The Crisis in Education Podcast

Send us a textA.J. Rinaldi is a residential Administrator at the Milton Hershey School and the Tier one Coach of their multi-tiered systems of support. Prior to his current role, A.J. served as a House Parent and Lead Mentor where he was awarded the Chairman’s Medallion of Excellence, was a 2019 CORE Catherine Hershey houseparent of the year nominee, and began the Jr. Gentleman Wrestling program, an afterschool program that utilizes athletics to teach character and leadership to elementary age boys.In addition to his Milton Hershey School contributions, A.J. is an Independent Certified Coach, Trainer, and Speaker with the John Maxwell Leadership Team. He’s the founder of Pit 2 Purpose, a motivational speaking company where he has spearheaded the Fight for Fatherhood initiative in his native South Florida, a campaign that encourages positive male role models and parenting while educating on the numerous societal effects of absent fathers.    Mr. Rinaldi boasts over 18 years of exceptional devotion in youth care and family services from group homes to street gangs. As a facilitator, A.J. has an inspirational and unique style of delivering experience-infused techniques with practical strategies rooted in human behavioral science. However, A.J.’s greatest accomplishment, is being a devoted husband and father to his wife Shavanta, and their 3 young children. If you would like to get in touch with AJ, you can email him at pit2purpose@gmail.com You can also connect with him on Facebook.Mario "Big Hurt" Rinaldi  MMA Highlight Reel

Send us a textFernell Miller, CEO and Founder of The Root Of Us LLC, an Equity and Inclusion Consultancy that collaborates with educational, governmental, and nonprofits organizations in service of racial healing and social justice with a focus on Black Youth Advocacy. Fernell is an education activist and community organizer for social change. She has intentionally built a framework for radical liberatoration and solidarity with abolitionist practices in which vulnerability, love, truth, personal and collective power, mutuality, respect, and healing are consistently modeled, firmly held, and always a soft place to land. Fernell is instrumental to the development and maintenance of this environment and the level at which the youth engage. Connect With Fernell Miller & The Root of Ushttps://linktr.ee/therootofus13 Characteristics of White Supremacy Culturehttps://www.sbctc.edu/resources/documents/about/edi/characteristics-of-white-supremacy-visual.pdf

Send us a textVerbal behavior instruction helps students develop effective communication skills. Communication is a fundamental aspect of human interaction, and strong verbal abilities enable individuals to express their thoughts, needs, and emotions clearly and appropriately. Teaching verbal behavior equips students with the tools to engage in meaningful conversations, express themselves, and understand others effectively. Unfortunately, verbal behavior is not taught everywhere that it is needed in mainstream education. In this episode, Liz and Steve Maher discuss the importance of assessing and teaching verbal behavior.To find out more about Liz and Steve, or to learn more about practical software for assessing verbal behavior, go to https://datamakesthedifference.com/.  And to pick up the PDF version of Verbal Behavior Extended Edition by Dr.  B. F. Skinner, the Skinner Foundation is offering it here for as little as $2.49!

Send us a textDr. Michael Troop is a Superintendent whose core purpose is to positively impact the lives of students, educators, employees, and organizations. In addition, he has a passion for helping people learn skills that increase productivity at work and in life.In this episode, we discuss school improvement and the critical skills needed for learning, teaching, and leading in a way that produces positive learning cultures.

Send us a textMichael is the most experienced developer of innovative educational programs in the US and the Founder of The Socratic Experience, an online school based on Socratic dialogue that emphasizes personalized and purpose-driven education for students in grades 3-12.His remarkable career in education spans over three decades, and includes creating many high-performance school programs that promote critical thinking, creativity, and entrepreneurship in students across the country.Some of Michael's notable projects include a public school program in which minority female students gained four years' worth of critical thinking gains in four months (on the Watson-Glaser) and Moreno Valley High School, a Paideia charter high school, which was ranked the 36th-best US public high school by Newsweek.He also created The Winston Academy, where middle school students passed Advanced Placement (AP) exams, making it the most academically advanced school in the US at the time. Thousands of his students have been admitted to top universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, and many other post-secondary institutions.Michael's impact on education extends beyond the classroom, as he is also the author of The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice and Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World's Problems, which includes a foreword by John Mackey, the Co-Founder and former CEO of Whole Foods Market, with whom he has collaborated on initiatives related to conscious capitalism and entrepreneurship.He has spoken at Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, the University of Chicago, and dozens of other universities, and his work has been featured in academic journals (The Journal of Business Ethics, Economic Affairs, Critical Review, etc.), specialty publications (Microfinance Insights, Policy Innovations, Carnegie Ethics, etc.), and popular media (The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, RealClearPolitics, Barron's, etc.).  

