Launch into Spring Learning Month to celebrate our journey to date and reflect on the road ahead as we gear up for the next phase of our work for students. Hear from voices across our community, including CMO leaders and our Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

• Dates

  • March 7: 12pm - 2pm PT / 3pm - 5pm ET

• Slides and Recording

• Speakers 

  • Vanessa Murrieta is a Program Officer on the US Charters team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she leads efforts to improve outcomes for students with disabilities who are Black, Latino, or experiencing poverty. Prior to this role, her work at the foundation focused on teacher leadership that supports standards-aligned instruction. Vanessa first served as a secondary special education teacher in traditional and charter public schools in Los Angeles, then as a special education program leader in Los Angeles and DC. She received a BA in global & international Studies, sociology, and a minor in applied psychology from UC Santa Barbara and an MA in special education from Loyola Marymount University. 

  • Stephanie Lassalle is the Director of Improvement Programs at Marshall Street Initiatives, leading the programming and operations for Continuous Improvement work at Marshall. As a former Special Education teacher, new teacher coach, and structured literacy specialist, Stephanie is passionate about the NIC’s Aim to dramatically improve outcomes and learning experiences for our students, and the ways in which our pilot community continues to positively impact students, families, and communities well beyond our focal school campuses. 

  • Elisabeth Hensley, MPP, is a Research Manager in RTI International’s Education and Workforce Division. Based in RTI’s Berkeley, California office, she is a member of the Center for Research, Evaluation and Equity in Education. Ms. Hensley has extensive experience in the management and transformation of administrative education data to provide meaningful and actionable information for a wide variety of audiences and education stakeholders. Her data work is deeply informed by experience as a classroom teacher and district administrator. Ms. Hensley serves as a data liaison and a member of the R-Team.

  • Yumi Lifer is the Manager of Strategic Operations with the NIC. She began her career as a special educator in 2005 at Jefferson High in South Los Angeles. She has taught in both traditional district and charter settings, and has served in Special Education administrative roles at Aspire Public Schools and Caliber Schools. Prior to joining Marshall, Yumi was an Interim Program Officer on Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s K12 team. Yumi is passionate about exploring critical race and disability studies, and is dedicated to being an ally and champion for young people with intersectional identities.

  • Marco Castaneda works with partner school networks as an Improvement Advisor at Marshall Street, bringing with him a decade of experience in education technology, classroom teaching, and nonprofit operations. Prior to this role, Marco managed technical services at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and was a Curriculum Developer at Summit Public Schools. Marco holds a Master’s in Education from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

  • Giovanna Santimauro is an Improvement Advisor at Marshall Street Initiatives. Prior to Marshall, Giovanna was a Special Education teacher and Site-Based Research Manager at Summit, where she implemented Continuous Improvement at Summit Olympus High School in Washington. Giovanna found that bringing Continuous Improvement efforts together with Special Education helped to establish conditions that increased outcomes for students in Special Education. Giovanna is excited to work alongside CMOs as they launch new initiatives of research-based practices to improve outcomes for students in Special Education at their focal sites and beyond. 

  • Tim Burke is an Improvement Advisor at Marshall Street Initiatives. With nearly two decades working in K-12 schools, Tim began his career with the New York City Teaching Fellows as an early elementary teacher. While he has worked at multiple levels of the system as a founding teacher, a new teacher coach, a founding school leader and a district continuous improvement coach, Tim’s passion remains in early literacy as the essential foundation needed for college- and career-readiness and to have access to a life rich with options.

  • Paula Espinoza brings two decades of experience in program management, teaching, and administration to her work as an Improvement Advisor at Marshall. She holds a MEd in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah and a BS in Elementary Education from Utah State University. Outside of work, Paula is passionate about community advocacy and service.

