducators, resource teachers, student engagement specialists and family community school support providers who were hired during the pandemic.

Hartford Public Schools, after its final budget passed in July, lost a total of about 30 counselors, psychologists and social workers.

A spokesperson from the district said that paraeducator staffing has increased from 457 in 2023-24 to 460 in 2024-25, with an increase of 44 special education para positions and a decrease of 41 in all other para positions.

Despite the increase, school staff and education stakeholders say they still anticipate drawbacks in the classroom, including a growing difficulty to provide individualized services and larger classroom sizes for already struggling teachers.

Staffing levels at schools are 鈥渄isconcerting,鈥� Spencer said.

鈥淭hey were bad before COVID, but they are really bad right now,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淪chools are not implementing IEPs, are not identifying children, they鈥檙e not providing the staff that are required, and it is a real crisis.鈥�

A spokesperson from Hartford Public Schools said that 鈥渟taff turnover for any position causes a ripple effect for schools, not just special education.鈥�

鈥淗artford Public Schools is actively working to fill special education vacancies via targeted approaches such as building partnerships with universities, cultivating internal pathways for paraeducators interested in becoming teachers, utilizing social media and attending job fairs,鈥� the spokesperson said.

A  from the state Department of Education showed the problem is not just in Hartford but that school staffing shortages are occurring across the state.

Ortiz was front and center in funding advocacy her senior year through letters to the city council, , state Department of Education and a senior capstone project titled 鈥淪pecial Education: A systemic failure.鈥�

鈥淚 should have had the help of a special education teacher, a paraprofessional, lessons designed to meet me where I was and challenge me, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. I felt like [no one] cared about my future, because I didn鈥檛 receive those supports. I now realize that this was due to a lack of funding and the inability to keep good teachers and staff,鈥� Ortiz wrote to state legislators.

Ortiz told the CT Mirror that she shared her story so her experience doesn鈥檛 repeat in other children.

鈥淚t鈥檚 knowing that more kids are falling through the cracks of the system, and we are still making it seem like everything鈥檚 great, that we鈥檙e doing better for the next generation, and I always ask 鈥榃hen?’鈥� Ortiz said. 鈥淭he amount of times I would try to look for stories that can relate to me, so I could be like 鈥極K, I鈥檓 not the only one.鈥� I would try to do that, I would Google people that went to college and did not know how to read. I couldn鈥檛 find anyone. 鈥� So maybe if I am the first, and I know I鈥檓 not, maybe people can be like, 鈥楾hat person made it.’ 鈥�

Such a classification is racist, sexist, classist, inaccurate and 鈥� worst of all, they say 鈥� lasting. Many Americans who absorbed such messages in their youth continue to define themselves this way decades later. 

And they those insecurities to their children, as if math competency is an innate trait and not a learned skill. This sort of old-school thinking has, for generations, sidelined students of all types, including girls, and those who come from impoverished communities, math equity advocates say. Pushed away from STEM at an early age, they learn to count themselves out of lucrative opportunities. 

鈥淭he highest point that they can reach is drastically diminished if they are put on these lower tracks,鈥� said Marian Dingle, a veteran teacher and head of , a group that aims to boost mathematics education for all students, with a focus on Hispanics. 

Math experts are calling for a new mindset, saying teachers and parents should expect that some children might need extra time 鈥� or tutoring 鈥� to master mathematical concepts and that these accommodations do not reflect negatively on their overall ability or potential. 

鈥淩esearch shows that when students are labeled based on perceived math aptitude, it risks negatively impacting the student鈥檚 self-efficacy and motivation, leading to long-term struggles with math and kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy,鈥� said Lasana Tunica-El, senior deputy director of campaigns for . 鈥淭hey鈥檝e received and heard this labeling 鈥� and then they fulfill the labeling.鈥�

Pamela Seda, president of the , which works to empower Black children by boosting their access and success in mathematics, said she would love to see a more progressive, flexible and inclusive mindset adopted in the nation鈥檚 classrooms. But, she said, American schools are quick to place students on one path or another, often influenced by the child鈥檚 race. Critical decisions are made early 鈥� and they stick.

鈥�We use math as a means to sort kids by who gets to be at the top and who gets to be at the bottom,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur systems have not changed.鈥�

Seda, who spent 26 years teaching in public schools, isn鈥檛 sure why people鈥檚 notions around success in math have become so rigid. Children, she said, need individualized help. 

She recalled teaching her own kids 鈥� now adults 鈥� how to do their own laundry when they were young. Ranging in age from 5 to 9, she instructed each one on how to sort their clothes and operate the washing machine, she said. Her youngest needed a step stool to complete the task, but his mother was not deterred. 

鈥淚t never crossed my mind that he couldn鈥檛 do it,鈥� Seda said of him. 

And that鈥檚 the same mentality educators must adopt when it comes to their students, she said. A math coordinator for three different school districts, she鈥檚 tried to create such learning environments and encouraged other teachers to do the same.

鈥淭he challenge is, they still work within schools and within systems that undermine that,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey are trying to do the best they can.鈥� 

Math anxiety leads to another complexity, said Tunica-El. It impacts not only the general public but the . Many shy away from teaching mathematical concepts even in the early grades because they are unsure of their abilities. 

鈥淎nd then some of that is superimposed onto students, unfortunately,鈥� he said. 

Dingle, of TODOS: Math for All, noted that many math educators come into the field for different reasons: Some are fascinated with the subject matter while others are more interested in working with students. 

