Keystone Education Radio Keystone Education Radio

About this Episode
Time Stamps
Q&A
About our Guests
Resources


Beyond the known monthly meetings and bake sales, today’s Parent Teacher Association or PTA is a leading child advocacy organization comprised of millions of families, students, teachers, administrators, and business and community leaders all devoted to the educational success of children and the promotion of family engagement in schools. The national organization goes back more than 120 years and on this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson talks with the president of the Pennsylvania PTA, Marie Merkel about the organization’s role in engaging families in their children’s education and how the organization has evolved and remained relevant over more than a century.
Episode sponsor: CM Regent Insurance Company

Skip to: 01:40 What role do you see the PTA playing in the modern-day education of students?
“Pennsylvania PTA will always play an important role in what is best in the health, safety and education of all children.”
Skip to: 02:23 How has the group remained relevant and how has it adapted over history?
“Throughout the years, PTA has been key in many important developments that improve the health, safety and education and welfare of our children.”
Skip to: 03:09 Has there been any significant changes in the organization during your time as a member?
Skip to: 03:26 How does the organization connect to the community of parents and guardians? And how do you go about growing your membership?
Skip to: 04:06 What role do you see the PTA taking in the diversity, equity and inclusion dialogue that is taking place in schools across the country right now?
“[National PTA has] a very strong diversity, equity and inclusion program and statement on that in our family engagement programs and other programs throughout the schools.”
Skip to: 04:44 How does Pennsylvania PTA strive to make the organization a place for everyone and make everyone feel welcome?
“From the time you become a PTA member, it’s important to make sure everybody feels welcome . . . Everybody has something they can bring to the table . . . People can do things and they don’t realize that they can do it.”
“And you can be involved, even if you’re a working parent.”
Skip to: 05:42 Tell me a little bit about some of the advocacy work that the PTA becomes involved in.
“The biggest thing is for equal and fair funding for all of our students. Whether it be in regular education, special education, all kinds of programs.”
“PTA is constantly learning more and more, what can be done to help with the advocacy.”
Skip to: 06:44 The Pennsylvania PTA takes its lead again from the national level, is that

About this Episode
Time Stamps
Q&A
About our Guests




Building strong community relationships and advocating positive, constructive dialogue is a critical task for school boards, albeit a challenging one in today’s climate of strong opinions and hot button issues. On this episode of Keystone Education Radio, hear from PSBA’s president-elect and Parkland School District’s board president David Hein on his district’s drive to continuously learn, grow and communicate effectively, and what he calls failing forward.

Skip to: 01:23 What role does the public or the community members play with the work of the board? How do those fit together?
“Having that parent view of and perspective of what’s going on in the schools really helps to inform us if there’s something that needs to be addressed, that we need to maybe bring to the administration to look into.”
Skip to: 02:16 So how does a board individually and collectively build, maintain and strengthen the relationship with their community?
“Respectfully listening and paying attention to every speaker, taking notes and then working with the administration to have somebody get back to the person on their concern, whether it’s collectively or individually to get back to them, to clarify any misunderstandings or just work through an issue.”
Skip to: 03:57 How do you, as a board, work to address the challenges, or is there a way at all to preempt challenges with community members?
“I think the way to address it is to be prepared for that. Have the information readily available. Work with the administration because really ours is the governance, not the management role from a board.”
Skip to: 05:35 Do you have any examples or highlights of what you would consider to be successful situations or maybe successful exchanges that have occurred in working with your community or with a school board working with their community?
“The collaboration and wanting to hear from a board and a district perspective, wanting to hear the different opinions and different perspectives, so we can grow if we’re doing some something that’s, I don’t want to say wrong, but that just needs to be adjusted and incorporating different ideas.”
“Whatever the topic is, are we perfect as a school district, any school district or a board? No, there’s always room to grow and learn, and that’s part of it. And that’s part of teaching the students too, that it’s okay to make mistakes and fail forward and grow as an organization, a community, a board.”


Q: I’m going to talk about the relationship between community members and the school board. So let’s first define what role does the public or the community members play with the work of the board? How do those fit together?
A: I think the public voice is definitely very important for us as school board members to have. They bring the balance really, a lot of it from the parent perspective of what they’re seeing their children are doin

About this Episode
Time Stamps
Q&A
About our Guests
Resources


Disruption is viewed almost always as a negative variable. The Christensen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, has been studying disruptive innovation throughout the pandemic and how to incorporate technology into the classrooms, creating more student-centered learning opportunities and individualized instruction. Learn more about the Institute’s research and what the report’s author Tom Arnett has to say about their findings in this Keystone Education Radio conversation with host Annette Stevenson.
In this episode, you will learn:

What disruptive innovation is and why it matters in education
How technology can be embraced in classrooms, now and post-pandemic
Where to go to access the complete Carpe Diem: Convert Pandemic Struggles into Student-Centered Learning report



