On this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer welcomes Erika Kitzmiller, a analysis affiliate professor on the College of Chicago and writer of the brand new ebook, Unchartered: How One Public High School Transformed First Era College Success. Drawing on her personal background as a former center faculty instructor and a proud first-technology school graduate, Kitzmiller shares the insights gained from an intensive, multi-yr case examine of a public highschool pseudonymously named Clayton.
Whereas the varsity boasted a close to-one hundred pc school acceptance fee, solely half of its alumni had been efficiently graduating from school. To deal with this hole, Kitzmiller and Clayton’s principal designed a singular apply-to-analysis partnership that centered pupil voices, integrated alumni interviews, and instantly empowered youth company. The dialog explores pragmatic, on-the-floor structural modifications applied at Clayton that didn’t require huge budgets or flashy know-how.
Kitzmiller discusses how the varsity expanded elective selections, created a devoted senior school seminar embedded instantly into the varsity day, and shifted pupil helps from an decide-in mannequin to an decide-out expectation. The duo additionally notes the tangible advantages of Superior Placement lessons, which allowed college students from low-revenue backgrounds to realize educational confidence and bypass giant college introductory programs that often act as educational hurdles.
Past coverage shifts, Kitzmiller highlights the important function of constructing belief over lengthy horizons and honoring the human tales of public faculty educators by detailed instructor portraits. This episode provides a grounded perspective on how Okay-12 establishments can actively put together first-technology college students for put up-secondary endurance.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction to Erika Kitzmiller and her new ebook;
01:00 – Erika’s background as a primary-technology school graduate and center faculty instructor;
02:45 – Initiating the apply-to-analysis partnership at Clayton High School;
05:30 – Fostering pupil company, course catalogs, and school choices;
11:00 – Transitioning to decide-out assist techniques and embedded senior seminars;
12:30 – The pragmatic worth of Superior Placement (AP) lessons for low-revenue pupil persistence;
18:00 – Bringing a primary-technology school success mission into Okay-12 environments;
22:30 – Navigating analysis collaboration, faculty district permission, and funding levers;
30:30 – Humanizing public training by wealthy instructor portraits;
34:00 – Rebuilding group belief and relational connections inside faculties;
39:30 – Last ideas and expressing gratitude to frontline educators.
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