This is Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk.
Here are your hosts, Dr. Tim Slecker and Dr. Johnny Lupinacci,
educated educators talking education.
Welcome to Busted Pencils, fully-ledded education talk,
educated educators talking education,
blue scholars.
That's what blue scholars, blue scholars,
scholars, Johnny Lupinacci, man.
It's been a couple of days since I've seen you and Jess.
Johnny, Jess, first of all,
Homer always love checking in with you guys.
What's happening in your neck of the woods?
Hey, Tim, you know what?
It's great to be on the horn with you and love these new drops,
love the format,
love being able to just pop in and check in with you and Jess,
chop it up, especially at home room because we get to lay out.
What's happening in education research,
education news to be educated educators talking education, right?
So let's jump into it, man.
I mean, it's a week.
We got the whole week ahead of us.
Jess, what kind of news do we got happening in the world of education?
We have some very exciting news.
Let's jump right in K-12 dive.
We're education researchers,
and we stand with the education justice movement.
Across U.S. public school districts,
there are concerted efforts by conservative groups and think tanks
to prevent the teaching of accurate history and critical thinking
to our nation's children.
Some drivers include classroom censorship,
the outright banning of books from school curricula and libraries,
and the attack on imparting social emotional learning.
Hmm.
Okay.
The reason why we're going for this one is is that this comes off
and it sounds very opinionated,
which it kind of is,
but Johnny, for you and I though to reclaim this is that, you know,
written by education researchers at NYU Metro Center Center
for Policy Research and Evaluation to point out very specifically
that what appears to be culture wars,
which, well, not appear,
what they are truly culture wars,
these attacks on history,
these attacks on diversity,
these attacks on critical race theory,
the attacks on LGBTQ,
there's research to support why actually the efforts were put forward
to begin with to teach truth diversity in history,
to acknowledge LGBTQ students,
to recognize how there has been systemic destruction
of marginalized peoples over the time in public education,
that this isn't just an opinion piece,
that the research was very clear here.
And now what we're seeing is the research is very clear here
to understand that the attacks on these marginalized populations,
whether it's through curriculum,
whether it's through censorship,
whether it's through even just plain old denying
that certain people exist.
This is harmful academically,
and let's be honest, socially and emotionally in ways
that nobody who supports the bright, wonderful development
of our children should be in any way supportive of this.
So, Johnny, I wanted to bring this one forth
because so often we hear diversity, inclusion, LGBTQ,
those are nice, soft things that we want to strive for,
but the reality is here,
this is research that supports why we do this work, Johnny.
Yeah, Tim, I'm just going to lay around to that.
I mean, I think it's sometimes a little bit bullshit
that we need to have research to say,
hey, it's important to include everybody into honor
and have hold of value with difference.
It's that simple.
If you care about diversity and democracy,
then you hold space for respect across those areas,
no matter how a child identifies,
no matter what group they identify belonging to,
and I extend that even into the conservatives
who have every right to have conservative views,
but you can't create spaces that are harmful
for not only children but for our neighbors
and for ourselves and one another.
So, glad that the researchers are telling us,
it's actually pretty harmful to be exclusionary
and violence towards one another.
Let's like, well, here,
it's the one of the bonuses of the home room drop.
You know, I'm not feeling well today,
so I'm a little less censored.
So I really need research to tell me this.
I'm glad it's there,
but it's one of those when you read your like,
well, no shit.
Well done.
Yeah, but it is important to show that,
you know, these are in every way efforts.
I will say diversity, equity, inclusion,
although it gets kind of stereotype
that gets used as an adjective in a negative way.
And I think that's a really problematic,
intentional push from radical conservatives.
But in the essence of it,
that's actually work to make our school community stronger,
better, and for every kid to feel safe
and like they belong.
And that is not happening in schools.
Every kid going to school does not feel safe and belong
in the United States going to school right now.
I think I was just watching a special news documentary
on school safety and talking about a whole line of products
that are like bulletproof back backs and bulletproof notebooks
and all the different ways that young people
and I talk to young people and teachers all the time.
There's not a day they go to school
that at some point in the day,
they don't think about their safety and not feeling safe.
And that's that some of the safest schools I've ever been in.
Right.
