IDRA Classnotes

Classnotes Podcast (January 23, 2017) The school principal has a critical role in leading staff to educate every student on the campus. IDRA’s STAARS Leaders project has been guiding principals in Sa…

Classnotes Podcast (December 2, 2016) The school principal lays the critical foundation for an effective school. Not surprisingly, research shows that there is an empirical correlation between the qu…

Classnotes Podcast (October 24, 2016) Across the country, educators look for ways to connect their lessons to the “real world,” seeking ideas for engaging their students to support their learning. At…

Classnotes Podcast (September 19, 2016) In order for educational equity to take hold in a school, it is critical that it be in an environment where the district level governance structure provides le…

Classnotes Podcast (July 18, 2016) Seeing the fragmentation of school reform efforts across the country, a group of experts came together to pull together capacity-building approaches for school and …

Classnotes Podcast (June 6, 2016) We have high expectations for our teachers. IDRA’s Quality Schools Action Framework points to teaching quality as one of the four critical components that must be ad…

Classnotes Podcast (May 10, 2016) Just a few months ago, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) became law, succeeding the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The new federal education law has significan…

Classnotes Podcast (April 19, 2016) Mark Barnett, IDRA’s new chief IT strategist, was a presenter a TEDx talk at TEDx San Antonio on “Everyone is a Maker, but Not Everyone has Access.” Mark is a STEM…

Classnotes Podcast (March 29, 2016) IDRA recently brought together researchers, K-12 educators, policymakers, family and community leaders, higher education faculty, and students to give input on the…

Classnotes Podcast (February 16, 2016) Each content area in middle school and high school has its own vocabulary and language. So teachers working with English learners are balancing multiple instruc…

Classnotes Podcast  (December 17, 2015) The U.S. Supreme Court has twice heard arguments in the Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin court case focusing on use of race as one of many factors in co…

Classnotes Podcast (November 30, 2015) Stories of school discipline going too far circulate social media and the news cycle pretty regularly these days, such as the video from Spring Valley High Scho…

Classnotes Podcast (November 9, 2015) Numeracy is the ABCs of math. It is a critical foundation for using math in everyday life. We need numeracy skills to solve problems and make sense of time, numb…

Classnotes Podcast (September 14, 2015) Community groups, parents and students came together recently with 16 school superintendents from across the Rio Grande Valley to affirm their expectation that…

Classnotes Podcast (August 31, 2015) Texas in the midst of the largest school finance lawsuit in the state’s history. Over 500 school districts enrolling three-fourths of Texas school children, as we…

Classnotes Podcast (August 18, 2015) The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education declaring segregated schools unconstitutional was an important point in the long battle that had p…

Classnotes Podcast (July 16, 2015) Bringing more females, minorities and low-income students into STEM fields requires building an environment of not just access, but inspiration. Students need to fe…

Classnotes Podcast (June 30, 2015) Despite efforts across the nation over the last decade to increase STEM education for girls and minority students, the data show we’re not succeeding. Reports last …

Classnotes Podcast (April 21, 2015) While many bilingual education programs across the country are designed to build students’ fluency in English, some dual language programs provide opportunities fo…

Classnotes Podcast (March 31, 2015) The U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice recently published new guidance regarding education of English language learner students. The Janua…