The Driver Diagram acts as a roadmap to guide the improvement effort in reaching the Aim. This session will support Improvement Teams in reflecting on learning to date, unpack assumptions, and identify how to run tests of change moving forward. Teams will iterate their Driver Diagrams to center areas of greatest impact for students at the intersection of race, class and ability. 

• Dates: 

  • March 11: 8am - 10am PT / 11am - 1pm ET 

  • March 14: 12pm - 2pm PT / 3pm - 5pm ET

• Slide Deck (PDF) and Reference Sheet (PDF)

• Recording

• Speakers

  • Stephanie Lassalle is the Director of Improvement Programs at Marshall Street Initiatives, leading the programming and operations for Continuous Improvement work at Marshall. As a former Special Education teacher, new teacher coach, and structured literacy specialist, Stephanie is passionate about the NIC’s Aim to dramatically improve outcomes and learning experiences for our students, and the ways in which our pilot community continues to positively impact students, families, and communities well beyond our focal school campuses. 

  • Paula Espinoza brings two decades of experience in program management, teaching, and administration to her work as an Improvement Advisor at Marshall. She holds a MEd in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah and a BS in Elementary Education from Utah State University. Outside of work, Paula is passionate about community advocacy and service.

This session will provide Improvement Teams the opportunity to reflect on: 1) the efficacy of their measures and tools, and 2) how to collect and track appropriate, relevant data over time to ascertain the impact of their Change Ideas, specifically on Black and Latinx students with disabilities experiencing poverty. Rationale and concrete examples will be shared with activities to support the identification of measures and how to collect and visualize them. 

• Date: 

  • March 11: 12pm - 2pm PT / 3pm - 5pm ET

  • March 14: 8am - 10am PT / 11am - 1pm ET

• Slide deck (PDF)

• Session Recording

• Speakers

  • Marco Castaneda works with partner school networks as an Improvement Advisor at Marshall Street, bringing with him a decade of experience in education technology, classroom teaching, and nonprofit operations. Prior to this role, Marco managed technical services at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and was a Curriculum Developer at Summit Public Schools. Marco holds a Master’s in Education from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

  • Tim Burke is an Improvement Advisor at Marshall Street Initiatives. With nearly two decades working in K-12 schools, Tim began his career with the New York City Teaching Fellows as an early elementary teacher. While he has worked at multiple levels of the system as a founding teacher, a new teacher coach, a founding school leader and a district continuous improvement coach, Tim’s passion remains in early literacy as the essential foundation needed for college- and career-readiness and to have access to a life rich with options.

As the NIC continues its improvement journey, this is an opportune time for Improvement Teams to assess how their teaming structures can expand and sustain long term impact across their system. This session will provide space for teams to identify core team components and characteristics they will need to carry their improvement efforts into the “spread and scale” phase of their work. Improvement Teams will have participated in Core Content sessions that support in clarifying drivers and measurement systems, situating the team to make purposeful pivots and commitments moving forward to reach the Aim.

• Dates: 

  • March 16: 8am - 10am PT / 11am - 1pm ET

  • March 21: 12pm - 2pm PT/ 3pm - 5pm ET

• Slide Deck and Improvement Team Activity (make a copy)

• Session Recording

• Speakers

  • Giovanna Santimauro is an Improvement Advisor at Marshall Street Initiatives. Prior to Marshall, Giovanna was a Special Education teacher and Site-Based Research Manager at Summit, where she implemented Continuous Improvement at Summit Olympus High School in Washington. Giovanna found that bringing Continuous Improvement efforts together with Special Education helped to establish conditions that increased outcomes for students in Special Education. Giovanna is excited to work alongside CMOs as they launch new initiatives of research-based practices to improve outcomes for students in Special Education at their focal sites and beyond. 

  • Adam Carter is the Executive Director of Marshall Street and former Chief Academic Officer of Summit Public Schools. A lifelong educator who has taught and created educational programs in the United States, Indonesia, and Argentina, Adam loves working with fiercely-driven leaders who strive for an excellent and equitable system of education for all students. He also loves his two young kids and two old dogs.