Send us a textThere are a lot of students and families who spend a lot of time, money, and effort aimed at being accepted into the college of their dreams.  But as CEO and founder of Troove, David Hurwitt, reminds us in this episode, it's not about getting into college. It's about getting out as the graduation rates are too often dismal, especially for minorities.  In this episode, David discusses using predictive AI to gather, mine, and decode experience data from schools and align it with the values, abilities, and priorities of prospective students. His platform, Troove, potentially revolutionary, is FREE to students who are searching for the right University.  It only takes 10 minutes. Why not give it a shot?

Send us a textPolicies provide guidelines for the operation of a particular system, especially one that has a hierarchical structure. Education, perhaps the most important system in our nation, is no different.  Good policy guides decision making. No policy makes decision-making unreliable and sporadic.  And bad policies do way more harm than good.  And policy is just the start.  What happens after the policy is in place is what is the most important. In this episode,  Dr. Darleen Opfer discusses the importance of policies and provides perspective on how stakeholders can improve them.  About Dr. OpferDarleen began her career as a special education teacher in Florida and then Virginia. After earning her Ph.D. in education policy at the University of Virginia, she became a professor of education policy. She served in that role at Georgia State University, Ohio State University, and the University of Cambridge. Throughout her career, her focus has been on using evidence to improve schools for low-income and minority students.In 2011 she joined RAND as Director of RAND Education. In October 2018 she was promoted to Vice President and became Director of the RAND Education and Labor Research Division; she also holds the Distinguished Chair in Education Policy. As the leader of RAND Education and Labor's staff of more than 200 experts from a wide range of disciplines, she is responsible for all aspects of divisional management including business development, financial and strategic planning, staff development, ensuring quality standards, and dissemination of research findings. 

Send us a textEducation is in crisis, and behavior analysts possess the most powerful toolbox in the world for making a positive difference for students, teachers, and educational leaders everywhere. In this podcast,  Andrew Houvouras discusses some of the struggles of working in education as a behavior analyst and potential solutions for overcoming a number of common obstacles.  Andrew is a Behavior Analyst with a long history of assessing and treating severe and challenging behavior in education. He has also supervised 40 individuals seeking board certification. Beyond education, Andrew counts behavioral medicine, ABA in autism populations, supervision and mentorship, and broader dissemination of ABA among his most invested interests. A regular presenter at local, state, and international conferences, Andrew also develops continuing education courses and publishes on such topics. In addition, his far-reaching care for and dedication to the science of behavior were evident during his 2018-2019 term as president of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis.

Send us a textA lack of social connection is hurting many.  In this informative chat, MIT graduate and CEO of Yellowdig, Shaunak Roy, discusses the negative impact of a failure to have social connections. He also proposes a potentially scalable solution for increasing social connection across education.To learn more about Yellowdig, please visit yellowdig.co or request a demo here: https://explore.yellowdig.co/demo. Twitter: https://twitter.com/Yellowdig Email: learnmore@yellowdig.comLinkedIn: YellowdigSome of the studies mentioned in the podcast:A peer-reviewed study published a yearlong study using Yellowdig data in the Online Learning Journal (Official Journal of the OLC) saying great things about our platform.- Link to Efficacy study with Arizona State University's EdPlus team.- why? Highlights how the Yellowdig platform positively impacts class grade and completion outcomes, using behavioral and grade data from over 20,000 online students.   - Link to Efficacy study in collaboration with Bryan University.- why? Compares synchronous and asynchronous strategies and overall impact on student engagement, retention, and learning outcomes  

Send us a textIn this episode, Dr. Paulie chats with Dr. Carl Binder about the use of Applied Behavior Analysis and Organizational Behavior Management for making a positive difference in schools.  Dr. Carl Binder began as a doctoral student in Experimental Psychology, attending Harvard University at the invitation of B.F. Skinner, whose writings had inspired him deeply. With an interest in making a societal contribution, he rapidly shifted from basic research to real-world application of behavior science, first developing innovative instructional methods and teacher training for educators, and later contributing to the emerging field of human performance technology in large organizations.  With input from many extraordinary teachers and colleagues, Carl has spent over 40 years bringing his enthusiasm for behavior science into corporations, schools, and public organizations worldwide.  Founder of four consulting firms, recipient of career awards from the American Psychological Association,  the International Society for Performance Improvement, and the Organizational Behavior Management Network, prolific author and speaker, Carl believes that the Performance Thinking Network is his best opportunity yet for making a contribution.  His ability to synthesize information from multiple fields, communicate complex ideas in plain English to non-specialists, and build excitement about making a difference with behavior science brings an intellectual and emotional spark-plug to The Performance Thinking Network.Carl was recently awarded the Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement AwardIf you are interested in learning from Dr. Binder, check out his Performance Thinking Summer Institute where you'll have the opportunity to learn about leadership, management, systems, and leveraging the science of human behavior to produce important results while making a positive difference in any workplace.