IDRA Classnotes

Classnotes Podcast (March 6, 2015) In an environment where the pressure on educators is to push English and show results on English-language tests has been an excuse for side-stepping research and b…

Classnotes Podcast (February 10, 2015) A revolutionary model of parent engagement is demonstrating how families and communities can collaborate with their schools to improve education for all student…

Classnotes Podcast (October 30, 2014) Federal law and court rulings have taken steps to protect the civil rights of students in our public schools. What that looks like has changed over the decades a…

Classnotes Podcast (October 14, 2014) Families need to know how schools are doing, and they can use available data to give them a big picture view of their neighborhood public school. But parents can…

Classnotes Podcast (September 29, 2014) Karen Leahy knew that having a Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program tutor work with students in her elementary classroom would help the tutors strengthen self-esteem…

Classnotes Podcast (August 25, 2014) The national PTA president, Otha Thornton, recently visited several PTA Comunitarios in the Texas Rio Grande Valley and then, at the PTA national convention, pres…

Classnotes Podcast (July 28, 2014) Teaching is a learning process. Teachers are constantly learning about their students and how they respond to each instructional strategy used in the classroom. Wit…

Classnotes Podcast (June 30, 2014) Skepticism is often the first reaction elementary teachers to the idea of having students from the nearby middle school or high school come into their classrooms as…

Classnotes Podcast (June 3, 2014) Building college readiness involves more than focusing on cognitive learning. The affective domain also must be cultivated to enhance teaching and learning. In this …

Classnotes Podcast (May 19, 2014) In most classrooms, the days of memorization-focused teaching are gone. Though, we are still in the midst of a transition to building students’ critical thinking ski…

Classnotes Podcast (May 7, 2014) Often, we think of preschool children learning their shapes rather than learning geometry. But of course that is what they are doing. But we can make that learning of…

Classnotes Podcast (April 28, 2014) Bilingual education and English as a second language programs have been in place in U.S. schools for several decades, but for some there is still a bit of a myster…

Classnotes Podcast (March 31, 2014) During many of the IDRA Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program’s 30 years, students have written essays about how the program has affected their lives and their tutees. Fo…

Classnotes Podcast (March 17, 2014) During many of the IDRA Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program’s 30 years, students have written essays about how the program has affected their lives and their tutees. Fo…

Classnotes Podcast (February 27, 2014) As the struggle to keep many young people in school continues to face educators, parents and communities around the country, one successful initiative, the IDRA…

Classnotes Podcast (February 6, 2014) It’s never too early to engage children in exploring science and math. And in bilingual classrooms where children are learning English, science and math can be d…

Classnotes Podcast (January 30, 2014) Following a trend over the last decade or so of pushing for higher math education among high school students, some areas are getting push back. With veiled argum…

Classnotes Podcast (December 2, 2013) Last year in Classnotes Podcast episode 113, Bradley Scott, Ph.D. director of the IDRA South Central Collaborative for Equity, introduced the concept of a sixth …

Classnotes Podcast (November 11, 2013) A new model of parent engagement is sweeping the Texas Rio Grande Valley. Evolving out of IDRA’s Family Leadership in Education Model, several PTA Comunitarios …

Classnotes Podcast (October 17, 2013) Most of us can remember a time when students were expected to be silent in the classroom. Noise was a sign of trouble or at least inattention. But as the field h…