Helping every child learn to read is one of the biggest challenges facing schools today. In this episode, we sit down with Matt Pasternack, founder and CEO of Once and the first employee at Clever, to discuss a different approach to early literacy.

Matt shares why he believes instructional assistants are one of the most underused resources in education, how schools can provide effective one-on-one reading support without hiring additional teachers, and what school leaders should look for when evaluating new edtech products. We also discuss why so many education tools fail to scale, what meaningful research actually looks like, and how schools can make better decisions when investing in literacy programs.

Whether you're a teacher, principal, district leader, or instructional coach, this conversation offers practical ideas for improving reading outcomes and building stronger literacy systems.

About Matt Pasternack

Matt Pasternack is the founder and CEO of Once, an early literacy company helping schools improve reading outcomes through one-on-one instruction. Before founding Once, Matt was the first employee at Clever, where he helped grow the company into one of the most widely used education technology platforms in the United States. He began his career as a middle school English teacher through Teach For America and has spent his career building tools that help schools better support students and educators.

Try Once here: http://tryonce.com/

Recess is often treated as a break from learning, but what if it's actually one of the most important parts of the school day?

In this episode, we sit down with Lauren McNamara, founder of Schoolyards for Thought, to explore how recess, play, and schoolyard design influence belonging, behavior, mental health, and academic success. We discuss why so many schoolyards fail to meet students' needs, what schools can do to create spaces where every child feels connected, and why investing in play may have a bigger impact than many traditional interventions.

If you're a teacher, school leader, or parent, this conversation will challenge the way you think about recess and why it deserves a much bigger place in the conversation about improving schools.

About Lauren McNamara, Ph.D.

Lauren McNamara, Ph.D., is the founder of Schoolyards for Thought and Recess Project Canada. A learning scientist and researcher, her work focuses on the connection between play, belonging, school climate, and student well-being. Through her research and partnerships with schools across North America, she has helped reshape how educators think about recess, advocating for school environments that promote inclusion, social connection, and learning. Lauren's work has influenced school policy, playground design, and conversations about the role of play in education around the world.

In this episode, we sit down with high school chemistry teacher and education writer Marcie Samayoa to explore one of the most overlooked conversations in education today: how we teach science. Marcie challenges the idea that students should be expected to discover complex concepts on their own before they have the foundational knowledge needed to succeed.

Drawing from her experience teaching in a Title I school, Marcie shares how she uses explicit instruction, retrieval practice, literacy strategies, and carefully structured routines to help students build confidence and master challenging content. We also discuss the role of inquiry-based learning, student behavior, classroom technology, and what science educators can learn from elementary teachers.

Whether you're a teacher, coach, administrator, or education leader, this conversation offers practical insights into helping students develop the knowledge and skills they need to thrive.

About Marcie Samayoa

Marcie Samayoa is a high school chemistry teacher, education writer, and author of the Substack Scientists in the Making. Her work focuses on applying cognitive science, explicit instruction, retrieval practice, and evidence-based teaching methods to science education.

Teaching in a Title I school in Los Angeles, Marcie is known for challenging conventional approaches to science instruction and advocating for strong foundations in knowledge, literacy, and mathematics before students are asked to engage in higher-order thinking and inquiry. Through her writing and professional learning contributions, she helps educators bridge research and classroom practice to improve student learning and confidence.

You can find her writing at Scientists in the Making and connect with her through her education publications and social media channels.

Many schools say they’ve implemented high quality instructional materials. Dan Reynolds argues most have only adopted them.

In this episode, we sit down with Dan Reynolds from SRI International to unpack what schools are getting wrong about literacy instruction, curriculum implementation, and comprehension assessment. Drawing from a large multi year research study across multiple districts, Dan explains why surface level implementation often looks successful during walkthroughs while missing the deeper instructional work students actually need.

About Our Guest

Dan Reynolds, PhD, is a Senior Education Researcher at SRI International whose work focuses on adolescent literacy, reading comprehension, and the implementation of high quality instructional materials. A former high school English teacher, administrator, and teacher educator, he has led and supported large scale literacy research projects across districts and states. His work examines both the impact of literacy interventions and the instructional practices that support student learning. Reynolds has authored more than 25 peer reviewed publications and co authored the book Tackling Tough Texts: A Research-Based Guide to Scaffolding Learning in Grades 6–12.

