The Extraordinary Educators Podcast

Empowering Education Through Advocacy and Collaboration with Debbie Smith

• Sari Laberis • Season 6 • Episode 14

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Ever wondered how one person's advocacy can reshape educational policies and create lasting change for students and their families? Hear from Debbie Smith, Vice President of Government Relations at Curriculum Associates, as she shares her compelling journey of advocating for her son and how it sparked a broader movement for change within school districts. Learn the strategies she employed, from leveraging research to engaging with key decision-makers, and discover how you, too, can become an effective advocate for improvement in your educational community.

Beyond individual advocacy, Debbie dives into the power of collaboration among educators, highlighting the importance of mutual support in professional development. Join us for an episode filled with practical advice and inspiring stories that illuminate the transformative power of dedicated advocacy and collaboration.

Read Curriculum Associates' blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!

Sari Laberis:

Hey everyone, it's Sari. Welcome back to the Extraordinary Educators podcast. This week I am joined by my wonderful colleague, Debbie Smith, who is the VP of Government Relations at Curriculum Associates, and we had a really fascinating conversation around advocacy and what it looks like for you as educators to advocate for either your students, your children, your community, and kind of where to get started. I think this can be something that seems overwhelming or daunting at first, but the way Debbie breaks it down in talking about how you can go about the process, how you can go about getting the right data and then also who you can speak to and where to go from there, can really help you feel empowered to do this and really help make change that you want to see in your school or district or community.

Sari Laberis:

So here's my conversation with Debbie. Welcome, Debbie. Thank you so much for being with us on the podcast today. Thank you for having me, Of course. So you wrote a wonderful blog about advocacy and for all of our listeners we will link it in the show notes for you. But I just wanted to start off with some personal experience. So can you share a moment when you felt your advocacy made a significant impact on a policy decision or something in your life?

Debbie Smith:

Sure, I think one of the most important moments for me for advocacy really came when it was very personal to me because it involved my son, and so my son has an auditory processing disorder, which really means that, even though his hearing is fine, the brain doesn't always process the sounds that get passed to it. So he's now in college, so he's much older, but at the time when he was just beginning school, I found that there wasn't really just a ton of information out there, and so I was continually digging and looking for research for ways to help him. My background is that I'm a reading specialist, and so it was a bit frustrating for me because I was struggling right with what strategies would work best, and I came across some research that said if educators were using sound systems, like classroom sound systems or speaker systems, that not only did it help students who had auditory processing disorders and were they able to better grasp how to read, so it was great for early learners, but it actually showed a lot of benefit for all early learners, and so that allowed me to take some of the work that I had done prior and use it in a personal way, and so I began by thinking about who's my audience? Who do I want to approach? And though my district, the school building my son was in was fantastic, I really knew I needed to go higher up and so I began targeting some of the special ed coordinators in the district, as well as our curriculum instructors or director right, some of our early childhood focus directors and our board.

Debbie Smith:

And for me, you know, once I narrowed down who I wanted to talk to, then I had to think about what's the best way to do that or the best approach, and so I set up time with each of them and really just approached it from a. Here's what I have found right in terms of research. This is good for all kids, but also let me tell you how this personally impacts us as a family and for my child in the classroom, who's trying to learn to read, and when you think about early childhood classrooms and they're developmentally appropriate you want Lots of language and lots of dialogue and discussion. So there's automatically a lot of background noise, and that noise should be there, but it makes it very difficult for a child with an auditory processing disorder to filter out some of that background noise, and it really that's the case for all early learners.

Debbie Smith:

So having the educator using like a sound system really amplified the teacher's voice so that all teacher, all students, could focus in on OK, I need to be listening to that, right, that's the teacher's voice, so that all teacher, all students, could focus in on. Okay, I need to be listening to that, right, that's the teacher. So my ask when I finished it was really important to have an ask was my ask is would you place this system in his classroom, even as a place to do some research and see what happens? Right, how does it work? Not only for my son, but how would it work for other students? And ultimately, they decided they wanted to go ahead and go forward with all of our lower grade classrooms, our early learning classrooms, which was fantastic, and so I think that was probably the most rewarding experience because it really did direct me personally right, and it impacted our son and our family.

