Can the science of learning change a district at scale?
My new story at The 74 explores the possibilities
Happy Thursday—enjoy this special, short newsletter. The oncoming hurricane weather has me leaving Nashville earlier than I expected for a weekend trip (my flight for Friday got canceled), so there will be no letter on Friday or Sunday. But I couldn’t leave town without telling you a bit about some of the most interesting reporting I’ve done all year that’s science of learning-related.
I’ve been writing all about the evidence behind math instruction, working memory, explicit instruction, and other separate aspects of the science of learning for a while but really wanted to do more, to ask some big questions about what learning about the brain and evidence-based teaching techniques actually looked like when implemented at scale—across diverse classrooms and schools.
At first, to be honest, I didn’t know if this even existed in the US—the science of learning has been systemically part of schools in the United Kingdom for about a decade (and supported by the government), but outside of reading-specific evidence it’s still quite new here and teachers and schools are just becoming aware of it. And then I found a district that wasn’t just adopting the science of reading, or trying to improve math instruction—they were trying to change how the entire district thought about and approached learning as a whole.
Earlier this summer I spent time with the administration and educators of Frederick County, Maryland, talking about their unique district-wide plan to educate all teachers and leaders in the science of learning. In my new story at The 74, “What Happens When a 48K-Student District Commits to the ‘Science of Learning,” I take a close look at exactly what they did in this diverse district 50 miles from both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. I wondered a) if they had any measures pointing to success, if the science of learning did improve academic outcomes for students, and b) if it might be a model for other districts.
Margaret Lee, the director of organizational development for the district, told me the new program came partly out of frustration: no matter what initiatives the district invested in, they rarely moved the needle for students.
“As a district, we’ve been talking about achievement gaps for a long time,” said Margaret Lee, Frederick County’s director of organizational development who has led the charge toward the science of learning. “I’ve seen it in every role that I’ve had, always looking at what could make the difference. Like every district in America, every silver bullet that people thought up had been peddled to us. It started to frustrate me that none of these things were making a difference, and that was a catalyst that led us here.”
The plan encompasses several pieces: a three-year immersive for new teachers that includes both education and coaching, ongoing teacher training and learning for leaders, too.
A lot of the training focuses on translation: how cognitive science research is actually applied in classrooms. Frederick County’s secondary math curriculum specialist, Stacey Sisler, for example, said she thinks the gains they are seeing across the district are due to a greater understanding of how the brain learns.
Sisler… “first learned about the science of learning through the district training, and admits she was initially reluctant to adopt the changes. The more she learned, however, the more Sisler began to think the research made sense, and was applicable to every math classroom.
“As I started to learn more and gain a deeper understanding, then it became — how does instruction change because of this?” Sisler said. “We don’t just say it and it magically happens, so what does that actually look like?”’
Maybe most importantly of all, it’s not an initiative. It’s not a push or a mandate that must be implemented throughout schools. Lee and other leaders wanted the shift to be organic, so they’re offering it to both teachers and leaders as a learning opportunity instead of a mandate. I’m curious whether this slower move might be key to their success (and would love to hear what you think).
I think there’s lots to learn here for other districts and schools who might be considering implementing the science of learning at scale. I hope you’ll read the story:
Read “What Happens When a 48K-Student District Commits to the ‘Science of Learning” now