August 19, 2021

Back to School: What’s Your “Magic Wand” Education Solution? (Part Five)

By Bellwether

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay for Pexels


Join Ahead of the Heard for a lively back-to-school series expanding on Andy Rotherham’s original Eduwonk post, What’s Your Magic Wand?, featuring reflections on wish-list education solutions heading into the fall from teachers, school leaders, academics, media types, parents, private sector funders, advocates, Bellwarians…you name it.
At Bellwether, we’re focused on the 2021-22 school year ahead but also on what we’ve collectively endured since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a gross understatement to say that it has been a lot, that mistakes have been made, that many rose to the occasion achieving amazing things for students (while others did not), and that countless lessons were (re)learned. It has been a season where optimism was sometimes elusive and where challenges often seemed insurmountable.
So we thought we’d do something a little different…and try to have some fun.
We turned to contacts across the country in the education sector and asked them this simple, hopeful question. Answers vary as widely as each participant’s background and have been featured over a two-week span on our blog. This final installment includes reflections from Bellwarians and our social media followers. 

Teachers, students, and families will enter into a 2021-22 school year unlike any other. If you could wave a magic wand, what’s the one education issue you’d address or solve right now, and why?

Lynne Graziano
Senior Analyst in the Policy and Evaluation practice area, Bellwether Education Partners
I would wave a magic wand and put a teacher in every elementary level classroom who understands the science of reading and learning, and is trained to teach young children the methods and magic of reading. Some of my earliest education sector work was researching proficiency rates and I still get depressed every time I pull numbers. With all the things we as a society get riled up about, why aren’t we angrier about how few students are prepared to read to learn by the fourth grade?”

Christine Wade
Associate Partner in the Strategic Advising practice area, Bellwether Education Partners
“I’d ensure every school has a strong school leader who can effectively support and inspire students and staff.”



Paul Beach
Senior Analyst in the Policy and Evaluation practice area, Bellwether Education Partners
“I would dramatically reframe the professional incentives for educational researchers, particularly those in academic settings. Researchers in academic settings are promoted through the ranks by publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Other criteria have to be met, to be sure, but rarely do professors achieve tenure without a strong publication record.
This ‘publish or perish’ culture creates very little incentive for researchers to a) translate key research findings into concrete steps for practitioners and policymakers or b) devote significant time to support quality implementation. This has led to a massive disconnect between researchers and the broader field. Countless wonderful programs and important research findings live in peer-reviewed journals that few people have actually read and even fewer people have done anything with.
We need more creative partnerships between researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. As just one example, researchers should be rewarded for not only designing and demonstrating the efficacy of a program, but also for supporting implementation and working with practitioners to continuously improve and sustain that program. The number of papers published on said program should not be the only marker of success. Rather, success should be measured primarily by the impact the program has on students. Universities need more complex, adaptable promotion systems that incentivize researchers to demonstrate impact to tenure committees rather than peer reviewers. In reality, the entire research enterprise must be transformed to reframe the professional incentives for academic researchers.”


Click here for more in our “Magic Wand” series and join the conversation on Twitter @bellwethered.
(Editorial note: Some organizations listed in this series may include past or present clients or funders of Bellwether.)

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