Angela Jerabek, The BARR Center | An i3/EIR Grantee Interview with Tom DeWire

Meg Riordan, EL Education | An i3/EIR Grantee Interview with Tom DeWire

Nancy Brynelson, Expository Reading and Writing Course | An i3/EIR Grantee Interview with Tom DeWire

Laura Groth, National Institute for School Leadership | An i3/EIR Grantee Interview with Tom DeWire

TOM DEWIRE: Welcome to the 1-4-5 Podcast from the i3/EIR Scale-Up and Sustainability Community. My name is Tom DeWire, and we’re talking with one i3/EIR grantee about their innovation and results, asking them four questions in under 5 minutes.
The Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) and Education Innovation and Research Program (EIR) were established to provide competitive grants to document and scale evidence-based innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students.
Today we are joined by Jordan Brophy-Hilton of the New Teacher Center. Jordan, thanks for joining us today on the 1-4-5 Podcast. 

JORDAN BROPHY-HILTON: Thanks for having me, Tom. 

TD: Let’s jump right in. What’s your innovation and why does it matter?

JBH: At the Teacher Center, we deeply believe that every student, regardless of their ZIP Code, deserves to experience excellent teachers and school leaders. We know firsthand the profound impact that teachers have on their students. We also know the challenges that teachers, especially new teachers, experience every day. That’s why we partner with districts across the country to establish high-quality mentoring and coaching programs that accelerate the effectiveness of new teachers, experienced teachers, and school leaders. When these players are well prepared with a comprehensive graph of their own instructional practice and an understanding of how to cater their instruction to meet the diverse needs of their students, students soar.

TD: So, what’s the evidence that it works, what’s the “special sauce?”

JBH: Final results from our i3 Validation grant that just came out show that NTC’s teacher induction model increased student learning in grades 4 through 8 by an additional 2 to 4 months in ELA and reading, and an additional 2 to 5 months in math. We feel that these results prove that the induction model yields statistically significant gains in student learning, that we think that’s a gold standard that peer organizations can demonstrate.

TD: What’s special about your model and approach?

JBH: Our i3 proven mentoring and coaching best practices show that the following practices led to increased student learning: 
•	High-quality trained instructional mentors and coaches. Really taking the selection and the development of these teacher leaders seriously. 
•	Frequent job-embedded feedback focused on instructions. When mentors and coaches were working with teachers around these high-quality instructional practices, we saw the greatest changes in student learning. 
•	Significant time, about 180 minutes a month working on these instructional practices together. 
•	Really consistent data for program improvement. We have a formative assessment system with our tools and practices and protocols that provide real-time access to data for teacher practice improvement. 

TD: This work should be happening across the country. What’s your strategy for getting your innovation to more students?

JBH: NTC works in about 35 states, reaching 34,000 teachers and 2.6 million students. We’ve been around for 20 years, and we’re really committed to sharing our experience, the lessons learned, the highs and lows, and the best practices with the field. We really want all teachers, whether they work with us or not, to feel more confident in the classroom. And we know that our programs and processes can help people get there. So in addition to sharing our research findings, we’re working to share what these findings mean when it comes to program implementation. So just last month, for the first time, we made our mentoring coach practice standards publicly available. They’re a free download, you can get them on our website. These standards are carefully framed to support maximum impact on teaching and learning regardless of your context.

---For the complete transcript, contact EIRDissemination@manhattanstrategy.com---

Jordan Brophy-Hilton, New Teacher Center | An i3/EIR Grantee Interview with Tom DeWire

Ericka Uskali, National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform | An i3/EIR Grantee Interview

Laureen Avery, Project ExcEL | An i3/EIR Grantee Interview with Tom DeWire

Veronica Tate, Rural Math Innovation Network | An i3/EIR Grantee Interview with Tom DeWire

Interview with team members of Math for All, which is funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education's i3/EIR Grant program. 

http://mathforall.cct.edc.org/

For a transcript of this audio interview, please email EIRDissemination@manhattanstrategy.com

Math For All

Interview with team members of Math for All, which is funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education's i3/EIR Grant program.

https://ldc.org/

For a transcript of this audio interview, please email EIRDissemination@manhattanstrategy.com

Literacy Design Collaborative

The Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program, established under section 4611 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), provides funding to create, develop, implement, replicate, or take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field-initiated innovations to improve student achievement and attainment for high-need students; and rigorously evaluate such innovations. The EIR program is designed to generate and validate solutions to persistent educational challenges and to support the expansion of effective solutions to serve substantially larger numbers of students.

The Investing in Innovation Fund (i3), established under section 14007 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is a federal discretionary grant program at the U.S. Department of Education, within the Office of Innovation and Improvement.  i3 grants help schools and local education agencies work in partnership with the private sector and the philanthropic community to develop and expand innovative practices that improve student achievement or student growth, close achievement gaps, decrease dropout rates, increase high school graduation rates, or increase college enrollment and completion rates for high-need students.

This podcast was prepared by the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program Dissemination Project. The project is conducted by the Manhattan Strategy Group in partnership with Westat and EdScale with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII), under Contract No. ED-ESE-15-A-0012/0004. The evaluation results presented herein do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Education, and no official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education should be inferred.

i3/EIR Program Dissemination Project

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