In this episode of Westchester Words, we learn about Laura Cunningham, Content Director, STEM for Westchester Education Services. She discusses her career as an educator and content developer prior to joining Westchester and also explains how the constructs of NGSS and adaptive assessments each help to provide students with learning supports to improve their understanding and lead to academic success in science, math, and other subject areas.
In this episode of Westchester Words, we learn about Laura Cunningham, Content Director, STEM for Westchester Education Services. She discusses her career as an educator and content developer prior to joining Westchester and also explains how the constructs of NGSS and adaptive assessments each help to provide students with learning supports to improve their understanding and lead to academic success in science, math, and other subject areas.
Welcome to Westchester Words education, Edtech and Publishing. I'm Nicole Tomasi, and in this episode, I'll be speaking with Laura Cunningham, content director for Stem at Westchester Education Services. We'll learn about Laura's career prior to joining Westchester and about the content development areas. She works with clients on here. Laura, it's a pleasure to welcome you to Westchester Words.
Laura Cunningham:Hi Nicole, it's a pleasure to be here.
Nicole Tomassi:How about we begin by having you share some background with our listeners about how your career in education has brought you to your current role today as the Content director for Stem here at Westchester.
Laura Cunningham:So, I always wanted to be a teacher. I was in high school and I wanted to be a teacher. I never changed my major during the entire thing. I graduated with a Bachelor's in Science in Earth and Space Education, and I taught in public schools in Maryland for about eleven years. And at the end of that time there I was working on my Masters. So Masters is in curriculum and instruction and I have an option as leadership, so I really wanted to put my Bachelors to good use and I loved developing new content with the students. So I transitioned out of the classroom and started to work for a small publisher that was near my home. And I was there for a few years and did a lot of really neat projects. The company was primarily print based and while I was there, we took it from entirely print based company to both hybrid and fully digital learning, and that was a matter of about two years. So it was quite a shift for the company as a whole. I was working with vendors while I was at the publisher and really loved what vendors were able to see from different publishers and what kind of new innovative products and these different publishers were coming up with and develop, and I really wanted to be a part of that. So I transitioned from the publisher side to the vendor side, and I've been loving ever since.
Nicole Tomassi:Well, that's a very interesting path here to Westchester. So when you were in the classroom, was there a certain grade band that you worked with primarily or was it all across a twelve?
Laura Cunningham:I am secondary certified, so right out of college I started teaching 9th grade Earth Science, two different differentiated levels. And I was also teaching astronomy. It was astronomy elective to 11th and 12th graders. And additionally I had an astronomy class for students with special needs. So it was an inclusive classroom. So myself a special educator and two para educators leading this astronomy class, that was my first two years of teaching. And then I transitioned to a different school and I taught Earth and Space Science and a magnet program, meaning that students had to apply to the school and they had me for the entire school year, so 180 days for 90 minutes every day. So I was the only one in the county who taught Earth science at that grade level and for that duration. So a lot of the materials I had were garnered to high school students, so I had to adapt everything that I was doing to meet the needs of my 8th graders.
Nicole Tomassi:So you also said that you shifted from working for a publisher to moving over to the vendor side, which is obviously what we do here at Westchester Education Services. How do you feel that the background you have in the classroom and then working for a publisher, how do you feel that informs the work you do here with our clients?
Laura Cunningham:It definitely gives me a different lens and perspective so I can understand what our publishers are aiming to do. I understand their needs. I also understand some of the pressure that they're feeling with developing a really excellent product because ultimately they have to sell that. So I understand the stresses of being at a publisher and also, from what the teacher side, I understand how students learn. So I'm able to construct materials for our different partner clients in a way that I know is pedagogically sound and also age appropriate for their development.
Nicole Tomassi:And some subjects, as we know, as science continues to evolve and new discoveries are made, it's just continually changing. And therefore the print, the digital and the hybrid materials all have to update along with whatever those discoveries are that are being made. Is that what kind of drew you into creating educational materials in math and science?
