NWEA’s early reading specialists present practical, use-tomorrow strategies and downloadable resources for improving engagement and supporting literacy growth for your youngest readers.

Explicit fluency instruction often takes a back seat after third grade, but there’s still so much for students to learn and practice. This article shares strategies for keeping fluency central in fourth and fifth grade.

Today, Jacob is joined by an Alaskan and a Texan: Moon McCarley, Principal at Nondalton School and District Testing Coordinator for The Lake and Peninsula School District, located on the Alaska Peninsula; and Ashley Cruz, State Professional Learning Consultant at NWEA. They discuss how NWEA partners with districts across Alaska to create high-impact professional learning opportunities to expand assessment literacy. Along the way, Moon shares her experience as a Certified Facilitator and talks about how it helped her grow as a leader.

Robyn & Sarah, a mother & daughter teaching duo, stop by to chat with Jacob about what each generation has learned from the other, what’s better about teaching today, and what’s more challenging. They also talk about Sarah’s alternative certification process and why Robyn left teaching—and then came back!

This article summarizes the foundational research and scholarship on early word recognition, discusses strategies and tactics for putting the science of reading into practice, and includes numerous useful tips and best practices from an experienced reading interventionist.

For this episode, we’re once again joined by Dr. Chase Nordengren, principal research lead for Effective Instructional Strategies at NWEA to talk about teacher-led approaches to academic recovery.

Chase works closely with leading scholars from around the globe to turn theory into actionable practices to drive instructional improvement. His latest study, High Growth for All, captured ways teachers in one Chicago-area district are leading the academic recovery effort and producing above average academic growth over multiple years for kids across the achievement spectrum

Chase is also the author of Step into Student Goal Setting: A Path to Growth, Motivation, and Agency from Corwin Press.

“Professional learning should be intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, and data-driven.”

Jacob hops from the host’s chair to the hot seat as he sits down with Kailey to discuss his journey through the education world to become a leader in professional development for teachers. Starting with his time working with abused & neglected children, Jacob realized how much he would need to continue to grow to best serve his students. After time as a high school math teacher and coach for math educators, Jacob dedicated his career to serving teachers looking to improve their craft. Then, Kailey & Jacob get into the details of what kinds of professional learning teachers need more of now. They talk about why teachers aren’t taught about the assessment side of instructional practice and how new attitudes towards data literacy are changing that trend.