Using a consultancy protocol, Lanira Murphy of Ednovate will provide an overview of how they have implemented Grading for Equity, the successes they’ve found, and barriers they are hoping to overcome. All are welcome to engage and bring ideas.

• Date: 

  • March 18: 8am PT/ 11am ET 

• Slide Deck

• Session Recording

• Speakers

  • Lanira Murphy is the Academic Director at Ednovate where she is responsible for building and supporting campus and network PD, aligning curriculum and instruction across the network, supporting ILT, and codifying best practices to ensure equity for all our students. Lanira has held a variety of instructional leadership roles, including helping open new alternative programs and implement curriculum in multiple states with Pathways in Education. She also led and taught at Citizens of the World, Valor Academy, and Rise Kohyang Middle School. Lanira grew up in North Carolina, is a first generation college student, the treasurer of her neighborhood council, Shiba Inu lover, and makes her PMC through ensuring students she serves have access to a quality education.

Through MTSS implementation all students, including students with IEPs and English Learners, participate in the grade level general education curriculum and schedule/activities as their grade level peers. 

• Dates: 

  • March 18: 11am PT / 1pm ET

• Materials

  • Slide Deck

  • Resources

  • Session Recording

• Speakers

  • Dr. Monica Dixon is a Leadership Development andResearch Project Director for SWIFT Education Center. She is currently a team lead working in Cumberland County Schools to strengthen equity leadership and install Equity-Based MTSS to support all students. Her more than 24 years of educational experience in urban schools and districts coupled with her advanced degree and certification in Social Emotional Learning prepared her to work collaboratively with educational leadership teams across the nation to transform school cultures and systems.

  • Dr. Noemi Villegas is a Latinx educator with 20 years of experience. Her expertise includes the implementation of equity-based policies and systems that identify and address inherent disproportionalities and inequities in student outcomes. As a student services administrator, Dr. Villegas advocates for and supports BIPOC communities. In collaboration with diverse stakeholders, she has supported the implementation of programs for LGBTQIA youth and young people living in foster care, transitional living settings, immigrant, refugee, migrant youth and military-connected. She is currently working as a Leadership Development & Research Project Director for SWIFT Education Center.

Our Data Liaisons from R-Team will facilitate a collaborative conversation among CMO representatives who are working to clarify or strengthen their progress monitoring tools and processes. Come prepared to share your data journey, your learnings and successes to date, and any barriers you hope to address. All are welcome to join; Data Leads and Improvement Leads strongly encouraged.

• Dates

  • March 18: 12pm PT / 3pm ET

• Session Recording

• Speakers

  • Elisabeth Hensley, MPP, is a Research Manager in RTI International’s Education and Workforce Division. Based in RTI’s Berkeley, California office, she is a member of the Center for Research, Evaluation and Equity in Education. Ms. Hensley has extensive experience in the management and transformation of administrative education data to provide meaningful and actionable information for a wide variety of audiences and education stakeholders. Her data work is deeply informed by experience as a classroom teacher and district administrator. Ms. Hensley serves as a data liaison and a member of the R-Team.

  • Jennifer Laird is a Senior Researcher in RTI’s Center for Research, Evaluation, and Equity in Education and the Director of RTI’s California. She has 20 years of experience as a researcher, focusing on evaluations of programs serving youth who face systematic barriers to an excellent education. Dr. Laird has directed education evaluations that involve both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, including education data, interviews, and focus groups; surveys of students, teachers, and other professionals; and observations of classrooms and afterschool settings. She is committed to conducting evaluations that are methodologically sound, transparent, and meaningful. She loves collaborating with educators, other practitioners, young people, other community members, program designers, and funders to learn with and from each other about how best to work alongside and on behalf of youth.

 Learn what our CMOs engaged in the Co-Teaching PLC have uncovered in their work testing co-planning Change Ideas. All are welcome to join.

