Third Rail Classroom: Recent Episodes
Third Rail Classroom
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Recorded live at the College Board’s annual Advanced Placement conference in Las Vegas, John and Santha host an engaging roundtable of teachers from around the country who represent multiple disciplines and grade-levels about they continue to improve as professionals. The guests are Kate Cordes, an English teacher from Billings, Montana, Matt Ellington, a social studies teacher in Chino Hills, California, Karen Hyers, a math teacher from Minnesota, and Jim Morris, a professor of Biology at Brandeis University, near Boston. Thanks to BFW publishers for hosting this roundtable.
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Throughout this season, Santha and John have been talking about how to get better at their jobs as teachers, but have missed an invaluable resource for teacher improvement that is right in front of them…literally right in front of them: their students. In the first part of the episode, Santha coaches John on how to develop an effective survey of his students to get actionable feedback from them, and in the second half, they look at the results together and discuss next steps. Be sure to check out sample teacher feedback surveys on the website: thirdrailclassroom.com
Nationally, an estimated 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the pandemic. While we know that this severely impacts students’ learning, what exactly is the role of the classroom teacher in addressing this issue? John and Santha discuss the need for a systemic response by schools and districts, and then Santha shares interviews with students who were present at her school, but who chose not to go to class. Their responses lead John and Santha to discuss possible actions that classroom teachers can take to encourage student attendance.
Throughout this season, Santha and John have been looking at the different tools available to help teachers to get better at their jobs, one of which is the evaluation process that most teachers are required to go through every year. Do they actually help teachers or are they just another hoop for them to jump through? To try to get some answers, John interviews Dr. Josh Bleiberg, an Assistant Professor of Education Policy at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education.
An expectation for most teachers at the beginning of each school year is to write goals for their students’ learning. Too often the goal-setting process is tedious and inauthentic for many teachers. In this episode. Santha helps John to develop a meaningful professional goal for the year by asking four simple, but essential questions.
In this bonus episode, recorded over the summer, John describes his history with and feelings about the teacher evaluation process and interviews one of his building administrators, Sean Murray.
In this special episode, John and Santha share their thoughts on the unprecedented teacher strike in Portland, OR that lasted for more than three weeks. They recount the reasons for the strike and give first-hand descriptions of their days on the picket line and the first day back with students. John and Santha end by sharing some lessons learned for other educators who might find themselves participating in a similar labor action.
We are seeing an unprecedented amount of labor actions in the past few years with a number of teachers unions around the country deciding to strike for higher pay, better working conditions, and stronger supports for students. There are prevailing ideas among some people that teacher unions fight mainly to protect teachers’ jobs, but in John’s interview with University of Utah economics professor Dr. Eunice Han, she shares her research about the connection between strong teacher unions and student achievement.
Few classroom teachers love going to staff meetings at the end of a long teaching day, but they are usually the only times we can get together to learn from each other. John interviews Megan Harowitz, a staff development teacher in Rockville, Maryland, about the benefits and challenges of building-level professional development. Megan offers specific approaches and suggestions to make this time valuable to teachers.
In this first episode of the second season, John Golden and Santha Cassell, two long-time educators, discuss the need for teachers to continue to get better at their work and the challenges they face in trying to do so. The framework they present for teacher learning will act as the guideposts for the rest of this season of Third Rail Classroom.
In the second season of Third Rail Classroom, longtime teacher and instructional coach Santha Cassell joins John Golden to examine the hot-button topic of teacher quality. Lots of people discuss this issue, but rarely from the teacher perspective. John and Santha know first hand about the challenges teachers face in the classroom and will be sharing specific approaches to help teachers to get better at their jobs, despite the systems that make it difficult to do so. Like last season, there will be interviews with national experts on topics like teacher evaluation, teacher preparation, bonus pay, teachers unions and more. Additionally, this is John’s evaluation year, and he is planning on inviting listeners into the goal setting and observation conferences that are a part of the teacher evaluation process. Please look for the first episodes of the season in mid September.