Laura Cunningham:Yeah, absolutely. So as we learn more and have access, because we have access to improved technology, our understanding about the world also changes. And this is really similar to how we work with our different client partners. So we have the privilege of collaborating with excellent thought partners and we're able to learn how they're making improvements. And it's all in a goal to help students learn. We want every student to be able to achieve. And also our client partners are really working with meeting students where they are in their learning and making it relevant to different students as well. Reading like a newsletter with all the James Webb Space Telescope pictures that we're getting back, which are phenomenal, we're starting to learn a lot more about how our universe may have begun, which is really interesting. And we're seeing if we can use that evidence that we're seeing from the telescope, either like support or provide evidence to the contrary. About with the Big Bang theory, which has been pretty commonly accepted. So it's really interesting to see how all this improved technology is informing our understanding of our world and it's all.
Nicole Tomassi:Happening pretty much in real time.
Laura Cunningham:Exactly. I find Stem is so much fun.
Nicole Tomassi:Because it's just constantly changing and there's just new information coming forward, either, like you said, proving theories or maybe kind of turning them on their side a little bit.
Laura Cunningham:Yeah, absolutely.
Nicole Tomassi:Part of those theories or discoveries make up some of what's in the next generation science standards, or what's called NGSS for short. And these were constructs that were introduced about a decade ago in the US. Education space. And while most states now use these standards or requirements that are developed kind of adjacent to them, I'm wondering, from your perspective in the classroom and then working for publishers and then a vendor, what sort of impact do you think that NGSS has had in terms of helping students learn Stem concepts?
Laura Cunningham:I remember I was teaching when NGSS was coming out. I remember having professional developments and being pulled into like, a little tiny classroom and learning about what is this new thing called next year and science standards and how is it different than what we have before then, the United States had made a couple of attempts at developing their own science standards. They started back with the regular administration, like in the they started to develop standards that they felt that every kid needed to be able to achieve at different grade levels. And it was an attempt to it. But most of these states are making up their own science standards. When NGSS came along, it kind of turned I would say it turned science on its head, but definitely turned the standards. So, as opposed to Common Core, where you have this kind of discrete statement, NGSS has a lot of depth to it. There's different components of it, and our publishers will choose to align to different components of it as well. NGSS is really phenomenon based, and they're centered off phenomenon, and their goal is to assess students using performance expectations. Within performance expectations, we have the disciplinary core ideas that if you were to break apart the standard, that's what those DCIS would be. So it's little ventricle learning parts where you can eventually, if you master them, you can be able to do those performance expectations or the PE. There's also science engineering practices and cross cutting concepts. There are relationships to Common Core, Eli and Map that they have within NGSS. So it's a really robust and deep set of standards that they've created. But mostly with that centering on the phenomenon makes the learning more relevant for students. And when you make learning more relevant for students, it helps to retain that learning through a duration. It's not just at the end of that class. The students are a member of these classes for a long time. Making inquiry based also is a hallmark of NGSS. We want students to use different levels of inquiry to be able to construct their own learning and to be able to learn for themselves with a teacher giving us reconstruction and telling students. So we want students to understand concepts and form their own understanding of it, rather than being told.
Nicole Tomassi:So it's sort of interactive in a way, is what I'm hearing.
Laura Cunningham:Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot of different resources out there on NGSS. Even like their website provides some samplers of what kind of lessons that they're looking for. But these are standards that they really do build, and they're not something that you would be able to master in a day. These are really deep, robust standards that I think ultimately we're looking at the heart at how students should be learning science. They're inquiry based, they're phenomenal based, they're real life. These are all things that appeal to students and what students relate to.
Nicole Tomassi:It makes sense because if you can tie it to your everyday experiences, you're more likely to gain a better understanding and possible mastery of that concept.
Laura Cunningham:Exactly. There's a lot of learning science behind this about these pathways that your brain actually forms when you connect something new to what are your prior experiences? Are we're trying to form those neural pathways? Really? And almost like changing the students brain to thinking about things in a different way and making new connections, so kind of rewiring it? Yeah. There's a wild learning science that goes into exactly how people learn and why people learn the way that they do NGSS. Really? I think it does a nice job of this because it's going for depth rather than breath.
Nicole Tomassi:That's really interesting. I mean, maybe I would have been more interested in science back in my school days if it had more application to my world around me.
Laura Cunningham:I was reading an article somewhat recently about a teacher in Chicago, and she taught at neighborhood there where I think some pollutants had entered the soil or the groundwater. And she was teaching chemistry at the time. So she was actually having students going out, collecting soil from their neighborhoods, bringing it back in and analyzing it to see what kind of pollutants were in their soil and then acting on it. So what is this going to do? What kind of health implications or what could this do to me, knowing that this is in my soil? What can I do about it?