鈥淪o you’ve got all these different types of people thrown into the mix,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f we just start from a place of assets, I think it’s easier to lean into the normalization of the idea that learning is learning and it doesn’t matter the pace.鈥�

Dingle said educators need to embrace the idea that certain skills are imperative to being human, including numeracy, mathematical skill and mathematical intuition. 

Josh Recio, systemic transformation lead at at UT Austin, said math is unusual in that the ultimate goal for many students is to take calculus in their senior year of high school 鈥� what might be considered as the ultimate signpost of whether they are 鈥榞ood at math.鈥� 

鈥淏ut the only way to do that is to accelerate at some point because it takes five math classes to get to calculus 鈥� and there鈥檚 only four years of high school,鈥� he said. 

Students who wish to reach this goal must take algebra in the eighth grade.

鈥淪o, you start seeing students placed into actual advanced courses starting in sixth grade, but that identification happens prior to that,鈥� Recio said, sometimes as early as second or third grade. 

Some believe that the only way to eliminate tracking is to place all students on an accelerated path, but Recio disagrees. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think doing it for every student is right,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here are students who are ready to accelerate and there are those who are not. We need to continue to create opportunities to get them to that point.鈥�

Alan Garfinkel, professor of integrative biology and physiology and medicine at UCLA, isn鈥檛 sure that鈥檚 a worthy objective. He questioned the value of added time and tutoring because the math we are teaching inside America鈥檚 classrooms, he argued, does not meet the moment.

鈥淲hat does it mean to be good at math?鈥� he asked. 鈥淭he standard answer back then 鈥� and the standard answer right now 鈥� is that 鈥榞ood at math鈥� means the ability to rattle off formulas. It鈥檚 stupid pet tricks to solve absolutely trivial problems. That whole attitude is the enemy.鈥�

More valuable, he said, would be for students to see 鈥� and solve 鈥� real-world problems by formulating them in mathematical terms and understanding how they evolved in a systematic way. He cited stopping the spread of COVID through modeling or finding out why people still turn away from electric vehicles, despite their benefits. 

“If you gave me a magic wand that I could use to make the entire population earn A’s in AP Calculus,鈥� he said, 鈥淚 wouldn’t take it.鈥� 

Disclosure: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides financial support to The Charles A. Dana Center and 社区黑料.

Facetime calls. Blaring music. Video games.

鈥淵ou name it, it was happening鈥� during class at DeLaSalle High School, said Breona Ward, director of college and career progressions.

Students鈥� cellphone use got in the way of learning at the Kansas City charter school.

The difference Ward saw in her English classroom was 鈥渘ight and day鈥� after a crackdown on cellphones midway through the 2022-23 school year. With students鈥� phones locked up, she saw fewer power struggles, disruptions and social media-fueled conflicts.

Even students鈥� downtime was different, Ward said. Instead of having their heads bowed, eyes fixed on phones, they talked with one another and played board games.

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鈥淚t鈥檚 beautiful,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou see kids who normally aren鈥檛 talking to each other, they鈥檙e not in the same friend group, but they are growing bonds, and they鈥檙e actually communicating.鈥�

But 18 months after introducing a stricter cellphone policy, the Kansas City charter school is pondering how to ease up without reverting to the same old problems.

Students are advocating to use their phones in some circumstances, such as outside of class. Executive director Sean Stalling wants to encourage their initiative.

鈥淲hile I might not agree 100% with every change鈥� students have proposed, Stalling said, 鈥淚 will agree 100% that having the policy that鈥檚 co-created with students and school 鈥� will be easier to enforce and easier to implement.”

How the policy worked

DeLaSalle in early 2023.

The school 鈥� which specializes in working with students who were behind on credits or otherwise struggled at other high schools 鈥� urgently needed to get more out of classroom time. After all, they were still catching up from the pandemic.

Some research shows negative impacts on academic performance, mental health and exercise when students use cellphones in school.

Three-quarters of public schools nationally during the 2020-21 school year, but enforcement of those bans is wildly uneven. A of about 200 children ages 11 to 17 found 97% of them used cellphones in school.

Rather than just putting a cellphone ban in writing, DeLaSalle used magnetically sealed pouches made by and marketed for schools, events and workplaces. Students can carry the pouches with them, but they only open with a special unlocking station.

At least, that鈥檚 how it was supposed to work.

Students quickly discovered that the pouches are fallible, Principal Erin Wilmore said.

A Google search brings up advice on breaching the lock, sometimes without tell-tale damage.

Students鈥� attempts to skirt the policy have required the school to devote time to enforcement rather than relying on Yondr alone, Wilmore said.

As part of the morning routine, students go through bag checks and Wilmore or a vice principal examines every Yondr pouch. When they find a damaged pouch, they toss it.

In class, teachers who catch students using phones call administrators.

Students who violate the policy can have their phones confiscated during school, sometimes for days or weeks. Other than those consequences, the policy isn鈥檛 meant to be punitive.

鈥淲e do not want to suspend kids, restrict them and do things to them that could lead to them not being in school,鈥� Stalling said.

Students also got around the policy by bringing tablets 鈥� too big to fit in Yondr pouches 鈥� or Apple watches, Ward said. But in general, those devices have been less disruptive than phones. For example, it鈥檚 easier to see at a glance how a student is using a tablet.

Reactions and impact

Stalling said the policy left more time for teaching.

Students beat the scores of their Kansas City Public Schools neighborhood high school peers, on average, when they took their 2023 state English exams. DeLaSalle records also show they narrowed the gap on math scores. Final scores for 2024 aren鈥檛 available yet.

Stalling said it鈥檚 notable because many DeLaSalle students previously struggled in those neighborhood schools. It鈥檚 not clear how much of the improvement is a result of the cellphone policy.