Skip to: 01:14 Could you give a brief overview of the Christensen Institute and your role within the organization?
“After teaching for a while, I came to the realization that I could keep trying to get better as a teacher, and that’s, I think, valuable work, or I can start to try and be a part of coming up with new models and approaches to education that make education more student centered…but also make it easier for teachers, for educators, to better meet the needs of their individual students.”
Skip to: 03:50 How was the research conducted for the Carpe Diem report?
“When the pandemic started back in 2020, we’d been studying online learning in education for close to a decade…And then when the pandemic hit and, almost all schools were doing some kind of online learning overnight, we thought it’d be really interesting to get snapshots of what does this actually look like? How are schools using online learning resources in response to the pandemic? Where are they seeing opportunities? Where are they seeing challenges?”
Skip to: 06:50 Why is student-centered learning important and is it more important now that we are cognizant of the effects of the pandemic?
“How do we help education transform from kind of the mass education system we have where students are all kind of moving the same, to a system that is mass education when it makes sense but can also individualize better to help students with different needs.”
“It’s really about how do we create new models of education that help teachers serve those different students’ needs so that all students can be successful and fulfill their potential. And I think that’s especially important now, given that the pandemic has just widened a lot of the disparities that have been around for a long time. A lot of the equity issues.”
“I don’t think we can solve those issues by just trying to give students, you know, the same one size fits all approach. We really need to find ways to identify what does each student need. How do we meet them where they’re at, both academically and socially and emotionally, and then help them progress from where they’re at toward their goals and toward helping them fulfill their individual potential.”

Mister Rogers was a learning scientist, and his approach with children was certainly ahead of his time. Today, learning scientists are focusing on the same things Mister Rogers taught children through the lens of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” — things like developing curiosity, finding creative solutions, communication skills, collaboration, and self-acceptance, how to be a good friend and a loving person.

About this Episode
Time Stamps
Q&A
About our Guests
Resources


Discover the work being done in Philadelphia schools between the Office of School Safety (OSS) and its students, particularly young black males, through its Leaders Encouraging Achievement and Development, or LEAD, mentoring program. On this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson speaks with OSS chief safety officer Kevin Bethel on the merits of this program and the benefits the district, the mentors and the mentees are gaining.
In this episode, you’ll discover:

The innovative approach Philadelphia School District is taking to pairing school safety officers with young mentees
How and why the district and the Office of School Safety have plans to expand this program and find methods to capture its effectiveness
How mentoring can develop empathy in both the mentee and the mentor



Skip to: 01:11 What objectives were initially identified in the development and evolution of the program since it was launched?
“And so how can we kind of build beyond, as has historically been in the space, strictly focused on safety around people coming and going, and some of the negative activities, but what are the positive things around safety, where we can really engage young people early upstream and really develop those relationships that will impact them for the rest of their lives.”
Skip to: 02:22 To date, how many students and officers are involved?
“We have a number of individuals who are stepping up, want to play in that role and be mentors. So we’re excited about building this program even further.”
Skip to: 02:50 I imagine that [virtual component] may have been even more essential during these past months where folks were isolated. I imagine that might’ve even been more critical, that connection?
“You know and your audience knows that I think what people learn from the pandemic is how critical school is to our children. Anybody had any questions before that, all of that should be dismissed.”
“I’m really proud of the men and women who were involved in that virtual space. Because they kept it going through the supports of the strategic planning team, the principals, and those at the schools, we were able to keep it going and it was really exciting to see that happen.”
Skip to: 03:56 Are there short-term and long-term markers of success that will represent the program’s overall effectiveness?
“We are looking at, as we continue to build out the program, how do we bring in some of the research, because we kind of know mentoring works. There’s plenty of research in the spheres that tell you that it does, but we do want to make sure that the program is living to the efficacy of what it was developed to do.”
Skip to: 05:33 Does the experience of being a mentor and having that interaction with the students, does that also impact the school safety officers and how they carry out their role?
“I think sometimes we fail to realize, sometimes we g

About this Episode
Time Stamps
Q&A
About our Guests
Resources


A growing body of research reveals tangible and measurable social and emotional benefits for students and teachers when nature-based lessons and spending time outdoors are incorporated in students’ studies. In this episode of Keystone Education Radio, host Annette Stevenson speaks with Shannon Fredebaugh-Siller, the Community Engagement Programs Manager at Heritage Conservancy, on the programs her organization is offering to students in that region and how everyone across the commonwealth, from students, school leaders, teachers and parents, can benefit from more time in nature.
In this episode, you’ll discover:

The value of incorporating nature in today’s educational settings
How nature helps improve social connections and self-reflection
Activities that parents, teachers and others can use in their day-to-day schedules to use nature as a tool for social-emotional learning



Skip to: 00:52 Tell us about the Heritage Conservancy and the work that you do in your role?
“For the last 60 plus years, we have assisted in the protection of over 15,500 acres of open space, forest areas, wetlands, and other critical habitat, as well as protecting historic buildings.”
Skip to: 01:38 What about the pilot program that you began with Bristol Township and the district of Philadelphia? What is that all about? How were you inspired to bring that to the schools?
“We started to hear things from the students, just their amazement of being outside and then comments from the teachers about the changes they saw in how their students were responding to the programs and the activities while they were outside.”
Skip to: 04:46 What aspects of social-emotional learning are the kids gaining from participating in this program?
“There’s something about conversation surrounding nature, time outside, things we like and don’t like about outside or nature that really open up those doors for social connection and other types of self-reflection.”
Skip to: 07:58 Are there any plans to expand this program?
“Can we work to provide information or simple activities for families to be able to continue the benefits at home?”
Skip to: 08:38 What are some of the ways that our listeners, whether parents, educators, or other school leaders can begin to incorporate nature as a tool for social-emotional learning?
“Something as simple as stepping outside and closing your eyes for a moment to listen to the breeze move the leaves around can offer kind of that moment of like reset that you might need.”


Q: First off, would you tell us a little bit about the Heritage Conservancy and the work that you do in your role?
A: Yeah, you covered some of it in your introduction, but Heritage Conservancy is a non-profit and we’re based in southeast Pennsylvania with our core mission being to preserve and protect natural areas and historic places.