Alec Patton talks to Paola Capó-García about "Politics of the Personal," the twelfth-grade English project she created in which students chose a topic of personal interest to write an essay about—and create a piñata

Read more of Paola's poetry

See photos from the project

Learn how you can do professional development with Paola and the rest of the team

Learn more about the San Diego Teacher Residency

Learn more about the High Tech High Graduate School of Education

Bell Middle School reduced its D/F rate from 51% in 2022 to 28% in 2024. That's a 23 percentage point reduction.

Even more impressive, for low income students, the D/F rate was 67% in 2022, and Bell cut it by more than half, down to 29% in 2024.

In this episode, Alec Patton talks to science teacher Teddy Meckstroth about how they did it.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman
• How to do the 2x10 Strategy (article) (video)
• The CARE Network

Learn more about the High Tech High Graduate School of Education

In this episode, Alec Patton talks to Hamilton Elementary Principal Dr. Brittany Daley and San Diego County Office of Education Executive Leadership Coach Julia Bridi about how Hamilton cut its chronic absenteeism rate from 24% to 10% in a single year, using creative parent communication, home visits, data checks, and public sliming

See photos of the sliming, silly string, and Brittany's rainbow mohawk here!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Attendance home visit script
• ICAN school team self-assessment rubric
• How to do a 2x10 intervention (article) (video)
• Interview with Simon Breakspear about the Pruning Principle (podcast episode)

Learn more about how the RAISE Network is tackling chronic absenteeism in California here

Learn more about the High Tech High Graduate School of Education

Alec Patton talks to Derek Mitchell, CEO of Partners in School Innovation, about his daily reading rituals. Mentioned in the episode:

• Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto
• Martin Gilbert, Churchill and the Jews
• Jeanie Daniel Duck, The Change Monster
• Sheldon Eakins, Leading Equity
• Brian McClellan, The Powder Mage Trilogy (strictly speaking, Derek mentioned Blood of Empire, which is part of the trilogy that follows the Powder Mage Trilogy)

Derek’s recommendations to get started: Morning reading:

• Barack Obama, Dreams from my Father

Lunch reading:

• Rudy Crew, Only Connect

Evening reading:

• Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

Click here to learn more about the High Tech High Graduate School of Education

In this episode, Alec Patton talks to Maria Curtis, director of the Early Childhood Center at La Jolla Country Day School, in California, and Junior Kindergarten teacher Kristin Owen, about how they turned the discovery of a mud nest being built outside a classroom into a year-long project.

You can see photos from the project, including photos of the book, here (as soon as the link is live).

This episode is part of an occasional series on Regenerative Education. Here are the other episodes in the series (so far):

• Derek Mitchell and Scott Sampson on Regenerative Education
• Green School: Regenerative Education in the Balinese Jungle
• Green School Student Louis Lacour
• A Story of Butterflies, Regeneration, and Hope
• Solar for All Schools [guest episode from the Climify podcast]

Learn more about the High Tech High Graduate School of Education

Sofía Tannenhaus talks to Jarrod Bolte, CEO of both Improving Education and Bedtime in a Box, a nonprofit that provides families with boxes containing everything you need for a positive bedtime routine. Each Box contains four age-appropriate books; bath wash, a towel, and bath toys; a toothbrush and toothpaste; pajamas; a stuffed animal; an alarm clock; a Teach My Learning Kit; and a kid-friendly routine log.

Bedtime in a Box has delivered more than 50,000 Boxes so far, with 80% going to families experiencing poverty.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

• Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto
• Bedtime in a Box website
• Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom, What Do You Do with an Idea?

Click here to learn more about the High Tech High Graduate School of Education

This episode comes from the Climify podcast, which is hosted by Eric Benson, and produced by the Climate Designers Network. Benson interviews Tish Tablan, senior program director at Generation 180, about how going solar can benefit schools' budgets and provide opportunities for PBL, as well as helping us all thrive as we face an unprecedented climate crisis.

Links:

• Check out This Episode on Climify
• Check out all the great episodes on the Climify website
• Climify Design Class Resources
• Learn more about Cradle to Cradle Design, and check out the book that started it all!

Other episodes in the High Tech High Unboxed Regenerative Education Series:

• Derek Mitchell and Scott Sampson on Regenerative Education
• Green School: Regenerative Education in the Balinese Jungle
• Green School Student Louis Lacour
• A Story of Butterflies, Regeneration, and Hope

Learn more about the High Tech High Graduate School of Education

Alec Patton talks to Juliette Price, the senior Improvement Science coach at the National Association of Higher Education Systems, about how their Network Improvement Community has achieved its remarkable results on transfer enrollments from two-year to four-year colleges.

You know you want to try it: David Williams’s Mr. Potato Head Game

Check out Juliette’s Substack Newsletter, This Is Your Brain On Improvement

Read more about NASH

Learn more about the High Tech High Graduate School of Education