Teachers generally supported launching the cellphone policy, Stalling said, with the exception of one who already had a policy that was working well.

Wilmore, the principal, said teachers generally appreciate the clarity and the attempt to reclaim instruction time. But they also say enforcement 鈥� hailing an administrator when a kid gets busted for using a phone 鈥� can pose its own distraction.

About 95% of parents also support the policy, Stalling said. Some even help enforce it.

鈥淲e have had parents call us to say, 鈥楬ey, my son just called me from the bathroom, and I know he鈥檚 not supposed to have his phone,鈥欌�� he said.

Some parents say they worry about safety and how they鈥檇 reach their child during a shooting or some other crisis, Ward said.

The school made exceptions for special circumstances such as students using phones to monitor medical conditions, expecting an important phone call from court or going through a family tragedy.

Students who go off campus for internships or college classes are generally allowed to keep their phones with them for safety reasons, Ward said.

She thinks phones pose their own risks. Social media drama 鈥渟pills over into real life here in the building,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ehavioral incidents have (gone) down significantly because they have less access to their phones.鈥�

Phone restrictions also prevent real-life teasing or conflict from being recorded, going viral and becoming a schoolwide incident, Stalling said.

Students, generally, aren鈥檛 so hot on the policy.

Administrators and students are negotiating potential changes, Stalling said. DeLaSalle will still keep phones out of class but could retire Yondr pouches 鈥� unless a student breaks the rules.

鈥淚nstructional time will still be sacred,鈥� Stalling said. But 鈥渟tudents have lunch, students have passing periods, students have out-of-the-building programs. And so there are times that the students would like to have access to their phone.鈥�

Ideas about tweaking the policy are worth listening to, Wilmore said. But she also likes what the strict version of the cellphone ban has done.

Students now understand, she said, 鈥渢hat we鈥檙e not going to let phones take away from the culture of learning. 鈥� It showed them an extremity. Now, it鈥檚 putting the ball back in their court if we revise the policy.鈥�

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

Oh, and they鈥檙e fun.

That sophistication 鈥� and a bit of that fun 鈥� may soon be coming to school assessments.

Educators and developers are increasingly looking to the digital world of games and simulations to make tests more stealthy, playful and, they hope, useful. In the process, the new assessments may also push schools to become more creative.

鈥淭he idea is: Can assessment be more embedded?鈥� said Y.J. Kim, an at the University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison. 鈥淐an assessment be more exciting? Can assessment be more flexible?鈥�

In November, NWEA, which publishes the widely used , unveiled a 3D digital assessment on the popular that tests how well middle-schoolers have learned Newton鈥檚 .

The game, called Distance Dash, requires two students to work together to launch vehicles of different sizes and payloads. The goal: Get both to the finish line in perfect sync.

Students pick a skateboard, a bike, a grocery cart or an automobile, load each with different items, then collaboratively fine-tune the forces placed on them. The whole time, the game covertly measures several objectives, including whether students understand the principles of acceleration and how to apply optimal force.

Tyler Matta, NWEA鈥檚 vice president of learning sciences engineering, said the assessment grew out of the , which require students to analyze and interpret data and understand patterns.

He said helping design it was a stretch for NWEA test makers, who hadn鈥檛 previously worked with game designers. 鈥淲e got to see what goes into building educational games, which was all very novel for us. We learned a ton.鈥�

The organization is working with developer , which has produced . 

鈥淎s an assessment, it’s important that you actually have the ability to fail,鈥� explained Filament鈥檚 Kenny Green, the project鈥檚 producer. The data it generates 鈥� for instance, how many times students tried and what modifications they made 鈥� are all important for teachers to see. 

The new exam appears as Roblox, the popular gaming platform, moves further into schools. Last October, it said it鈥檒l to expand educational experiences on its platform, two years after an initial $10 million outlay. 

Rebecca Kantar, Roblox鈥檚 head of education, said physics lends itself well to such collaborative simulations. Distance Dash, she said, is 鈥渞epresentative of the kind of team-based problem solving real scientists do when they’re working through a physics problem in real life.鈥� 

Another recent development: In 2022, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development assessed creative thinking for 15-year-old students in more than 60 countries via the assessment, which boasts interactive items that allow students to submit drawings with a . 

The test also includes open-ended tasks with 鈥渘o single solution but multiple correct responses,鈥� organizers said. The first results are expected this year.

Advocates hope to someday make tests more personalized and, in many ways, indistinguishable from games, said Bo Stjerne Thomsen of the . 鈥淲hat we hope is that playfulness becomes a serious part of assessment,鈥� he said.

Better still, more playful tests, he said, could open the door for schools to offer more creative, inquiry-based learning. 

He and others who are support the new tests don鈥檛 mince words: They envision a world where the kind of high-stakes, multiple-choice tests we all grew up with give way to assessments that for the first time allow teachers to capture a broader array of 鈥渘on-cognitive qualities鈥� such as teamwork and creativity, while keeping students focused on learning.

鈥淓very time you try to pause an experience or stop a learning experience, it actually stops the engagement,鈥� said Thomsen. It鈥檚 the same with play: 鈥淎s soon as you start measuring play, the play stops.鈥�

鈥業t’s about you engaging with someone else鈥�

Tests can also be demotivating, even though they鈥檙e designed to help students show what they鈥檝e learned, said Yigal Rosen, who led the creation of the PISA test.

He recalled interviewing fourth-graders who had taken NAEP science exams: At least one-third of the questions, according to students, were 鈥渟uper boring鈥� and not engaging.