• Dates

  • March 18: 12pm PT / 3pm ET

• Slide Deck

• Session Recording

• Speakers

  • Meg Lembo has 15 years of experience working in K-9 education, the majority of it spent teaching and serving as a principal for K-5 students in a charter school in central Harlem. Her passion lies in literacy and the use of assessment and intellectual preparation to meet the needs of students with a wide range of strengths and learning styles. Having co-taught and coached many co-teaching partnerships, she is currently working with Blue Engine to provide support to the incredible CMOs participating in the Co-Teaching PLC, as well as leading the work to refine and codify the organization's elementary-focused support.

This session supports teams to think about MTSS as a mechanism to improve outcomes for students. Participants are introduced to grade level planning tools that guide teams to monitor student progress and to plan behavior intervention strategies across tiers. 

• Dates

  • March 25: 8am PT / 11am ET

• Resources

  • Deck

  • Session Recording

  • CMO Resources

  • Kingmakers of Oakland 2.0 - Kings in the Making Documentary

  • Stakeholder Voice, Agency, and Co-Creation for Equity in Education webinar recording

  • Developmental Relationships Framework (shared by Timothy Ojetunde)

• Speakers

  • Dr. Monica Dixon is a Leadership Development andResearch Project Director for SWIFT Education Center. She is currently a team lead working in Cumberland County Schools to strengthen equity leadership and install Equity-Based MTSS to support all students. Her more than 24 years of educational experience in urban schools and districts coupled with her advanced degree and certification in Social Emotional Learning prepared her to work collaboratively with educational leadership teams across the nation to transform school cultures and systems.

  • Dr. Noemi Villegas is a Latinx educator with 20 years of experience. Her expertise includes the implementation of equity-based policies and systems that identify and address inherent disproportionalities and inequities in student outcomes. As a student services administrator, Dr. Villegas advocates for and supports BIPOC communities. In collaboration with diverse stakeholders, she has supported the implementation of programs for LGBTQIA youth and young people living in foster care, transitional living settings, immigrant, refugee, migrant youth and military-connected. She is currently working as a Leadership Development & Research Project Director for SWIFT Education Center.

This session has been canceled. However, please browse the deck linked below to learn more about the facilitators and barriers to implementing our work across the NIC, as identified in the Fall 2021 Implementation Study findings, conducted by the R-Team. The findings highlight the influence of empowered leadership in the improvement effort, reveal reflections from Improvement Teams about Driver Diagrams and PDSAs, and consider promising approaches to the challenges of onboarding new members. If you would like to follow up with the facilitators with questions, please reach out to Elisabeth and Jay (via your Improvement Advisors). 

• Dates

  • Canceled. See deck for study findings.

• Materials: Implementation Study Deep Dive Deck

• Speakers

  • Elisabeth Hensley, MPP, is a Research Manager in RTI International’s Education and Workforce Division. Based in RTI’s Berkeley, California office, she is a member of the Center for Research, Evaluation and Equity in Education. Ms. Hensley has extensive experience in the management and transformation of administrative education data to provide meaningful and actionable information for a wide variety of audiences and education stakeholders. Her data work is deeply informed by experience as a classroom teacher and district administrator. Ms. Hensley serves as a data liaison and a member of the R-Team.

  • Jay Feldman is a Senior Researcher in RTI’s Research and Evaluation of Educational Equity center. Trained as a developmental psychologist, he has conducted evaluations in K–12 instruction, pedagogy, and curriculum; postsecondary education; disability services, and areas of youth development for more than 25 years. A common thread of his work includes a focus on identifying and interrupting inequity, examining technical and adaptive changes, and supporting practitioners with using data to improve their practice.