Nicole Tomassi:So understanding how it impacts your everyday environment?
Laura Cunningham:Yes, absolutely. So with NGS, we're really trying to make that connection, like what is happening, where you are, and how can I connect that to something new and maybe.
Nicole Tomassi:How can I do something positive to remedy the situation if it's not a very good situation, such as pollutants in the soil or the air?
Laura Cunningham:Exactly.
Nicole Tomassi:Very interesting. So I want to pull on something else. You mentioned a few minutes ago you said that there's an association between NGSS and Ela, and I was wondering if you could explain a little bit more about that.
Laura Cunningham:Yeah. So within NGSS, when you start getting into some of the higher elementary grades, three, four, five, throughout middle school and high school, students are expected to use research into what they are doing to support their theory or hypothesis. So that's part of it. Students are also encouraged to develop claims and defend them in writing. So this is a part of Ela. Also, students are expected to use different kinds of research materials to prove their theory or hypothesis or provide additional information about something that they're seeing that makes sense.
Nicole Tomassi:Because if you have all the findings in your head and you can't explain it well or write it out well, it's only going to take it so far.
Laura Cunningham:Yes, exactly. And a good scientist knows how to write their research and write it in a meaningful and understandable way.
Nicole Tomassi:Laura, another area of responsibility that's under your, I guess, remit, if you will, here at Westchester is working with clients to help them develop or modify assessment materials. And I was wondering if you could explain why this is a particularly important area of education.
Laura Cunningham:Sure. So we're seeing a custom application a couple of different ways. One of the more obvious is if any, standards change. So a lot of different publishers, we have to be able to meet the standards of the state that they're trying to sell. We're seeing a lot of that recently with different adoptions that are happening both in science and in math, that standards are changing. Therefore our assessments had to change. We're also seeing this in a really innovative way as well that I want to talk about, which are adaptive assessments. We're seeing adaptive assessments that are being made that can only support students of all different kinds of ability levels. And we can come back to that one maybe in a little bit. But assessments have always been important to inform teachers about student progress. And assessments could either be for learning or their formative assessments, or they could be of learning or some assessments showing what students have learned. So both are important, and they can both be used in different ways to inform the teacher about how their students are progressing.
Nicole Tomassi:Let's go back to what you were saying about adaptive assessments. And for somebody like me who is hearing that term for the first time, can you explain what it is and why it's becoming an important piece of the overall assessment area?
Laura Cunningham:Yeah, sure. So we're seeing an increase in making adaptive assessments. This is really appealing and really encouraging adaptive assessments. I can relate it to kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. If you remember those books from a long time ago, if you pick this path, I remember them well. They're kind of like the Chooser and Adventure of assessments. I said that very loosely. So adaptive assessments are designed to support students of all ability levels. So if we had a student that's entering like, grade six math and they're learning about different geometry standards, and we have one student who has really accelerated in geometry and really understands these standards well, and then we have a student that doesn't mean they have been introduced this for the very first time. One adaptive assessments do is they let students make progress based on their ability levels. So if I have a student that is really well versed in geometry, they may be able to go through all the adaptive assessments and not get any scaffolding or remediation or support because they may not need it. You may have another student that struggles with the concept or have never been introduced to before, and they might get the first question wrong. And when that happens, and if that happens, the student will then get another question to support or to reinforce or to give help to the students. They can be able to answer the question. So it's scaffolding within assessments, which is something, as teachers, we're very used to and accustomed to doing. We have different staff learning strategies, but I have not seen it as pervasive in assessments as I do with a direct instruction or with a student edition of a book. We're really seeing that a lot more now. And it's really encouraging because we're understanding that not all students are created equally. We all have different learning styles, we all have different backgrounds that we come from, and it's meeting the students where they are in their learning. But as the assessment itself progresses, the goal is for all students to meet the same learning objectives at the end. So no matter where you are, you're able to achieve that same goal as someone who knows all these concepts already.
Nicole Tomassi:Okay, I understand that. So I guess what would help me to understand so is adaptive assessment, in a way kind of the complement to personalized based learning that I've heard a lot about?