鈥淭hey will skip them,鈥� Rosen said. 鈥淭hey will just select 鈥榃hatever.鈥欌��

Now the chief academic officer at , the learning software company, Rosen recalled that when his team tweaked the NAEP test with a 鈥減layful version鈥� that invited students to work together, he said, scores rose by 50%. 鈥淚t’s no longer about you just responding to this dry prompt,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s about you engaging with someone else.鈥�

When they think of playful assessments, most teachers probably think of digital tools like the popular learning platform , which allows teachers to create game show-like quizzes and polls that engage students on mobile phones and other devices. Louisa Rosenheck, Kahoot鈥檚 director of pedagogy, admitted that testing, for all its progress, is 鈥渟till an underdeveloped, untapped area.鈥� 

Digital tools like Kahoot that help teachers do informal assessments as they teach are helpful because they 鈥渇eel more low-stakes鈥� than traditional tests. 鈥淚t’s very quick, it’s informative. You can get feedback very, very easily,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut the question types, the formats, often are still kind of discrete items.鈥�

In that sense, she said, they don鈥檛 take advantage of what good games can do: Collect extensive data on students鈥� thinking and decision making 鈥� much more important indicators than whether they got the correct result. But that鈥檚 expensive, so many educational games simply assess how far a player gets and how many tasks or levels she completes.

鈥楽tealth assessment鈥�

Researchers have been toying with the idea of more playful assessments for decades. Nearly 20 years ago, researcher began looking at ways to seamlessly weave tests directly into the fabric of instruction.

Shute devised the idea of 鈥渟tealth assessment,鈥� a system that discreetly tests students鈥� learning in interactive and immersive environments such as digital games. 

Aside from offering a less obtrusive way to measure learning, stealth assessment aimed to help with 鈥渇low,鈥� the mental state in which a person is so engaged and exhilarated by a task that they forget they鈥檙e working. 

For most students, any exhilaration melts when test time nears.

鈥淎ssessment is inherently about power,鈥� said the University of Wisconsin鈥檚 Kim. 鈥淎ssessment is inherently about evidence and rules.鈥�

By contrast, the new kinds of assessments empower students to challenge and question rules. In one proposed scenario, students in the PISA creativity test are asked to build a paper airplane, then come up with ideas to improve it.

In another, students design a 鈥渂icycle of the future,鈥� suggesting three original improvements over standard bikes. Then they鈥檙e asked to tweak the design of a proposed anti-theft camera mounted on the bike. Finally, since the future bicycle is automatically powered, they must suggest 鈥渁n original way to reuse or repurpose鈥� the pedals.

鈥淭he idea should be original,鈥� the test says, 鈥渋n the sense that not many students would think of it.鈥�

Kim has spent the past few years developing playful assessments for the classroom, originally with teachers, teacher trainees and game designers at MIT. Where Shute, her mentor at Florida State University, called it 鈥渟tealth assessment,鈥� Kim prefers the term 鈥減layful assessment.鈥�

鈥業t鈥檚 a mind shift鈥�

Kim has lately been testing something she calls the , a free, printable card game for teachers that Kim describes as 鈥淐harades meets Telephone鈥� to teach the process of drawing conclusions from a chain of evidence.

In the game, players take on one of three roles: Performer, Observer or Interpreter. They can only see one of the other two players, and gameplay proceeds as the performer silently acts out, in three movements or less, what鈥檚 on a card. The observer takes notes on what she sees and determines how to tell the interpreter what she saw. 

Like many in the field, Kim said a big roadblock to more playful tests is that so many school systems use assessments for teacher evaluations. 鈥淎t the end of the day, we are obsessed with the idea that 鈥楢ssessment is score: score about performance and proficiency.鈥欌��

Meanwhile, for most educators, play 鈥渋s not something that is productive,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o for teachers to kind of switch their mindset in terms of, ‘Assessment can be fun, and this is an assessment,’ it’s a mind shift.鈥�

Back for Season 5, Michael and Diane catch up on their summers and book reading, Diane鈥檚 new entrepreneurial venture, , the season ahead 鈥� and then offer some hot takes on the reading wars and Lucy Calkins, four-year college-for-all and education jargon.

Listen to the episode below. A full transcript follows.

Diane Tavenner: Hey, Michael.

Michael Horn: Hey, Diane. We are back. It’s been a little while.

Diane Tavenner: It’s been more than a minute, for sure. It is really good to be here with you and in a little bit of a new space and new time.

Michael Horn: Indeed, indeed. And we should say most people are accustomed, I think, at this point, to us starting at the beginning of the academic year, which traditionally, or not traditionally, unfortunately tends to happen at the end of August, early September. But, Diane, you have some big news, like, you’re no longer on an academic calendar, so everyone knew you were stepping down from Summit after 20 years. Tell us what you’re doing now as we enter this fifth season.

Diane Tavenner: Well, Michael, I’m so glad to be back in conversation. I have missed it a lot, the rhythm of it. And what you’re pointing out is this idea that for the first time in my entire life, I did not have a back to school experience. And I’ll be honest, that has been an anchor point for me for my whole life. That sort of sets the schedule for the fall. So here we are. It’s a little bit later, but I’m learning to be fluid with that time because I am not in schools anymore. I have co founded a new company called Point of Beginning, and we are working on a product called Point B, and it’s a technology product that is really focused on helping students and right now, high school students.

But I think eventually, potentially younger students figure out and this probably won’t come as a shocker to a lot of people if you’ve been listening for a few years, figure out their purpose and what a pathway towards fulfillment will be post-high school. And while that can certainly be inclusive of four year college, we want to really focus on and expand the other possible pathways that exist for people, to help them, discover them, explore them, create their own vision for what that will look like, figure out how to make good choices, and then enact those pathways. And so we’re about three months in about a week away from the first version of the product being tested by real people and in a real startup.