Learn more about Dan’s work here: https://www.sri.com/people/dan-reynolds/

Instructional coaching is often set up to fail. Coaches are undertrained, overloaded, and expected to change instruction without a clear model or enough time to do the work.

In this episode, Peter sits down with Jim Knight, the researcher who coined the term instructional coaching, founder of the Instructional Coaching Group, and author of The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching. With more than 30 years of research behind him, Jim is widely considered the leading voice in the field.

They discuss why coaching fails before it even starts, what districts consistently get wrong, and what it actually looks like when coaching works the way it should. They cover the seven factors that separate effective coaching from surface-level compliance, why student-focused goals should drive every coaching cycle, why partnership is the foundation of the work and not an add-on, and where AI fits into coaching and where it falls short.

Find Jim's work:

• Instructional Coaching Group: instructionalcoaching.com
• The Definitive Guide to Instructional Coaching
• Online learning platform: radicallearners.com
• LinkedIn

Dr. Katie Novak is one of the leading voices in Universal Design for Learning and the author of sixteen books including UDL Now and Elevating Educational Design with AI. In this episode, we talk about what UDL actually looks like when you're working with scripted curriculum, how it's different from differentiated instruction and personalized learning, where AI can help with lesson design and where it still falls short, and why the word fidelity makes so many teachers shut down. Katie also shares her approach to finding flexibility that already exists inside high quality instructional materials without sacrificing rigor.

Books Referenced:

• Elevating Educational Design with AI: Making Learning Accessible, Inclusive, and Equitable by Catlin Tucker & Katie Novak — Amazon
• Forward, Together: Moving Schools from Conflict to Community in Contentious Times by George Couros — Amazon

Find Katie:

• Website: novakeducation.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katienovakudl/

What does the research actually say about SEL and why does so much of what gets sold to schools fall short of the evidence? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Christina Cipriano, Associate Professor at the Yale Child Study Center and one of the leading researchers in social-emotional learning, to get into what the data actually shows and what leaders should do about it.

Dr. Cipriano led the largest meta-analysis of SEL programs ever conducted: 424 studies, 53 countries, over 575,000 students. We talk about how to cut through the marketing, what to actually look for in an SEL program, and why so many schools are investing in the wrong things.

We also discuss why calling people out creates opponents instead of partners, how small language shifts change the entire dynamic between educators and families, and why "that's just the way we do things" may be the most costly phrase in education.

Dr. Christina Cipriano is an Associate Professor of Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center and Director of the Education Collaboratory at Yale University. She has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and her work has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, and Education Week.

Her new book, Be Unapologetically Impatient, is available now at drchriscip.com. Follow her on on LinkedIn at Christina Cipriano.

Professional development has a trust problem. Many teachers feel burned by years of shifting initiatives, surface-level walkthroughs, and messages that miss the reality of classroom instruction.

In this episode, we’re joined by Zach Groshell, teacher, instructional coach, and author of Just Tell Them, for a candid conversation about why so many educators have grown skeptical of PD and instructional coaching, and what actually works instead.

Zach unpacks the loneliness of teaching, how poor training creates defensive cultures, and why strong instruction is often misunderstood by people furthest from the classroom. We dig into explicit instruction, coaching models that build trust instead of compliance, and the danger of edu-fads that look good but fail to improve learning.

We also tackle AI, edtech, and why tools cannot replace thinking, while still having a role when used with intention. This episode is for teachers, coaches, and leaders who want clarity, coherence, and instruction that actually helps students learn.

Guest bio
Zach Groshell, PhD, is a teacher, instructional coach, and education consultant based in Seattle, Washington. He works with schools across the United States and internationally to improve instruction using research from the science of learning.

Zach is the author of Just Tell Them and the host of the Progressively Incorrect podcast. He also writes at educationrickshaw.com.

He began his career as an elementary classroom teacher and later moved into instructional coaching and school improvement work. Zach is widely known for his practical approach to explicit instruction, teacher development, and coaching models that respect teacher expertise while pushing for better outcomes for students.