IDRA Classnotes

Classnotes Podcast (April 26, 2021). Often, people talk about restorative practice as an approach to student discipline. It is true that restorative practices include a reactive component designed to…

Classnotes Podcast (April 6, 2021). At the core of IDRA’s philosophy is the recognition that each student is a unique and whole human being and should be treated as such. Our guest for this episode i…

Classnotes Podcast (February 8, 2021). Math is proving to be the subject that is experiencing the greatest distance learning challenges for students at all age levels. Numerous studies are showing th…

Classnotes Podcast (November 16, 2020). IDRA’s change model, the Quality Schools Action Framework, helps people focus on what’s needed in their local school context to truly ensure access to high qua…

Classnotes Podcast (October 28, 2020). COVID-19 has forced a re-imagining of instruction to promote learning and engagement in virtual lessons. Dr. Martina McGhee saw this as an opportunity to help e…

Classnotes Podcast (September 15, 2020). Across the country, 2.7 million grandparents have assumed full- or part-time responsibility for their grandchildren. They face a number of challenges navigati…

Classnotes Podcast (July 31, 2020). Colonialism influences why our schools teach certain topics and not others, why students of color are not represented in the curricula, how assessment and rubric d…

Classnotes Podcast (July 15, 2020). Educators across the country are working to make classrooms and instruction culturally responsive and relevant to their students and communities. The task is deepe…

Classnotes Podcast (June 23, 2020). Equity audits are powerful tools to help school districts identify root causes of inequities that impact student success. These audits typically involve analyzing …

Classnotes Podcast (May 27, 2020). Those most impacted by the sudden shift to distance learning clearly are the students themselves. In this podcast episode, we brought together students to share how…

Classnotes Podcast (March 6, 2020). For several decades, some states have used the threat of taking over a school district to force some kind of change. But this isn’t a new trend. Since 1989, over 2…

Classnotes Podcast (November 26, 2019). While the Chief Science Officers program is designed to support new st…

Classnotes Podcast (November 14, 2019) English learners success in many ways depends on strong school leaders, many of whom are adjusting to both the growing numbers of English learners and the growi…

Classnotes Podcast (October 23, 2019). After a little over a decade of relatively fair funding in Texas, policymakers adopted changes in 2005 that re-inserted new inequitable features into the system…

Classnotes Podcast (October 11, 2019). For schools to successfully educate their students, fair funding is essential. Five decades ago, a group of parents in Texas launched a court case that impacted…

Classnotes Podcast (August 30, 2019). Following the tragic mass shooting at the Walmart in El Paso, the trauma does not end when the television cameras go away. The community is impacted, as are its …

Classnotes Podcast (August 6, 2019). Over the last two decades, we’ve seen great improvements in engaging girls in math. They are as likely as males to calculus AB, statistics and chemistry. But they…

Classnotes Podcast (July 22, 2019). The Chief Science Officers program was initiated in 2015 by Arizona-based SciTech Institute to elevate the voices of students in STEM. The program now exists in th…

Classnotes Podcast (July 1, 2019). In linguistics and language classes, the term “code-switching” describes how speakers mix two or more languages and speech patterns in writing and conversation. But…

Classnotes Podcast (May 21, 2019). Students at high school in San Antonio are taking a proactive role to promote student voice on issues that impact school safety and equitable access to a quality ed…