Michael Horn: That’s exciting, Diane. So I have a couple reflections, but before we have those, my Point B, like, how do people find it on the Web? Learn about what you’re doing. I assume there’s going to be some schools that are like, do we get to sign up so our students can use this?

Diane Tavenner: Well, it’s super early, but you can always reach out to me. You can find us on the Web at , and you can start to check out what’s happening there. Sign up for updates if you’re interested, and, of course, reach out to me. We want to talk with, work with anyone and everyone. And so if this is an area of interest or passion, I hope you will reach out and I hope we’re going to get a lot of opportunities to sort of touch on these subjects that are so fascinating over the course of this season. Michael, because I do think this season’s a little bit different. I think we’re going to do some throwbacks to Season 1, but also a little bit different. So do you want to just talk a little bit about what’s happening? I will say off the top, one of the things that’s different is we will have video this year. I missed that memo. So you can see I didn’t really dress up for you today, but I’ll try to look better going forward. But what else is different?

Michael Horn: Yeah, no, I’m glad you prompted us on that because folks who have been listening to this for now in our fifth season are going to say, gee, there’s some differences that I noticed. One, we’re on video, we’re coming to you from the Future of Education channel. But all that means is that you can find us in more places. So it’s still Class Disrupted, still Diane and Michael having conversations, although we’re going to have a lot more guests helping us drive the conversations this particular year. We’ll get more to that in a little bit. But the Future of Education, as you know, is this other conversations that I started a few years back and it’s something that broadcasts on MarketScale, it broadcasts on YouTube, it broadcasts through my Substack newsletter. But if you’ve been listening to us through 社区黑料, if you’ve been listening to us through wherever you listen to podcasts, whether that’s Apple, Google, whatever Spotify, I don’t know where else people listen to podcasts, I am, but those are some of the big ones, right? You can still do that. You’ll still find us at Class Disrupted. Nothing has changed on that front. It’s just a few other avenues for us to get to connect with listeners and hopefully get some feedback, get some conversation started because we are all about listening and trying to find different pathways through education. And what I love about what you’re doing at Point B is to me it touches on what I think is increasingly people are recognizing as like one of the central issues of education, which is it’s not just the academic knowledge and skills. Yes, those are important, but they need to be in fulfillment of something and we have left a generation of individuals at the moment without having a real sense of purpose. And I think it shows up in our mental health stats. I think it shows up in the challenges we have around post secondary completion. I think it shows up in the challenges we have for employers to find employees that are psyched to be there and ready to be productive and contribute. And I think it prevails throughout is just there’s a lot of people adrift Diane, so I love that you’re tackling this and that, as you said, we’re going to get know, beat up different angles of what it means to chart that pathway and purpose over this season.

Not as a shameless plug for Point B, but really just to really get at this issue that I think is so undergirding so much of what we do. I think it’s great that we’re going to get to dig into this.

Diane Tavenner: Well, one of the gifts of this transition, Michael, has been the ability to just really go back and be a learner in so many different ways. And one of the things I’ve been eager to catch up with you about is what you’ve been reading this summer, because that’s always a big part of our conversations. And I feel like, oh, my gosh, we’ll go each week, we’ll talk about what we’re reading, but there’s this whole backlog right now. And so I’m really curious what you’ve been reading, what you’ve been learning. As I know my list, which is quite long, was very related to the transition. And I went kind of deep in areas of personal health and transition health and things like that as I kind of reflect on 20 years and you don’t always take care of yourself. And there’s these moments of reflection of like, how can I kind of catch up on that? I also did some deep diving on organizations and businesses and how when you get to start fresh, what do I want to bring forward, what do I want to do differently? What’s the modern stuff there? And so those are some fun books, like Farther, Faster, and Far Less Drama, Janice and Jason Fraser and 10X Is Easier Than 2X, which is a term I’m kind of allergic to in Silicon Valley, but I actually read [the book] and got a lot of value from it. That’s Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. I’m going to get that wrong. Atomic Habits by James Clear as I changed my entire life. How do I have the routines and the habits that are really supporting how I want to be living? And then some other I finally felt like in a place where I could kind of reflect on the pandemic. And so Premonition by Michael Lewis, which is a fast-paced and fascinating and a story I wish I had known all these seasons, quite frankly. So that was really interesting. And we continue to be in tough times. And so also digging into How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them by Barbara Walter.

Michael Horn: Wow.

Diane Tavenner: That鈥檚 some of my list. How about you? What is on your list?

Michael Horn: You’ve, gosh, you’ve gotten to read some interesting books. Here are mine. I’ll be curious what your take is. I’ll try to spin an arc of it, but mine, as you know, I had finally started to get into Harry Potter with my kids. So we have now completed the full set of Harry Potter books. I have read every single one. Number four, and the last one are my favorite. I thought they were the best written of them all, so that was super fun.

I did have this moment of pang, Diane, because, as you know, my kids recently turned nine, and I had this moment when I finished the 7th Harry Potter book. I was like this, like 90% likelihood this may be the last book I read out loud with my kids, right? And to be fair, one of them had already opted out, like she had read them all without me and gotten ahead, and one of them was nice and held on for my sake at my slow pace. So we got through all those Harry Potter books, and then I personally, because they’re nine, was going deep on what does it mean when they’re teenagers? And so Lisa Damour has been in my ear constantly over the last few months with her collection of three books, which I highly recommend. The most recent one is about The Emotional Lives of Teenagers in general. The first two are about girls raising girls who are teenagers. So she’s terrific. It’s been really helpful. And it does strike me a lot of the parenting advice is all really the same at the end of the day, but it actually helps to hear it in different modalities and formats and hear it again every three months or so.

