In the latest EdVoices podcast episode, we sat down with long-time educator and EdReports director of Pre-K, Shana Weldon, Ed.D., to talk more about EdReports decision to begin reviewing pre-K instructional materials. Shana highlights the importance of supporting our youngest learners with relevant, quality content and next steps for the EdReports educator-led review process.

Related Links:

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Jess Barrow  00:07

Hi, I’m Jess Barrow and this is the EdVoices Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking to Dr. Shana Weldon who is our Director of Pre-K. And we’re going to be talking with her all about our now our recent announcement that we’ll be reviewing pre-K curriculum, and sort of what are some of the next steps in this process. Thanks so much for joining us, Shana, would love to hear a little bit more about your journey as an educator, your experience with pre-K students, to education and instructional materials for these youngest learners in general.

Dr. Shana Weldon  00:41

Sure, I am a career educator with over 20 years of experience in public education. I began as a classroom teacher at the elementary level. I did that for several years, I also taught English as a second language, then I moved into an instructional coaching role. And so I did that for a couple of years. And then I moved to another district. And I accepted a position that was called an early learning specialist, which essentially was an instructional coach, but specifically for pre-K teachers. And so I had an opportunity to work directly with pre-K teachers during that time, I also completed my dissertation in that role. And so I completed my research on using coaching practices to improve pre-K teachers professional learning. And I really found that implementing job embedded professional development that really has tailored support to teachers that’s directly tied to what teachers are doing every day in the classroom, modeling best practices, providing feedback, really has a positive impact on teachers knowledge, and implementation of effective teaching practices, which ultimately benefits students. And then from that position, as an early learning specialist, I was promoted to Early Learning Coordinator, where I really managed the day to day operations of the district’s pre-K program, I had the opportunity to make decisions around Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment during my time there.

Jess Barrow  02:07

That’s great. So you really were involved with, you know, choosing instructional materials as part of that role as the Early Learning Coordinator. And really, to help help you what was that experience? Like, as you were in that role, right, you didn’t necessarily have we definitely didn’t have something like an EdRports. What was the experience, like choosing curriculum in that role?

Dr. Shana Weldon  02:32

Um, yes, it was a very complicated decision, I will say, you know, there are a lot of factors that go into choosing instructional materials, of course, and fortunately, I worked in metro Atlanta public schools. So in the state of Georgia, we do have access to a state approved curriculum list. However, we have to make choices based on that list. So and a lot of times when those decisions have to be made a lot of time just within a short window. So, I had to make a lot of decisions around with my team, you know, what type of curriculum from that list do we want to explore further, you know, we had to come up with our own, like internal rubric to identify some criteria that we wanted to include, as we review different programs. So it was a very complex decision, a very complex process, where we had very little time to really make a very critical decision. So, of course, the work that we’re going to do here at every port, definitely would be beneficial for someone who sat in that seat for sure.

Jess Barrow  03:39

No, absolutely. And you just mentioned it. So um, last week, we announced our intention to expand our reviews to pre-K curriculum. This is a big, a big announcement, a big decision for us. And I would love to hear more about sort of the why behind this decision. And why, you know, you have so much expertise in this area, why you believe it’s so important for our youngest learners to have access to quality content?

Dr. Shana Weldon  04:08

Yes, I think when we think about early childhood in general, you know, we’re really talking about the first eight years of life. This is such a critical time that can really influence children’s development, their academic achievement, and really their well being over the course of their lifetime. And research is really clear now that 90% of children’s brain development occurs by the age of five, and there really is a lost opportunity if schools and families aren’t really valuing this. And I think schools spend a lot of time and money remediating children with very little focus on prevention. And so there’s a lot of research to that shows that investments and high quality early learning programs really result in the most significant return. So we have an opportunity here to really make sure that every child has access to high quality instructional materials, which is going to lead to high quality early learning experiences. And right now there are about 1.6 million children enrolled in state funded pre-K programs nationwide, about $250 million is spent annually on pre K curriculum. So really ensuring that all pre-K teachers have the strong materials that they need to support our youngest learners is just really essential.

Jess Barrow  05:27

Yeah, I know, you speak so eloquently to sort of the stakes of getting this right, and also the fact that these investments are being made. So how can we help districts make those investments in a way that can really make a difference for their students? You know, you’ve really talked through the case for why it’s important to have these reviews. You know, for folks who are still sort of learning about what our process is like, as, especially at the beginning, you know, a lot of folks who know about EdReports may be coming in, they see all these reviews and math and ELA and science that are already already in existence. But we’re, we’re still at the beginning of this pre-K process. So we’d love to, if you could share a little more about sort of who’s involved in, in this review process as we create our criteria, as we create our tools. And then then as we begin the reviews, who are you really hoping will be involved in this process? Yes, so

Dr. Shana Weldon  06:32

At EdReports, our review process is really designed for educators, by educators. So our review tools will be developed by a multidisciplinary team. So we’ll of course have expert educators, researchers, very various state and district leaders and and other general practitioners. And we’re really hoping to incorporate feedback from just a variety of stakeholders from across the early learning landscape, as we launch a listening and learning tour, and we’ll also get support from our advisory panels of independent experts as well.

Jess Barrow  07:09

That’s great. And I love that you mentioned sort of the sort of the breadth and depth of the folks that you want to get perspectives from. So it’s, you know, not only are we hoping for a really strong research foundation, but also bringing in those practitioners, people working at the district, and classroom level to really inform all the aspects that they know students really need, ultimately, that, you know, as as you’re moving from creating the Review Tool, can you talk a little bit about who will be involved in conducting the reviews?

