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Karen Vaites Profile picture
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Feb 18 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
This is a really important piece by @natwexler.

First and foremost, it's the only reporting I've seen on a major achievement by @TNedu:

Almost all Tennessee districts now use high-quality curriculum! That's HUGE.

forbes.com/sites/nataliew…
Increasing use of high-quality curriculum is a longtime goal of many states. In fact, 13 states participate in @CCSSO's High-Quality Instructional Materials and Professional Development (IMPD) network, squarely focused on this goal.

TN is one of the 13...
learning.ccsso.org/high-quality-i…
And so far, it's the biggest success story, given this traction.

In 2019-20, I had a chance to visit six of the pioneers in this work with the #KnowledgeMatters School Tour, and the local leadership was abundant.

Here was one thread – it's long, but...+
worth a read to see why there is SO much passion for high-quality curriculum. I want this kind of rich instruction for my child – and all children.

Above thread was from @LaudCoSchools (HT @jennyray66), here's one from @co_sumner (HT @scottlangford72).
Getting better instructional materials to teachers is one huge victory.

Ensuring that educators are supported in using these more rigorous materials is critical, and the implementation support for 80% is an equally important win.

HT @lisacoons10 @SchwinnTeach!
I’m a longtime fangirl of @TNedu’s #Reading360 initiative, which @natwexler also details.

Teacher training, family engagement, decodable readers for families, ++.

I keep seeing new creative initiatives from that work; one of my favorites is below.
I probably don’t need to tell you that TN is home to some of the high-profile struggles around content in curriculum, most notably in Williamson.

That gets a whole lot of attention. These instructional improvements get virtually none, yet they are really important. Also…
When you look at the outcomes in districts using high-quality curriculum (really, read these threads! Hear from these parents and teachers!), you understand why many are dismayed to see these curricula under fire.

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More from @karenvaites

Karen Vaites Profile picture
Feb 19
A worrisome sign that #MedTwitter is broken:

In the Before Times, I bet you could get doctors like Freedman and the many health professionals reposting his thread to agree that this CDC change is bad. Poorly-executed, at minimum.

Now? Folks can only talk Mask Wars.
Let’s say that docs like @amychomd (who reposted it) believe the thread.

Can we not agree that this is crummy, anti-child communication by the CDC?

If the CDC is trying to emphasize the at-risk milestone, website changes like this are NOT getting it done.
What’s more, speech experts DO encourage Early Intervention at age 2 for severe speech delays, and I saw how EI changed my daughter’s life.

Most state EI programs end at age 3. Are we really all ready to cheer the CDC for elevating the 30 month milestone?

It feels anti-child.
Read 6 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Feb 19
Yesterday, I held off talking about the CDC speech guidance change BC I noticed a thing when I was searching Twitter for more info.

👀 ImageImageImageImage
There are more than the 7 shown here.

Search this phrase in Twitter, you’ll see:

The CDC just quietly lowered the standards for speech in early childhood development.

Now children should know ~50 words at 30mo rather than 24mo. ImageImageImage
Generally, I try to do my homework and only tweet after reading articles, or when I have evidence for thing I am claiming.

I felt like it was a little odd that I didn’t hear back with much of substance when I asked for more info… that was Hmmm number one.
Read 4 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Feb 19
I've been digging into claims that @CDCgov recently lowered its bar for children's speech development.

CDC did change milestones. Today, it's out of line with @ASHAWeb & NY State.

Importantly, these other orgs haven't changed any guidance during the pandemic.

Let's unpack.
Now, I'm not a speech pathologist, nor do I play one on Twitter. But literacy advocates & Speech & Language Pathologists share common advocacy terrain, so I Know People.

I had many conversations today with SLP friends. The universal refrain:

@ASHAWeb is the Gold Standard.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (@ASHAWeb) is clear that "saying fewer than 50 words" when a child is two years old is a sign of a "language problem."

See:
asha.org/public/early-i… Image
Read 32 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Feb 17
As we near 2 yr anniversary of US COVID restrictions, borne most heavily by children…

Docs speaking out for normalcy for kids find their home locations & kids’ details posted online by anonymous trolls.

In viciously personal threads that get amplified by PH Twitter giants.
I’m not going to give one more eyeball to the thread by linking to it. Good for Twitter for removing the doxxing Tweets and at least Gonsalves came to his senses.

But this is what passes for discourse in America. For advocating for approaches already successful in Europe.
I will, however, amplify these replies to Gonsalves,

Because they are 🎯.
Read 4 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Feb 17
There’s something exceptionally important about the design flaws of the two most popular curricula in K-12 education:

👉 They track children in kindergarten.

That makes them structurally ableist, and some would say racist.

Let’s unpack.
The main reason kids don’t get enough work with books at their grade level:

These curricula put kids into leveled reading groups, in which they do their literacy lessons with books at that level.

When you go into classrooms, you find kids in low, medium, and high groups.
It’s treated like a smart, even scientific approach.

But there is zero evidence that it works, and compelling evidence that challenging all kids with books at their grade level develops reading skills more effectively. More info summarized here:

eduvaites.org/2019/11/02/lev…
Read 8 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Feb 16
This piece continues the @nytimes coverage pattern when it comes to K-12 education:

An over-weighting of identity politics, to the exclusion of other major issues concerning parents.

🧵

By @thomasfullerNYT:
nytimes.com/2022/02/16/us/…
Did you know that San Francisco declined to reopen schools in Fall, 2020 even though local COVID positivity was less than 1%… even as other districts opened at similar (in NYC) and higher (in sun belt) rates?

The NYT piece does not tell you this.
Did you know that SF schools remained closed until Spring, 2021… as most schools across the US reopened? (Reminder: 60% of US schools had opened by mid-October ‘20.)

And that SF parents protested the closures at the time?

@thomasfullerNYT doesn’t get into these details.
Read 22 tweets

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