So that was great. And then, of course, I had my history kick still going in the background. So I finished just before we started recording this, actually, a couple of days ago, the Ron Chernow biography of Ulysses S. Grant, which is a terrific book if you want to get angry about the South’s actions during Reconstruction after the Civil War. I learned a ton from it. Just really interesting about the development of him also as a leader and sort of how his values came out over time and like a really reticent hated to speak, for example, even while he was president, but then he traveled around the world after he was president and became quite a public speaker. And so just development and learning, right, as themes throughout all this.

Diane Tavenner: Interesting.

Michael Horn: So it’s fun, Diane.

Diane Tavenner: That is really fun. And I will just say that your girls are nine. My son is 21. For those who’ve been following our kids sort of growing up over these years. And I have sort of welcomed a second son to our family who’s also in that age group, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to talk about him. But Rhett, who I talk about here sometimes as something to potentially look forward to, Michael, he is writing an alternative history novel, right? So it’s really fun. And so I’m getting to read and talk with him and brainstorm with him about that, which is pretty awesome.

And it goes back to the founding of the US. And he’s got some interesting alternative narratives there. So I’m like, back into kind of those founding family founder, founding Father stories.

Michael Horn: Families, yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome.

Diane Tavenner: And families.

Michael Horn: Well, being in Lexington, Massachusetts, and having just taken my family to Williamsburg, Virginia, where as a kid, I went every single spring break. Diane but my kids had never been there. And so my brothers, my parents, they all descended on Williamsburg, and we had an old family reunion and lots of nostalgia. But I was really impressed with how the place has updated its language and the way it talks about a lot of people in a lot of different roles who now, to be fair, I think when I was a kid, my kids were far more interested in the restoration and talking to the characters than I remember ever being as a kid. I remember just being not that let’s put it that way as a kid, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. So I’ll be very curious to read.

Diane Tavenner: Yeah, well, his angle is, what if we didn’t just have Founding Fathers? What if there was actually a founding mother at the Constitutional Congress? What might be?

Michael Horn: Different question. It’s a good question. So before we wrap up and before we preview what’s going to be the next episode, let’s do just a few hot takes, if you will, because I’ve been burning on a few issues, sort of gnawing at me, and, you know, I’ve been sending you texts like, can we please talk about so I want to do this now. And so I’ve got a couple for you. You probably have one or two for me.

Diane Tavenner: I do.

Michael Horn: Awesome. The one I want to go into is we’ve covered, obviously, the reading wars on this podcast and sort of the ignoring, I would say, of the evidence right. Of how certain people need phonics and phonemic awareness to learn how to read and to decode. Right. And sort of what that’s done. And you’ve made the point like, this should not be a problem we have in our country. Everybody should be able to learn how to read at this point. So I was listening to the Daily, the New York Times podcast, their coverage of it, and Michael Barbaro, classmate of mine at Yale, he and I worked very closely on the newspaper together.

And so I was listening to his version of sort of about Lucy Calkins and sort of the history behind that and things of that nature. And what occurred to me was she and Fountas and Pinnell and all those people, they really messed people up with the Three Cueing method and all these things that sort of gave short shrift to teaching people to really learn how to decode. But they also had some really good things in there. And I guess I just had this moment of know, we’ve talked about how we’re not thrilled with banning curriculum and stuff like that. And I guess I had this pit in my stomach, Diane, where I was like, Writer’s Workshop is something that’s a staple of the Lucy Calkins curriculum. Right. And I don’t know. I’d love your take as an educator, because I’m not one.

I just learned a lot about this space. But my take is, if the child doesn’t know their letters and can’t do any sounding out Writers Workshop, you’re layering something over a novice learner that probably doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense. But once you have any ability to decode and do these stuff, even if it’s not spelled right, I think there’s probably a lot of value in having Writers Workshop to be able to like the purpose of writing is right? And to be able to spin these stories or respond to prompts or react to things that you’ve read aloud in class or whatever else. And the discussion format of the Writers Workshop and the ability to edit your peers work and things of that nature. It strikes me, Diane, that that’s something like, we really wouldn’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater there, but I’m just sort of curious. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Writers Workshop is like, this terrible thing, and I’m just not understanding.

Diane Tavenner: No. I have gotten a lot of joy from the passion of your texts that have been coming through over the summer about this. So it’s so fun to be back in conversation. Here’s what I would say. And as a former English teacher, as, you know, generally higher level middle and high school, but I was a reading instructor, too, for preschool through adults for a period of time, and this is where nuance is so important. And when we get into these battles and these wars, we lose the nuance, and we do throw the baby out with the bathwater. As an English teacher, writers workshops are among one of the most powerful tools and activities you can use, I believe. And I think most great English teachers believe that, too, and use them incredibly well, even with younger children, as you’re talking about.

And so what I hope does not happen is that people just hear anything that’s been associated with these non-scientific methods and ban them, if you will. And I think this connects to another thing you’ve been talking about, which is, like, jargon in our work and how we use it. So you’ll get to that in a moment. But no. Writers Workshops enable the practice of an extraordinary suite of skills that are really important that even young kids can start to practice. And it’s a tool that can be used all the way up. I mean, it is all the way up into professional circles. And so we should most certainly hold on to writers workshops. We should know what we’re doing.

We should be critical and disciplined and apply the science and all of those things, but they should not be banned, for sure.

Michael Horn: OK. All right. Well, I feel a little bit better. You have a hot take first before I go on my second one.