So we've got a bigger issue about how we make sure
all of our students feel like they belong.
And I'm glad the researchers showing us that.
But, you know, same on all these people
for attacking good education.
You know, and there's a side part here
and just maybe, you know,
think about this is that the other attack here
that the researchers maybe don't make so clear
is that for the scholars
that do this kind of work,
their work as legitimate researchers
has also been attacked by attacking the culture wars.
So looking at diversity, equity and inclusion,
understanding how let's just take just history content
has largely been a very white washed colonial approach
and that the research people did to expose that
even that research is in the balance.
Now just throw this to Jess for a minute.
Well, I mean, just taking a look at this.
I fully agree with everything that you're saying.
It's wonderful to have this research now
that is very, you know,
this is the, these are the numbers
that people say, oh, yeah,
it's all great and good to hear your ideas and stuff.
But where's the evidence that this is worthwhile?
That this is something that we should be doing
to have those hard facts,
those hard numbers to actually look at and say,
yeah, we have evidence that this is not only not harmful.
This is beneficial.
This is necessary in order to advance our society
in order to move our learning
and our culture forward.
This is good stuff.
This is the best stuff.
In fact, anybody right now throw it out there
to you. Here's the best thing about home room.
Oh, here's the best thing about busted pencils.
We want to hear from you.
What do you think about this story?
608557, 85777
is the Busted Pencils mailbag?
Give us a comment response.
Hey, you know what, too, if you disagree with us,
we'd love to hear from you too
because Johnny, one of the things in Jess
that we'll be doing in the future
is opening that mailbag, quote, metaphorically unwinding.
Yeah, and dealing, getting into those questions.
But so first news story.
Yeah, John, first news story.
And you brought up research
and I think it's really important to dig into this.
Researchers need to do better.
I mean, this does align with your interests,
like mine and two of you.
Yeah, right.
But we're in this age where everybody's an expert.
You get your information and bits and pieces
and like, I know what I'm talking about.
I heard this thing or I saw this pod.
I listened to this podcast.
I saw this YouTube video or real.
You know, but actually when we talk about historians,
we talk about a skill and there are rules to that skill.
It's not anything goes.
I not just tell a story.
It's, you know, there are conventions to it.
There are codes and standards.
And so researchers, like collectively,
whatever kind of research you do,
be transparent about your methods
and talk about the importance of those methods
and where it's not just like wave your hands
and you observed.
And so you got, you're an expert.
You know, and I think that's a big piece of this.
One of the ways that these debates even got to be a debate
like a simple as should we be treating each other better
is, you know, we could use research to do a lot of harm.
Like I come up with numbers, like, you know,
you know, my background, I'm a math teacher.
I was a dance teacher in statistics
and I don't necessarily dislike or discredit quantitative research.
I think it's important.
It's valuable.
But I also know in any researcher
both qualitative or quantitative will tell you, you know,
they can, there's a lot of ethical responsibility
as a researcher because you can get numbers to tell you
what they want, they benefit certain things and hide others.
And so, you know, that's the other thing too
is where I kind of come in, even though I myself
I'm a research, I come in, I'm like, okay.
Well, care is like, do we really need the research?
I know.
The children should be well cared for in school.
And yes, I actually think we do.
I mean, because it's helpful.
But also, I want those researchers to remember
what you do is valued.
It's really important work.
And how you do it is really important.
Because I'm pet peeve of mine on both sides
of the political culture, where is this?
Well, research shows.
Well, then show me that research.
Right.
It's actually going to call BS on solve it.
Like the research actually doesn't show
that your interpretation of what the research shows has been skewed
to favor your sound bit.
Right.
And so I just want to come back around to that for our listeners.
Like question all the research
and ask how they did it and look into it.
And if you got a question about it, hit us up.
That's our job.
We do education research.
So, you know, we dig in and figure out,
what did they do here?
What were their methods?
Is this reliable?
Yeah, looks pretty good.
Okay, let's treat kids better.
Yeah.
Teachers learn more when they're talking about teaching
with other teachers.
Oh, good researcher.
Jess, come on story number two.
All right.
K-12 dive.
The average US student is less than halfway
to full academic recovery.
First, some good news.
