It’s part of our job as educators to show students that their goals are significant and valuable and provide the tools they need to achieve them. This collection of blog posts from Teach. Learn. Grow. provides teachers, coaches and education leaders with the knowledge and guidance to do just that.  

What are digital and disciplinary literacy, and why are they so important right now? We dive into these questions with Laura B. Hansen, director of Teaching and Learning Connections at NWEA.

The essence of family literacy is that parents are supported as the first teachers of their children.” Family Literacy is the idea that long after diapers and baby steps, our children have so much to learn by watching, observing, and collaborating with trusted adults at home, particularly when it comes to building a strong foundation for reading with confidence. On this episode, we dive deeper into this idea and share the how and why of building and sustain robust family literacy practices.

On this episode, we explore literacy instruction, the science of reading, early childhood literacy, and the differences between skills-focused and knowledge-focused classrooms. Our two guests are passionate leaders in the field: Dr. Lynne Kulich, Director of Early Learning at NWEA, and Natalie Wexler, an education writer and author.

Take a closer look at MAP Growth, the industry-leading interim assessment measuring achievement and growth in K-12 math, reading, language-usage and science. Learn why classroom teachers, building and system leaders turn to trustworthy data from MAP Growth to make stronger instructional and operational decisions. 

For episode 4, we head to Las Vegas and the nation’s fifth largest school district. NWEA and Clark County School District are longtime partners who recently engaged on developing a robust and holistic professional learning program that could have major implications for school districts throughout the country. Two members of the NWEA professional learning team, Angela Morton and Lindsay Prendergast, join us to give their stories of how the program took shape and their perspective on how it’s helping educators and kids in Las Vegas.

Learn how educators can avoid thinking of assessments as frustrating events, irrelevant tasks, or disempowering hoops to jump through and create learning experiences around assessment that empower students and foster growth.