Dr. Shana Weldon  07:45

So, again, our educators are at the center of this work, of course. So once our review tools are developed, you know, we’ll have expert educators who will be trained to use our review tools. Once they’re trained, they will actually be the ones who will independently review those materials. And then they will meet virtually to discuss some of their findings to collaborate on some of their scoring, and make sure that they have adequate research to help support some of the ratings and scores that they come up with really calibrate on some of that scoring, there are different roles that educators will play on the team. Once the reports are written, you know, publishers have an opportunity to respond to vet information. And then final reports are published on our website. So educators are a part of our process from beginning to end.

Jess Barrow  08:44

Thanks so much for sharing that. And in that way, it really does overlap with a lot of our other content areas. So while the the materials you’re looking at might be different, and were still in this sort of listening and learning phase of this process, we’re really staying true to a lot of those values in terms of who will be conducting the reviews and why understanding that we’re still early in the process. It’s going to be based on the latest research and substantial feedback from experts and educators in the field. Still, for those who might not, you know who might be new to this topic? What are some of the components of quality that come to mind when you think about early childhood, or pre-K instructional materials?

Dr. Shana Weldon  09:30

We’re gonna focus on essential early learning domains, and specific content areas that directly support school readiness. We’ll be drawing upon research based evidence from the recent National Academies consensus study, a new vision for high quality preschool curriculum, as well as the latest research, best practices in early childhood and even state early learning and development standards. In that consensus report, they really emphasize As materials that have well designed learning experiences that talks about making sure that teaching strategies are intentional and responsive, that they have well defined objectives and outcomes. The report talks about having embedded assessments as criteria for quality, as well as be responsive to the varying needs and interests of students.

Jess Barrow  10:28

And I think, you know, part of that I know we’ve talked about is when you’re when you’re talking about varying needs and interests of students, is bringing in also some of your students cultural and linguistic backgrounds, ensuring that we’re really being as relevant to students as we can be through those materials, even at a young age, we know that that makes such a big difference for their their learning experiences.

Dr. Shana Weldon  10:54

Absolutely, you know, our goal really is to, to design and create these review tools that are really going to give educators enough information to really evaluate and select instructional materials that are really going to meet the highest standards of of quality and the highest standards of equity.

Jess Barrow  11:11

Well, I wonder, you know, we’ve talked through sort of why it’s important to review these materials, how we might go about creating the tools and the reviews, what sort of what’s next? What are the next steps in beginning to actually do this? And then we’d love if you, if you could reflect a little bit on eventually, what are you hoping these reviews will accomplish?

Dr. Shana Weldon  11:36

So, yeah, so right now, we’re starting to initiate our listening and learning tour, we’ll get feedback from that to really establish our review criteria, we’ll began selecting materials for review, we’ll start recruiting and training educators to really reform our review teams, we’ll start out with that this summer, with the anticipation of publishing our first reviews in late 2025.

And really, you know, we want this the pre-K review tools to be a comprehensive tool that educators can really use, you know, we want it to be something that people can use to really make those decisions. So it’s really going to be beneficial for those critical decision makers. So those state leaders, those district leaders, and even teachers, they have input on selecting instructional materials that they’re going to use, because the impact on what you select is, is going to have an impact for a very long time.

So you want to make sure that you can make smart decisions at the front end. So if you have enough information to kind of help inform your decisions. And overall, you know, we know that every child deserves access to high quality curriculum that’s really going to prepare them for success in school and success in life. And our youngest learners deserve the opportunity as well. And so every part has really helped set the standard for what high quality instruction materials look like in K-12. And we’re really excited to apply our expertise to inform the development of quality resources in pre-K as well.

Jess Barrow  13:11

Yeah, you know, I think about the Shana who was sitting in the chair, trying to decide and help make these decisions without, without that independent information or without a tool to even apply. And so hopefully, like you said, this can be something that’s really useful for districts and educators as they’re making these big decisions. And we can, really think about the learning process starting when it actually does, rather than waiting, and all the way until kindergarten, but really getting these students at their earliest times access to the quality content that they need. She knows there anything else you want to share, before we say goodbye until next time, and

Dr. Shana Weldon  14:01

we’re just excited to have an impact in this space. And if there are any pre K educators who are interested in reviewing upcoming materials. We want to hear from you. So we’ll be looking for expert educators to join our team really soon.

Jess Barrow  14:20

Absolutely. And you’ll be able to find all of that information. We will link to it in our show notes, but also on, you know, on our website, as we’re beginning to put these review teams together, put the teams together to work on these tools. All of that will be on our website. edreports.org. But yeah, I can’t. I have to echo your plug for more for reviewers for educators out there to stay tuned about ways that you can get involved because these reports only happen because of the educators that we’re working with. And so it’s just such a great way to make a huge difference for for those 1.6 million students. ones who are only going to be that number is only going to be growing. And you can have a real impact on the field by contributing to these reviews. So hopefully soon in the future, we’ll have more direct specific steps for folks to take who might want to get involved. Okay, well, Shane, I know this is just the first of many conversations that we’re going to be having. Over the course of the next year. We really wanted to just kind of give folks an introduction to the fact that we’re going to be reviewing pre K introduce you to Shana who’s such a, an expert and bring so much to what we’re going to be doing over the next year. But we will talk to you really soon and look forward to it.

Dr. Shana Weldon  15:43

Thank you