Despite temporary disruptions to how and where students learn,
the COVID-19 pandemic has ignited a new emphasis
on relationships in school communities
and the use of agile school models.
Now, some bad news.
Because of interrupted in-person learning,
the average American student who attended school
during the pandemic is less than halfway
to a full academic recovery.
Most concerning, widening academic gaps
and other challenges for students with disabilities,
English learners, and those experiencing homelessness.
There's one way that just jumps right out of it.
Because again, if you've been listening to busted pencils
over the years, particularly since the pandemic,
you know that Johnny and I,
this whole quote, learning loss,
we've thrown it against the wall.
It doesn't stick,
unless you're really, really only concerned about quote,
academic achievement.
I got a little excited when I first saw this article
because it starts with first the good news,
the good news, right?
We've been hearing some good news.
You know, in the center for reinventing public education,
I typically really like the work that they do,
pointing out that boy,
what happened during COVID?
Man, new emphasis on relationships
and schools, agile school models.
All of those things that were there,
but don't run second paragraph, the bad news.
And the bad news here is,
I'm not sure it's quote, bad news.
It's news.
Guess what, Johnny?
It's almost kind of like research says,
let's be good to each other
because that's good for kids.
Okay, research shows that during a massive global pandemic
that while while kids and teachers were interrupted
within school,
some academic achievement gains,
or actually there haven't been,
there's been some drops in academic achievement.
Really, okay, that's a big news story
that kids lost a little bit of quote,
academic achievement.
Really, we're still trying to catch those kids up.
Come on, the reality here is is that
where they are is where they are.
We don't have any catch up to do.
What we have is to recognize where they are
and how we move forward is what matters.
And calling out the fact that even before the pandemic
students with disabilities, younger students,
students in situations where they have struggling
economic situations,
the reality that at-risk students
were not being treated well or academically achieving
the way they should have been.
Hey, let's understand that.
Let's put attention to that.
But let's recognize that digging into those relationships
and how we deliver school.
Really, that's where we want to be going forward,
not backward, Johnny.
Yeah, Tim, I like how you say that.
Let's go forward together.
There's no doubt in my mind
and any educated educator and look,
teachers are educated.
So every teacher out there is an educated educator.
They might not be a researcher like Tim and I.
Come on, man, like every teacher I go to their classroom.
I see what's happening in schools,
talk to school administrators.
We all know that the pandemic has done
one heck of a number on our communities on us
and of course on the children in those communities.
So yes, they may have lost some of that learning time
but they also gained something unique.
And I don't want to romanticize the global pandemic
because absolutely not.
It would be like saying,
hey, we're all better off after a war.
You know, it's just not the case.
But we learn from what we go through.
We learn from our experiences.
And I see great things starting to happen in schools
because a lot of educated educators are focusing on.
What did they learn?
What do we know?
What did it expose?
How does it help us be better teachers?
How does it help us provide school spaces
where students can connect in ways
that we immediately saw weren't able to connect?
Or we've talked about it on here, Tim.
Some of the students who went immediately
to distance learning thrive, thriving.
And the massive inequities and who has technology,
who doesn't, we are living in a post pandemic era
where children are experiencing poverty
at one of the highest rates of all of our lifetime.
And so those are going to have massive impacts.
So I like to focus on the sunny side of things.
I see and talk to so many educators who are saying,
you know what we learned?
You know what we learned?
Well, we learned.
I'm going to repeat it.
You know what we learned?
Because these research articles keep echoing
and saying, over and over, what you lost learning.
You lost.
Hold on a second.
Because how are we adjusting?
How are we doing things differently?
And if you're not, and if you're buying into it,
we got to get back to the way we were doing it before.
And same on you, you missed the poll.
It's about what did we learn?
How do we come together?
And how do we be a stronger community, right?
So Tim, I love these stories.
And I love chopping it up with you.
And Jess, it's always a great way to start my week, right?
Or to end my week wherever you're listening to this.
Because now you can listen to it whenever.
Remember, listener, if you want to chime in,
you want to leave a comment or ask a question,
give us a call at 608-557-8577.
This is Busted Pencils, fully-led at Education Talk.
We are Educators, here with you.
Thanks for Busted Pencils with us.