Recorded live at the College Board’s annual Advanced Placement conference in Seattle, John hosts an engaging roundtable of teachers from around the country who represent multiple disciplines and grade-levels about the challenges of grades and grading. The guests are Kate Cordes, an English teacher from Billings, Montana, Matt Ellington, a social studies teacher in Chino Hills, California, and Jim Morris, a professor of Biology at Brandeis University, near Boston.
Recorded on the last day of their school year, John and Alex reflect on what they’ve learned through the process of focusing on their grading practices, and then they discuss their hopes for a better future with grading and with the larger education system. Next, John interviews Mike Flanagan, the CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, about national trends in education reform with a specific focus on the work he is doing to reimagine the old-fashioned high school transcript. Last, John and Alex share why they are planning on sticking around in teaching with a segment they call “Why We’re Coming Back Next Year.”
With just a few weeks left in the school year, John and Alex reflect on some unanticipated consequences of their grading practices and then quickly move to the main topic of the episode: grading biases. Specifically, they discuss what causes these biases and, most importantly, what teachers can do to limit their impacts. Then, John interviews Dr. Tina Curry, a teacher and literacy coach in Chicago Public Schools about the impact of grading, specifically on our students of color. Last, they end the way they always do with "What's Keeping Us Going," a little bit of good news in the world of education.
Rapidly approaching the end of the school year, Alex and John turn to a key question: how to calculate final grades for students? It might seem like there’s an obvious answer, which is to take the average of all of the points earned and divide by the number of points possible. For generations of students and teachers, this was the ONLY way to calculate a final grade, and it is still the most common, but is it the most equitable? John and Alex share their approaches, and in the second part of John’s interview with Dr. Sarah Zerwin, the author of Pointless, an English Teacher's Guide to More Meaningful Grading, she describes her student-centered approach to determining a final grade, among other suggestions she has for more equitable grading. And they end the way they always do with "What's Keeping Us Going," a little bit of good news in the world of education.
At the halfway point in the school year, Alex and John take some time to reflect on how their new approaches are going and have a discussion on why it might be appropriate to assign an "Incomplete" to a student rather than a "D" or an "F." Next, they talk about some very common grading practices: taking off points for late work, giving a "0" for plagiarism, assigning group grades, and grading for participation. Then, John interviews Dr. Sarah Zerwin, the author of Pointless, an English Teacher's Guide to More Meaningful Grading. And they end the way they always do with "What's Keeping Us Going," a little bit of good news in the world of education.
Nearing the end of the first semester, John and Alex provide an update on how their new grading practices are going with a discussion on the different ways that they approach revision. Then, some students from their classes join the podcast to share their often very frank, thoughtful, and surprising views of grades and grading. After they leave, John and Alex reflect on changes they will make based on what they heard.
Now at the end of the first marking period of the year, John and Alex provide an update on how it's going so far, including very frank feedback from some of John's students. Next, Alex and John explain why, in their experience, grades rarely provide the kind of motivation they're hoping for. Then, Timothy Klein, co-author of How to Navigate Life, joins to share what the research says about student motivation and he presents a much better path to motivation by focusing on the "science of purpose." Last, John and Alex share, as they always do, "what's keeping us going."
With the first progress report grades submitted, Alex and John give some updates on how their approaches are going so far and then dig into the very contentious issue of homework. Neither John nor Alex is assigning homework in their classes this year, but they wonder about what is gained and lost in their choices. John then interviews Boston University professor Dr. Janine Bempechat, co-author of No More Mindless Homework. The episode ends with Alex and John answering the question, "What's Keeping Us Going?"
Why is grading a "third rail" issue? Why do teachers and the larger education community rarely talk about it? Because it's personal and very complex. In this episode, Alex and John begin unpacking these essential questions. John also interviews Sarah Brown Wessling, 2010 National Teacher of the Year.
Teachers have been using roughly the same grading practices for as long as we've had public schools, but we rarely examine the potential harm of these approaches. Alex and John define what they mean by "traditional grading" practices and begin to identify the damaging effects they can have on students. John also interviews Jim Burke, author of The English Teacher's Companion and many other books.
Welcome to Season 1 of Third Rail Classroom. We are hoping that you join us on our journey this year to find more equitable ways of grading. Please share with friends and colleagues, and be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss an episode.