Laura Cunningham:Yes, absolutely. You can think of it that way. And when we talk about personalized learning, usually thinking about it from a teacher to student perspective, what is a teacher doing and how is the teacher making it relevant or making it personal? Or how are they differentiating something to meet the needs of a particular student. So this is the same kind of thing. It's in an assessment. Usually we have an assessment, you have your ten assessments and you go through 1342 all the way to ten and you're done. These assessments are adaptive, so you may not have those ten questions, you may have more. And the purpose of that is to get you to mastering the learning objective at the end.
Nicole Tomassi:So it's giving you a different pathway to achieve the end goal of understanding those materials or that concepts.
Laura Cunningham:Yes, exactly.
Nicole Tomassi:Okay, I got it.
Laura Cunningham:It's very unique because usually we don't see this in assessments. Usually we see this as part of a teacher led instruction or even student led instruction. We don't really see it too much in assessment. So it's really interesting to be able to see this. Also why I love working as a vendor, because if I was at a publisher, I may not be able to see these different innovative ideas that are thought partners are coming up with.
Nicole Tomassi:Yeah, that makes sense. And do you feel I mean, it sounds like it's still somewhat early days in this area of adaptive assessment, but do you feel like that's going to drive some more of the personalized learning between teacher and student or within, say, digital content that's being created for students?
Laura Cunningham:Yeah, absolutely. And we're seeing more of a pick up in making our materials culturally responsive. We're seeing a lot more of that. One of the other things that Westchester really does an excellent job with culture responsive materials. So we're definitely seeing an uptick with that. But I think this assessment part may be relatively new. I have seen this with a couple of clients right now, but I definitely think it's going to be one of those next big things because I think it's going to be really well received. I have not seen it up until.
Nicole Tomassi:Late, and maybe this is something that's stemming out of the things that have happened over the last few years, which have had a profound impact on all areas of education, and it's also opened up and identified areas for improvement within the processes or the methods by which students learn. So along with adaptive assessments, which is seeming to kind of start to take hold, are there other developments taking place in math and science that you're excited to see reach scale during the next few years?
Laura Cunningham:I think that now that our publishers are starting to understand more about NGSS, because it's a really difficult set of stairs to understand and it does take a lot of time to really digest them and even dissect them and figure out how different parts related. So I think our publishers are really getting a good handle on NGSS now. I am starting to see more of a shift toward inquiry based learning or project based learning. So we're starting to see more of that now, which is really encouraging because that's really what the NGSS is trying to do. We're trying to make kids think like scientists, I guess those parts of it. So using more inquiry in lessons and different levels of inquiry depending on the students developmental range, and also having more performance based assessments rather than the traditional kind of like pen and paper or on the screen kind of test.
Nicole Tomassi:And Laura, one final question I enjoy asking guests. Is there a piece of advice that someone has given you or that you have learned over the course of your career that you think is worth sharing with others?
Laura Cunningham:This is one of those things I always try to not make mistakes, but I have learned that it's really okay. It's okay to fail, it's okay to make mistakes. It's just how we learned. We learn by failing. We learn by making mistakes. I make several mistakes every single day, but it's important that I recognize them and that I learn from them. So I think that's really what true growth is. It's making mistakes and then learning from them.
Nicole Tomassi:I would definitely have to agree with that. I feel like mistakes aren't necessarily mistakes, they're lessons on the pathway to success.
Laura Cunningham:There you go.
Nicole Tomassi:Well, I'm glad we both have a similar mindset in that area. So, Laura, I really want to thank you so much for taking the time to join me in Westchester Words today. It's been a very good learning session for me about science and math and I'm sure for the listeners as well.
Laura Cunningham:It was great talking with you today.
Nicole Tomassi:Thank you for listening to this episode of Westchester Words. If you're looking for previous episodes or want to read additional content that has been shared by some of our guests, please visit our websites westchesterpolishingservices.com and westchestereducationservices.com. For an international perspective, check out our sister podcast, westchester World UK and International, available on the Westchester Education UK website, westchestereducation. Co UK or wherever you stream podcasts. We love hearing from our listeners and welcome your emails at westchesterworld at westchestered svcs.com. Tell us what you enjoy hearing on our podcast or suggest topics that we can cover in future episodes. Speaking of future episodes, I look forward to having you join us for the next episode of Westchester Words, when we'll be having another engaging conversation about a topic of interest to the education at tech and publishing communities. Until then, stay safe, be well and stay tuned. Owned.