Diane Tavenner: Jargon well, I mean, here’s what the conversation that’s happening everywhere I turn right now in my networks and communities. And that is that the data is going to come out. We’re going to see yet another year of, I believe, decline in four year college enrollment. And so that’s several years. And we’re not seeing the bounce back that I think people thought would happen after. COVID there’s a bigger trend that is at play here. And I think what I’m hearing is people, who, like me, who have spent the last 20 years really focused on four-year college for all kids. They know that this has to be questioned, that this is maybe not the strategy for everyone going forward.

We need to be thinking about different pathways. They know it’s fraught. They don’t even know how to talk to their communities about it. I keep hearing people are like, I don’t know how to start that conversation, let alone do something about it. And of course, my worry is that we have to be doing something right now, and if we can’t even talk about it, there is an issue. So this is top of mind for me and I think has huge implications for high schools, for sure, in America, which we’ve been pounding away for years now, about how they need to be redesigned. There’s a lot of stuff going on out there. It’s a really interesting moment in time.

Michael Horn: Yeah, that’s super interesting. Just a quick reflection on it is I was talking to Scott Pulsipher recently, the president of Western Governors University, and for those that don’t know, it’s an online, competency-based university. And as he likes to say, we didn’t invent competency-based education. No, you didn’t. But I think they’re the first players to do so at such scale that they do. And they had 230,000 enrollments in the last academic year that just completed Diane. And they now have I’m going to mess this up, but it’s like 340 or 350,000 alums in their 23-year history. And just to put that in perspective, Harvard University has 400,000 alums.

And it was interesting because they’re an online, competency-based institution, $4,000 for every six months. So low cost. Students complete the bachelor’s in an average of two and a half years. And he was just saying for the learners that come to them, which historically were adult learners, but increasingly, by the way, now 12%, I think, of their population, something like that, is 18- to 24-year olds. That’s changing. Right. He said, for them, education is not the end. It is a means to a better life. Right.

And so I guess that’s my reflection there is, I think, part of starting that conversation is like, what’s the end? What are you trying to prepare for? And framing education as that vehicle as opposed to the oh, the purpose is college. Right? Because that’s a pretty empty purpose once.

Diane Tavenner: You get through it, right, and what we’ve all discovered or are discovering. Yeah, certainly lots on that one to dig in over the course of the year.

Michael Horn: We’re going to revisit that a few times, I suspect. All right, last one for me. You alluded to it a moment ago, which is jargon. And it comes directly out of this, though, conversation of the reading instruction and things of that nature, because I guess my reflection, Emily Oster, who’s reading I love, or writing I love, she had this great piece recently about a harrowing incident for her. She got in an accident running on the road and she got hit by a biker and went to the ER and she was listening to all the doctors talking in jargon around her. And she said, sometimes jargon is sort of parodied, but it actually serves a really important purpose, which is it allows people to shortcut conversation and professionals in a field to very quickly communicate with each other to more efficiently get work done, she said. Now it can also alienate people outside of you and make them feel dumb, which then makes them feel like they don’t understand and then a whole bunch of downstream effects of that, which is not good. But used well within the field, like in an emergency situation, it really short circuits right to the purpose and helps, in her case, get the treatment that she needed to have. And so I guess my reflection was we also have a lot of jargon in education and I think the reading wars, in quotes, I can do this now because people can see me video, sorry for those listening to the audio, but we use a lot of jargon in education to try to signal certain things. But the problem within education, at least my reflection, and I’m curious, your take, is that we don’t all mean the same thing by the words. We all have vastly different definitions. And so we’ll have these fights like constructivists versus behaviorists. Or someone will be like, oh, we’re an inquiry-based school, or we’re a project-based learning school. Or direct instruction and let’s just go back to the reading thing. 

There is direct instruction in that example, right, of teaching someone phonics and phonemic awareness. There is inquiry, I suppose, on the question what you’re going to write about in Writers Workshop. There might even be hopefully a project with a performance at the end, like the actual completing right. There’s some constructivist, there’s some behaviorist. It’s all a little bit right. And we set up these progressive education versus classical. We have these words, A, we don’t know the definitions, but like, most of what we’re doing is pulling from the right amount to get the right effect for the kid to help advance them. And so I just find a lot of these buzz phrases, at best counterproductive, but also potentially quite misleading, Diane, because we think we’re saying the same thing when we are in communication and we’re all just talking past each other. But I’d love your reflections.

Diane Tavenner: I’ve had this experience hundreds of times over the last 20 years. I distinctly remember being on a panel at one point and having this conversation about the word knowledge versus skills. Yeah, that’s another one levels and there is not a shared definition of that. And so people use those things interchangeably and they’re different when you’re talking about designing schools and learning experiences, et cetera, and it completely derailing any sort of meaningful understanding of what each other’s are saying and therefore ability to move forward. So it’s a very significant issue.

Michael Horn: Yeah, well, I guess my hope for schools is that we just start maybe doing more of the plain English thing so that parents know what we’re talking about and then maybe we’ll know what we’re talking about as well and communicate better with each other.

Diane Tavenner: Well that’s a good let’s leave it there. Maybe this season to try to be.

Michael Horn: Yeah, that is a good question.

Diane Tavenner: As possible. I like that one. And you sort of mentioned at the top. But as we kind of wrap up this first welcome back session and look forward, I think we’re both really excited for more interesting guests and people to talk to this year. And one of our favorite people is going to kick us off in our next episode. So we are excited to bring back Todd Rose. He joined us in season one and he’s been doing a ton of fascinating work over the last few years. It’s so relevant to everything we talk about and broader and so we’re going to have a great conversation with him.