Sari Laberis:

Yeah, thank you so much for sharing all of that, Debbie. I think it's really helpful to hear about, like the practical application of work, like this right, especially when it's literally so close to home. To kind of flip it a little bit what do you believe are the biggest barriers that our teachers face when they're trying, or even families when they're trying to advocate for change in their school or their district?

Debbie Smith:

I think sometimes, right, it's really perhaps not thinking through. What are the steps that I need to take right? How can I do this thoughtfully and you know I talk a bit about the importance of being ready to you know, identify what is it that's important to you, what are those goals or what is the issue that's important? Do your homework. As I was doing this for my son, I was really doing my homework and looking for research to help him. But whatever it is that's important to you, do your homework, find right some data and some research and have that so that you can share it. Be ready to share it. That's going to be important when you're really advocating for change.

Debbie Smith:

When you have that data, it often, you know, really helps people to kind of stand up and listen.

Debbie Smith:

If you're talking to somebody like a school board member or to a legislator, it actually gives them cover as well, and so I often say they have air cover when they move forward and they also begin to advocate for a policy or an issue that you've expressed is important. Not only have you given them research, but it gives them sort of air cover if anyone pushes back to say here's what research and data shows, but then tying it to a personal story. What is it that you observe of students in your classroom, right, how does a particular policy impact your students? Or what do you see in action? Or what do you see with your own child? And then communicating that really clearly and effectively Try not to get too weedy, you know. State your cause up front, gather your research, share that information. State your cause up front, gather your research, share that information, share anything you can that makes it personal or brings it to life, and then state your ask what is it that you're asking from this person or group?

Sari Laberis:

Thank you. That's such a helpful kind of strategy or different steps to take in the process, so I'm sure our listeners will find that really helpful to them as they think about this. And I know you mentioned data just now and also in the blog to support advocacy. What are some types of data that you have found most compelling when discussing educational policies with decision makers?

Debbie Smith:

I think a lot of times, assessment data is one of the most critical pieces of data that you can have. It helps people to see how are students performing, and you can look at data when it comes to assessment data right, in so many different ways. You can slice it and dice it by subgroups. You can look at it by demographic. You can look at it by content area, by grade. There's your state level data that's available. There's classroom level data that is so important that's available from your interim assessments. Typically, you may even have progress monitoring data, but don't overlook the observational data that happens right in classrooms. Those sort of those anecdotal things that you are observing and taking notes on. Those are important too.

Sari Laberis:

Thank you for all of this, Debbie. I'm sure as we think about just where to start just like gathering that data and figuring out what's the best match for the use case is really insightful as well. So, before we close out, are there any last either pieces of advice or tips or things that you just wanted to share to educators listening to this who want to advocate for change but just haven't quite gotten started yet?

Debbie Smith:

I think I would say you know, if you are a teacher, you have often wondered who came up with this policy, when did this come from? And when you look at people who are making policies typically for education, they are very, very well intentioned. I don't think there's anyone out there who wouldn't say we all want great schools and we want the best for our students and for our educators and for our families. People who are best positioned to really help provide guidance in terms of what education policy should look like are educators. Those are the people we are the people who are the absolute closest to what's happening in our classrooms and with students, and I would just invite others to open your hearts and minds to what's really important to you, what are you passionate about, and get involved right. Advocate for things that you believe will make a difference for kids and for other educators as well.

Sari Laberis:

So so true. Well, thank you so much, debbie, for all of your insights and strategies and sharing how this has affected you personally as well. We really appreciate you being here. Thank you, get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on X @CurriculumAssoc and on Instagram @MyiReady. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest, or if you want to be a guest email, extraordinaryeducators@ cainc. com. Please subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators just like you, join the conversation and please leave a review. Remember, be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates, editing by Shane Lowe, social media by Atziri Hannon, guest booking by Sari Laberis and production by Hayley Browning. This podcast is copyrighted materials and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.