  • Jennifer Laird is a Senior Researcher in RTI’s Center for Research, Evaluation, and Equity in Education and the Director of RTI’s California. She has 20 years of experience as a researcher, focusing on evaluations of programs serving youth who face systematic barriers to an excellent education. Dr. Laird has directed education evaluations that involve both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, including education data, interviews, and focus groups; surveys of students, teachers, and other professionals; and observations of classrooms and afterschool settings. She is committed to conducting evaluations that are methodologically sound, transparent, and meaningful. She loves collaborating with educators, other practitioners, young people, other community members, program designers, and funders to learn with and from each other about how best to work alongside and on behalf of youth.

Reading fluency is a strong predictor of reading comprehension and secondary students who don’t read fluently and automatically will struggle to make meaning from complex texts.  Learn evidence-based practices for supporting reading fluency across content areas.  Session materials will be provided in a "turn key" format for networks that want to turn this learning around to teachers. 

• Dates

  • March 25: 8am PT / 11am ET

• Resources:

  • Deck

  • Session recording

  • Supporting Reading Fluency One-Pager

  • Repeated Reading Protocol for Developing Oral Reading Fluency

• Speakers

  • Genevieve Thomas is a national educational consultant specializing in special education policies and best practices for students with disabilities, multi-tiered systems of support, and early literacy. Genevieve has served as a special education teacher, a literacy specialist, a new teacher coach, a school psychologist, and an administrator. She holds a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Washington, and graduate degrees in Special Education and School Psychology from Loyola Marymount University.

Learn from others about how they are approaching the high level planning process for co-teaching in 2022-23. We will be discussing what they're considering (i.e., logistics such as scheduling and staffing; interpersonal dynamics such as teacher interest in and experience with co-teaching) and have time to brainstorm and talk in more depth with others about their unique approaches to this critical work. 

• Dates

  • March 25: 12pm PT / 3pm ET

• Deck

• Session Recording

• Speakers

  • Meg Lembo

This session has been canceled. Marshall looks forward to rescheduling an Onboarding Lean Coffee session with all interested members across our NIC.

Marshall Street will facilitate a cross-CMO sharing session focused on collaboration and learning across our networked improvement community. Participants will engage in a Lean Coffee Session on the topic of Onboarding: Bring your successes, resources, challenges and barriers and we will work together to support your onboarding plans. 

• Dates

  • April 1: 8 am PT / 11am ET

• Speakers

  • Paula Espinoza brings two decades of experience in program management, teaching, and administration to her work as an Improvement Advisor at Marshall. She holds a MEd in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah and a BS in Elementary Education from Utah State University. Outside of work, Paula is passionate about community advocacy and service.

The "Science of Reading" is a vast, interdisciplinary consensus regarding the neuropsychology of reading and the most appropriate instructional methods for both typically developing readers and those with disabilities; unfortunately, a research-to-practice gap is often evident in classrooms.  Learn the basic tenants of the "Science of Reading."  Session materials will be provided in a "turn key" format for networks that want to turn this learning around to teachers. 

• Dates

  • April 1: 12pm PT / 3pm ET

• Resources:

  • Deck

  • Science of Reading One-Pager

  • Recording

• Speakers

  • Genevieve Thomas is a national educational consultant specializing in special education policies and best practices for students with disabilities, multi-tiered systems of support, and early literacy. Genevieve has served as a special education teacher, a literacy specialist, a new teacher coach, a school psychologist, and an administrator. She holds a B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Washington, and graduate degrees in Special Education and School Psychology from Loyola Marymount University.

Each CMO’s Improvement Team will meet to internalize SLM learnings and strategize a plan for SY22-23, including clear next steps to further align their organizational priorities with the improvement effort. This will provide each team an opportunity to recommit to their Aim, re-examine their strategy/theory of action, and draft a working plan to spread and scale the work in SY 22-23. This meeting should occur after members have attended each of the three required workshops above.

• Dates

  • Between March 21 - April 7 (90-120 minutes)

• IT Retreat Guidelines

• Supplemental Materials