Michael Horn: Yeah, I can’t wait. And it goes directly, I think, to the hot take you had around. If it’s not four-year college, what are we preparing students for? Because what his research recently has shown is that everyone thinks that everyone else is aiming at four year college, but that’s actually not the goal for a lot of the individuals themselves. And we’ll talk about how he does that research, what he’s found success actually means to individual families on the ground. I think it’s going to be a terrific conversation to help set what should be a really exciting set of explorations for us and for our audience this season.

Diane Tavenner: On Class Disrupted. Well, I can’t wait. Michael and I’m so glad to be back with you and until next time, thanks for joining us on Class Disrupted.

While many have rightly called for districts to invest federal COVID relief dollars in expanded learning time and intensive tutoring, district leaders and educators must not neglect their collective responsibility to strengthen core instruction for all children. The best lever to accelerate learning in America is to use the science of how children learn to read, comprehensively outlined by the more than 20 years ago, in the year 2000. And, implement these recommendations in every elementary school in America, based on what newer evidence also shows about the role of knowledge in comprehension.

The human brain is wired to speak and absorb language 鈥� but not to read. learn to read without explicitly being taught. The remaining 70% to 80% need effective curriculum and structured instruction to gain the literacy skills to keep on track with their learning progression. 

The Science of Reading begins with a proven approach that utilizes phonemic awareness and phonics to systematically correlate sounds with letters and sound patterns with clusters of letters. 

Jacquelyn鈥檚 dyslexic son is a first-hand example of the method鈥檚 success. He attended two schools that used an approach to reading instruction disproven by science. His confidence tanked, his anxiety rose and he hated to read so much, he cried when asked to practice. His third school, a strong Science of Reading school, changed everything. He arrived in second grade 1.8 years behind. The school said this gap must be closed and took full responsibility for his success. With heavy phonics in the classroom and three one-on-one sessions a week with the reading specialist, he ended third grade on track.

His challenges are not uncommon, but the interventions and support he received are all too rare and make all the difference. This is possible for every child if their teachers do what science proves works.

The Science of Reading also emphasizes that children need to comprehend text rather than solely drawing from their own experiences. This is critical to reduce the learning gap that too often parallels the opportunity gap between students from low-income backgrounds and their more affluent peers. For example, the more privileged child understands a passage about the Inuit because her family took a cruise in Alaska, while the lower-income child who has not had this travel experience is stumped not only by “Inuit,” but also 鈥渃aribou鈥� and 鈥渂eluga whales.鈥� The key is giving students mirrors that reflect themselves and windows onto worlds beyond their own. A curriculum that develops rich knowledge in subjects such as social studies, science and the arts is an essential foundation for proficient reading.

In tutoring a high school junior, Jacquelyn found that the student struggled mightily to understand the poem Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney; she had never eaten a blackberry, much less picked one off a vine. But Jacquelyn鈥檚 young son understood the poem completely; he picks blackberries every summer at his grandma鈥檚 house. With this background knowledge, the poem made sense to him. The solution isn鈥檛 to deny that high school junior access to Heaney鈥檚 poem, but to introduce her to a new experience 鈥� and new vocabulary 鈥� through careful reading of the text and explanations that make the verse come to life.

The earliest years of a child’s education are critical for gaining functional literacy. From pre-K through third grade, students learn to read, and from grade three forward, they read to learn. Whether it鈥檚 science experiments, math word problems or drama scripts, students cannot learn if they cannot read, and 75% percent of children who are behind in third grade . Many students have been by their schools’ reliance on curricula that lack explicit phonics instruction and 鈥� even worse 鈥� teach children to guess at words using approaches that have long been debunked by research. The resulting deficit trails students for the remainder of their academic life and beyond: For example, struggling readers are four times more likely to .

None of this is necessary. Neuroscientists have demonstrated that on grade level when exposed to effective curriculum and instruction 鈥� proof that it is entirely possible to reverse the current devastating trend.

Colleges of education must prepare elementary teachers to teach reading aligned to this science. This means the professors who prepare these teachers must know the Science of Reading. States should certify only colleges of education that follow this approach and credential only elementary educators who have these skills. Districts must move to implement curricula aligned to the Science of Reading that include both the mechanics (phonics, phonemic awareness to build decoding skills and fluency) and the building blocks of comprehension (vocabulary and robust background knowledge). They also need to ensure all current elementary school teachers know how to teach reading based on the science. 

should be given to any student at risk of not catching up by fourth grade, but that should be the exception. While powerfully effective, having a well-trained tutor with high-quality materials meet regularly and frequently with students, individually or in small groups, is resource-intensive. If students receive effective instruction to begin with, the need for tutoring declines, enabling schools to target limited resources to those who need it most.  

Some places are already working to change the situation. In Mississippi, where groundbreaking literacy legislation invested in professional development on the Science of Reading, literacy coaches, additional interventions for struggling students and specialized training at colleges of education 鈥� including a Foundation of Reading exam for prospective teachers 鈥� students vaulted from 49th in the nation in reading to 29th on the National Assessment of Educational Progress between 2017 and 2019. , Tennessee and , among other states, are also moving systematically in the right direction. 

Advocates, educators and parents must work together this school year to push all states and districts toward action. As the nation’s education system recovers from the pandemic, it is not enough to return to the pre-COVID status quo. Policymakers and other decision-makers have a unique opportunity and a moral responsibility to build back better and more equitably 鈥� and help America鈥檚 children benefit from what the Science of Reading has proven works for over two decades. Not to do so would be nothing short of malpractice.

Disclosure: Andrew Rotherham is a co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education and a member of the board of directors of 社区黑料.